The Blackfeet Indians crossed the Continental Divide to camp along the shores of Flathead Lake and Swan River each spring, and later the European settlers discovered the site as they crept west in search of new frontiers and new dreams.
It was less than 100 years ago that the town was platted by Everit Sliter in 1901 and officially became Bigfork, possibly because of its location where the Swan River, a "big fork" of the Flathead River system, rushes into the sprawling 195 square mile lake.
Sliter was instrumental in the development of the community, serving as postmaster, running the town's first hotel and general store and planting one of the first orchards. Bigfork Bay was a harbor for lake steamers that once navigated the Flathead River and Flathead Lake.
The construction of the first dam, power plant and road by Bigfork Power and Light in the early 1900s along Swan River brought construction laborers, and heavy logging prior to World War I, securing the establishment of the little village of Bigfork.
