Tag Archives: Thoma Lookout

The Lone Lookout: The Man Protecting Montana’s Forests

August 8, 2017Movies and Video, NewsLeif Haugen, Thoma Lookoutnfpa

Leif Haugen, the man in charge at the North Fork’s Thoma Lookout (and all around nice guy), is the subject of a “Great Big Story” short film titled “The Lone Lookout: The Man Protecting Montana’s Forests.”

Here’s the intro:

For the past 24 years, Leif Haugen has spent his summers living alone atop a mountain in Montana’s pristine wilderness. As a fire lookout for the U.S. Forest Service, Leif is charged with protecting the surrounding landscape, watching for signs of fire from his solitary perch. Spending up to two weeks alone at a time, he spends his days unwinding amid the peace and quiet, watching as the world passes him by.

Click here to view the film.

Two North Fork documentaries to show on April 26

April 11, 2013NewsBrian Bolster, documentary, Gateway-to-Glacier Trail, movies, Polebridge Mercantile, Thoma Lookoutnfpa

The Gateway-to-Glacier Trail organization is showing two North Fork-related documentaries in a fund raiser at the O’Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish, on April 26. “Mercantile” is about — what else? — the Polebridge Mercantile. “The Lookout” centers around Thoma Lookout . . .

Gateway-to-Glacier Trail is offering a redux of movie night, this time at the O’Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish, to give those who weren’t able to last month a chance to see two documentaries by Brian Bolster.

The original movie night in March was so successful, attendees had to be turned away because the room capacity was exceeded. This movie night, scheduled for April 26 at the Whitefish venue, will feature Bolster’s Northwest Montana documentaries.

Leif Haugan will show “Mercantile,” Bolster’s short documentary on the Polebridge Mercantile, featuring an inside look at the Merc’s baking operation in a rustic setting…

Haugen is the focus of the second award-winning documentary film, “The Lookout,” which features the Flathead National Forest’s Thoma Lookout, above the North Fork of the Flathead River Drainage, a few miles south of the Canadian border…

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Award-winning short documentary profiles Thoma Lookout

March 31, 2012Newsdocumentary, North Fork Flathead, Thoma Lookoutnfpa

A well-regarded documentary about Thoma Lookout is gaining press coverage. Additional information is available on the film’s Facebook page . . .

New York filmmaker Brian Bolster was backpacking through Glacier National Park when he came across a fire lookout. The solitary day-to-day lives of people living perched atop mountains, scanning the horizon for wildfires, intrigued Bolster. The result is a 16-minute award-winning documentary, titled “The Lookout.” Bolster spent six days and five nights single-handedly filming Leif Haugen, a fire lookout for the Flathead National Forest, as he performs his daily duties at the Thoma Lookout in the North Fork area near the Canadian Border.

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