Yaak’s most celebrated elder, 96-year-old Mary Ellen Solem, has been coming to the Yaak since 1932.
“My grandparents homesteaded here in 1916.”
Her grandfather, Adolf Berg, had been working the mines in Butte, Montana, but decided it was becoming too dangerous. After seeing too many accidents, he relocated his wife and two children—Mary Ellen’s mother and uncle—to the Yaak. Adolf was certain there was silver to be found, “so he set up explosives and dynamited three times a week.”
Later, his experience with explosives paid off. He never found silver, but he was eventually hired by the Forest Service to dynamite Yaak’s early road infrastructure. In addition to dynamiting for the Forest Service, the Berg family raised cattle and chickens and sold milk.
“Their neighbor, who lived at Okaga, brought milk to Bonners Ferry to sell every week and would pick up milk from my grandparents.”
Along with dynamiting roads and selling milk, Mrs. Berg undertook a new hobby. “My grandmother bought property for back taxes and would later sell it.”
“The one thing I remember—they had a telephone line, and if it rang, everyone got on the line and listened in. It was how they communicated.”
Growing Up and Early Visits
Mary Ellen initially grew up in southern Idaho and visited the Yaak “every other year except during World War II.”
“When I was a little girl it was a dirt road, and if you came to a corner it said ‘HONK,’ and you hoped you didn’t meet a logging truck.”
Mary Ellen met her husband “on a blind date in Libby, Montana.”
“He had never been to the Yaak until he met me.”
“We were able to buy our property in 1968 while we were both working in Libby.”
John and Mary Ellen raised five children in Libby. John was “the head of the meat department at Rosauers,” and Mary Ellen was a nurse. She worked at the hospital and later served as the school nurse for the junior and senior high schools in Libby, Montana.
Change Comes to the Yaak
During those years, change came to the Yaak. At first, Mary Ellen knew many people who had homesteaded there.
During the Cold War era, “a road was built and the air base brought a lot of people to the valley.”
In addition to that, “electricity finally came up as far as the Dirty Shame and then took quite a while to get any further.” “Instant water”—running water—was a big thing.
Building a Log Home
After their children were grown, “my husband said, ‘We should move up to the Yaak.’”
“He decided we had enough logs on our property and we wanted to build a log house. My husband said, ‘I’ll build it for you.’”
“Tom Horlick got our logs. We paid to get them shipped over.”
“Our neighbor, Max Wilcomb, said, ‘I can help you.’”
Mary Ellen recalls, “I learned an awful lot about building a log house that first year.”
“We put it up—it took us three years to build our house. We worked on weekends and vacations.”
She shared the initial process:
“Nobody is around when you’re peeling logs. We peeled 85 logs. No one helped us.”
“Only use larch. Leave on part of the cambrian layer. Wash in Purex to get rid of mold. Then urethane—three coats, three days in a row. No sanding.”
She explains that if you can’t apply urethane three days in a row, you must follow a different process.
“Our logs were nearly 100 years old when we harvested them.”
The Solems began building in 1984 and eventually moved into their home in 1989. They proudly built it with plenty of room to facilitate visits from family. Mary Ellen has resided in this beautiful home for the past 37 years and can’t imagine life anywhere else.
“I thank God every day for the opportunity to be here. Sometimes we don’t thank God enough.”
Wildlife and Life in the Yaak
“I’ve seen grizzlies a few times.”
Mary Ellen recalls a story about having a young mountain lion in her garden.
“We had been up Hensley. I was about to work in my garden but was doing other things when my family noticed it.”
They called Fish and Game and were told, “Call us if it doesn’t leave.”
She recounts that the game warden said he would shoot it if it didn’t leave—but it did.
Another saying she shares: “If the stump moves, it’s probably a bear—especially when we go fishing.”
She’s had bears “even on her porch.”
As for moose, she once recalled seeing “five moose out my back window.”
“There used to be a lot more moose up here.”
As for living in the Yaak, Mary Ellen advises, “You learn how to plan ahead—you make sure you have enough groceries.”
Community and Quilting
One of the highlights of her week is attending Women’s Quilting Club every Tuesday. She enjoys making patriotic quilts for veterans.
She shares some quilting club rules as well:
- “No politics.”
- “No religion.”
- “No gossip.”
“We’re there to socialize as women, and it makes it easy.”
Life in Yaak, Montana
As for life in Yaak, Montana:
“It’s peaceful and quiet, and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.”
1/25/2026 — Submitted by Quiet Winter