Montana
Obituary: Clifford Allen Nelson
Clifford Allen Nelson passed away at Logan Health in Chester on July 5, 2024. Cliff was born to John & Louise Nelson on 11 June 1948, in Havre. Cliff was the oldest of 8 children.
A Celebration of Life BBQ, will be Saturday July 13th at 1:00 in the Joplin Memorial Park, Joplin, Mt. Military honors, by Malmstrom AFB Honor Guard.
Cliff only made it to the 6th grade in school. He helped at home raising his siblings & doing farm chores. He later went to work for Buttery’s as a baker. This went well until they realized he wasn’t 18. In 1968, he was drafted into the Army & Viet Nam he went. He spent 18 months there. On returning, he moved to Hungry Horse, there he worked at Anaconda Aluminum plant and went into construction work & got married. This marriage produced 5 children, after a stent in Hungry Horse, they moved to Havre where he worked at the post yard and met his lifelong friend Chad. He later moved his family to Browning where he worked at the bus garage.
Cliff went to Havre & learned how to fly an airplane. It didn’t take much training. He bought his1st plane & flew back to Browning. He then moved to Great Falls, divorced, worked for DJs Mazda & started his own car body & mechanic shop. His dear friend Frank and he became involved with stock car racing, which he continued to do until a couple years ago. He raced a variety of classes in Northwest United States and Canada. Cliff moved back to Havre & went back into the construction business. He helped his good friend Chris (who was the Chief of police) with police work & hunting coyotes. They were licensed by the state to do predator control. In 1979, he met his now wife, Nancy & they had 1 child. In November of 1980, they lost their home to a fire & moved to Kremlin. Cliff got the older boys involved with boxing in Havre. Work then took him and his family to Evanston, Wyoming. There he was a top mechanic in the oil field. After a few years there, Great Falls called him home. He started his body shop up again & also back to racing!
He then ventured back to Hungry Horse, & on to Alaska. In Alaska he mainly did construction work, but also worked a gold mine, which involved the whole family.
In 1986 we moved back to Hungry Horse & started Nelson Construction. Cliff became a hunting guide for a friend & spent most of the hunting season in Spotted Bear, which he really enjoyed. Wintertime was for boxing, where he helped start a boxing club & trained & traveled all over with the boxers. Cliff became involved with the Hungry Horse Vol. Fire Dept. He later became Chief until he retired from it in 1999.
Cliff was asked to be Santa in Hungry Horse. He really loved visiting the kids & giving them gifts. He loved it so much, he started being Santa in Chester, then later in Joplin. No matter how rough he felt, being the flying Santa was always a must! He loved the children!
In 1998, an opportunity came to run the Tiber Marina. 11 years spent running the marina & Cliff still worked construction in Hungry Horse. Cliff loved being at the marina & meeting so many wonderful people. He enjoyed putting on BBQ’s & good parties! He enjoyed being back on the east, side & so we moved to Joplin.
He enjoyed fishing, & he did several tournaments with his friend Chris. They managed to win Fresno & Tiber! They did tournaments all over the state & even traveled to Canada for some.
In 2011, we purchased the Joplin Bar which he helped run until his health started to get the best of him. He was able to venture out at our last Art in the Park & Car show to see everyone.
Cliff is survived by his wife Nancy, sons Jr (Jenny) of Hungry Horse, John (Darci) of Ulm, Jay of Joplin, Josh of Hungry Horse. Daughters Janey of Kalispell, Judy (Christopher) of Harrison, & Kim of California, son Joe of Iowa. Sisters Karen, Sharon (Greg) of Kalispell, Margaret of Ashly Lake, Donna of. Missouri, Brother Leonard (Trudy) of Vaughn. 31 grandchildren & 31 great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his son Jim, his parents, his in-laws Ed & Billie Ribich, brothers Melvin & Carl, numerous other family & friends.
MISSOULA, Mont. — The Clark Fork River has long been a defining feature of Missoula, shaping the city’s culture, economy and outdoor lifestyle.
The river is so closely tied to the area that it helped inspire the well-known book and film “A River Runs Through It.” But local conservation advocates say its importance goes far beyond scenery.
“Without the Clark Fork River, Missoula would just be another town,” said Lisa Ronald, Northern Rockies associate conservation director for American Rivers. “We wouldn’t be the River City. I think we’re known in Montana as Missoula the River City, and it’s really because of the Clark Fork River and its central role in business, in economics, in recreation, that really makes Missoula the town that it is.”
Carmen Murill, a field organizer with Wild Montana, said the river is deeply woven into daily life for people who live in Missoula.
“A lot of us would wonder what to do on a beautiful or a rainy summer day,” Murill said. “I mean, it’s really a lifeforce of town. And I think it’s pretty unique that Missoula, as a community is living and breathing on both sides of the river. It’s really like two downtowns but connected by the Clark Fork.”
Conservation groups say protecting the river begins with community involvement.
Advocates encourage residents and visitors to spend time outdoors, whether on a trail, in the woods or along the river, and to learn how they can become better stewards of the environment.
MISSOULA — Sam Forstag edged out Ryan Busse to secure the Democratic nomination in Montana’s 1st Congressional District.
Busse conceded the race to Forstag on Wednesday morning. Forstag had trailed behind Busse Tuesday evening, but he made up ground as the votes were counted into the early hours of Wednesday morning. The other two candidates in the race, Russl Cleveland and Matt Rains, are sitting at third and fourth, respectively.
Forstag leads in close race for Montana’s 1st Congressional District
Forstag spent eight years as a wildland firefighter, including four as a smokejumper, and he’s been vice president of the local National Federation of Federal Employees union. Last week, U.S. House of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, held a rally in Missoula to support Forstag’s campaign.
He told MTN on Tuesday that his campaign has been for the working class.
“We got a whole lot of people here that have been working their tail off to finally get some working-class representation in Washington,” Forstag noted. “So proud of everything we’ve done and so grateful.”
Forstag further noted he wants Montanans to be able to afford groceries, have universal free childcare and restore and expand Affordable Health Care Act subsidies.
“Hearing people’s stories and struggles and commonalities in the ways that we’re all fighting in the system that does not serve us so often, and the government serves corporations and the richest people in this country more than working people. It has been frustrating and saddening, but it has also inspired so much hope in me, like the fixes we can actually make,” he told MTN.
The 1st Congressional District covers much of western Montana, including Kalispell, Missoula, Butte and Bozeman. It is currently held by Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Montana, who chose not to seek reelection.
By securing the nomination, Forstag is slated tol face off against Libertarian candidate Nick Sheedy and Republican candidate Aaron Flint in November.
Brian Miller won the Democratic primary Tuesday for the U.S. House seat in Montana’s eastern district.
The Associated Press called the race for Miller, an attorney in Helena, who fended off a challenge from state Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, a longtime legislator from Box Elder, and Sam Lux, a farrier from Great Falls.
In the Republican and rural eastern district, any Democrat will be an underdog, and Miller will face off against incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Troy Downing, who was unopposed Tuesday.
Libertarian Patrick McCracken is also running.
In the primary, Miller took 58% of the vote. Lux took 27% and Windy Boy took 16%, according to the Montana Secretary of State’s website.
In April, Windy Boy paused his campaign amid “serious sexual abuse” allegations raised by the Montana Democratic Party — but Windy Boy restarted his campaign and later called the allegations “political attacks.”
Miller is representing the victim of the alleged abuse and her mother, although he said he didn’t take on the role until after Windy Boy initially suspended his campaign.
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