Polson south shore Flathead Lake
— — the inland sea the Missions hold.
Not only on a wall.
“Polson sits where the Flathead River leaves the lake, at the south end of the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi in the lower forty-eight. The town belongs to the Flathead Indian Reservation, home of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Cherry orchards run the east shore north toward Bigfork, ripening in late July. The Mission Mountains rise hard out of the valley to the southeast. The water reads turquoise on a clear August afternoon.
Polson south shore Flathead Lake, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Polson sits at the south end of Flathead Lake in Lake County, Montana, where the Flathead River exits and runs south through the Mission Valley. The lake covers about 197 square miles and is the largest natural freshwater lake by surface area west of the Mississippi River in the contiguous United States. The town and the south shore lie within the boundaries of the Flathead Indian Reservation, home of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The Mission Mountains rise to almost ten thousand feet directly southeast.
Flathead Lake fills a basin scoured by the last advance of the Cordilleran ice sheet, dammed at the south end by a terminal moraine where Polson now sits. Average depth is about one hundred sixty-five feet, with a maximum near three hundred seventy. The water is unusually clear for a low-elevation lake in the West, drawing from the South Fork and Middle Fork of the Flathead River out of Glacier National Park. Surface temperature climbs into the upper sixties by late July.
Cherry orchards along the east shore north of Polson ripen in the second half of July; the Flathead Cherry Festival runs in Polson the same week. Bigfork Bay at the north end of the lake holds its own summer arts season. Sailboat traffic peaks through August. By late September the cottonwoods along the Flathead River turn yellow and the lake reads grey-green under cooler air. Winter brings ice only to the shallow south bays; the main lake rarely freezes through.