Forest Service grants operating permit for Holland Lake Lodge
Micah Drew
(Daily Montanan) Last week, Eric Jacobsen visited Holland Lake Lodge in Montana’s Swan Valley for the first time in two years.
On Thursday, Jacobsen unlocked the door to the historic lodge — and several nearby cabins and auxiliary buildings — as the new owner of the lodge following a decision by Flathead National Forest officials to grant an operating permit earlier this month.
The Flathead National Forest issued a 20-year special use authorization and approved a 2025 operating plan for the lodge in early July, allowing Jacobsen and his business partners to run the lodge “within the existing footprint and facilities,” according to the Forest Service.
“I am looking forward to Holland Lake Lodge beginning to provide a minimal range of recreation services and opportunities for the community in 2025. The lodge has historic value for the forest, the community, and local economy, and has provided visitor access to the surrounding National Forest lands for 100 years,” Forest Supervisor Anthony Botello said in a press release earlier this month. “I am pleased to have reached this milestone with both the new owners and community to continue this opportunity into the future.”
Due to ongoing wastewater treatment system issues at the site, and the approval coming late in the summer season, Jacobsen said the lodge will operate on a minimal level this year. It will likely be open to just a few small private events like weddings or corporate retreats — with plans for a full public-facing season in 2026.
“It’s been a rough journey for the lodge over the last several years, for me, for the community and for the Forest Service,” Jacobsen told the Daily Montanan in a phone interview while driving back to his Whitefish residence. “It feels pretty amazing to have been able to pull it off and have a permit and now be the next steward of Holland Lake Lodge for the foreseeable future.”
The road for Holland Lake Lodge to change owners has been marred by issues with the Forest Service’s permitting process, possible development plans and public outcry.
The lodge has operated for a century on the Flathead National Forest with a special-use permit last reissued in 2017.
Christian Wohlfeil owned and operated the lodge for roughly two decades before selling it to Jacobsen.
In 2022, a proposed expansion of the lodge came to public attention, and included details that Wohlfeil partnered with POWDR, an “adventure life” company in Utah that operates numerous ski resorts around the country. The expansion would have doubled the occupancy of the property and added several new structures, including a new lodge.
The Forest Service ultimately rejected the expansion proposal, and Wohlfeil listed the lodge for sale in 2023 for $3.5 million, after saying the opposition against him included death threats.
In 2024, Jacobsen, a private equity investor who splits his time between Park City, Utah, and Whitefish, announced his intention to purchase the lodge. He held several public meetings to engage the local community in his vision — seeking to lower the temperature of the public discourse.
A recently-formed nonprofit called Stewards of the Swan, headed by Grace Siloti, co-owner of Mission Mountains Mercantile, had also announced an intention to purchase the lodge, and has maintained a strong stance that any new owners should keep the status quo in place for the historic property.
“For generations, Holland Lake Lodge has served as a gathering place for thousands of Montanans and Americans to enjoy our great public lands. It should remain that way into the future. More than 7,000 Americans told the U.S. Forest Service that they want to keep the lodge the way it is and not expand it to a giant destination resort,” said Grace Siloti, the group’s president, in a statement. “We hope the new owners will manage the lodge consistent with the vision and values expressed by locals and Americans at large. And we’ll ensure that Americans have access to our public lands in the Swan Valley for generations to come.”
Jacobsen secured the contract to purchase the property last year and subsequently applied for a special-use permit from the Forest Service, which was granted on July 1.
Under the new special-use authorization granted to Jacobsen, the lodge, cabins and other buildings will offer lodging, food and bar services and non-motorized watercraft rentals. The lodge is expected to be fully operational for a minimum of 153 days during a normal year.
In 2025, however, the Forest Service approved a limited operating plan due to the time of year and infrastructure improvements that have to be made on site.
“The lodge hasn’t been open for a while, and when Christian closed it up for the winter, in 2023, he anticipated he would open in 2024, he didn’t so he didn’t close it down the way you would for several years,” Jacobsen said. “There’s definitely some squirrels and mice that have enjoyed having the place to themselves we need to take care of, along with shoring up the rest of the infrastructure.”
Under the terms of the operating agreement, Jacobsen needs to move some fencing and redo signage around the property.
The wastewater treatment system must be addressed before fully opening to the public — a major remediation.
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality found the Forest Service was in violation of state law when it was discovered the system which serves the lodge’s septic system, RV dump station and campgrounds near the lake were leaking; and unapproved repairs had been made.
Problems with the wastewater treatment system were extensive enough to prevent the lodge from operating at all in 2024, which would have been its 100th anniversary year.
According to the Forest Service, the agency is working with a private engineering firm to determine next steps in the remediation process with no firm timelines.
Without a wastewater treatment system in place to handle a full suite of visitors, Jacobsen said his hopes for this first year of operation is to be able to host small, private gatherings this fall.
While a full reopening is contingent on fully functioning wastewater system, Jacobsen said the earliest he hopes to welcome guests full time would be the spring of 2026, when it’ll be a return to the “traditional business of nightly rentals and nightly restaurant and bar operations.”
“The wastewater issue just added a level of complexity where I just don’t think we can serve the public in the way we want to this year,” he said. “There is lots of work that needs to be done to get it safe and clean and happy, like it deserves to be when we open.”