The Lower Flathead Valley Community Foundation is a charitable organization whose purpose is to bring tribal and non-tribal members together to work on projects preserving and conserving the cultural natural and human resources of the region with special emphasis on meeting the needs of children.
As part of its mission to educate the public about the uniqueness of the area, the Lower Flathead Valley Community Foundation commissioned seascape artist Byron Pickering to create a painting of Glacial Lake Missoula. According to geologists, the lake was formed about 15,000 years ago during the last ice age when the Clark Fork River was dammed by ice near Sandpoint, Idaho. The water was backed up almost to the Continental Divide on the east, through the Bitterroot Valley to the south and as far north as Polson, in the lower end of the Flathead Valley.
