Bigfork is a charming community known as the art center of the Flathead Valley. It has more than 50 eclectic shops, 25 restaurants, and 13 art galleries. It is also home to the Bigfork Summer Playhouse - one of the Northwest's finest repertory theaters, the Bigfork Art and Cultural Center, concerts in Everit Sliter Memorial Park on summer Sunday evenings, the Bigfork Festival of the Arts in August. Each holiday season, the village is decked out in colored lights, fresh-cut greenery and trees and hundreds of bright red bows, by community “elves” to create a picturesque setting.
The "Village by the Bay" is sheltered in a sparkling blue bay where the swift waters of the Swan River flow into Flathead Lake bringing kayakers from around the world to compete in the annual Whitewater Festival each spring. It offers spectacular views of the Swan Mountains that drop dramatically into the lake’s shores. The scenic Swan River Nature Trail provides easy hiking and biking just a few blacks away from downtown Bigfork, and the town’s close proximity to the Jewel Basin Hiking Area and the Bob Marshall Wilderness make it a perfect starting point for outdoor recreation enthusiasts.
Bigfork’s Eagle Bend Golf Course is a 27-hole championship course located on the north shore of Flathead Lake with challenging golf and gorgeous views of the lake, the Swan Mountains, and Glacier National Park. Eagle Bend is Montana’s only golf course to be rated #1 by Golf Digest for six consecutive years and in the top 50 in the United States.
This quaint Western village was chosen as "One of the 50 Great Towns of the West," designated as "One of the 100 Best Small Art Towns of the Nation," and was listed in National Geographic’s Guide to Small Towns Escapes, which is no surprise with its gourmet restaurants, fun shops, local character, beautiful natural surroundings, and a host of outdoor activities.
Bigfork was founded in 1901, about the time the hydroelectric plant at the mouth of the Swan River was built to supply electricity for Kalispell. The town was platted by Everit Sliter, who 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.
Bigfork’s population is now about 1,400 and has become home for returning Montanans who had gone elsewhere to build careers, as well as those seeking recreational second homes or permanent refuge from crowded and harried urban areas.
