"Time brings change," the about page at Clark Fork Meats reads, "and as of December 2025 we ceased the slaughter part of our operation."
The page says nothing about hunting season. Still, that one line rearranges the back half of October in Plains more than anything on the town calendar. The general deer and elk rifle season opens Saturday, Oct. 24. It is the first rifle opener in decades without the Frey family's shop doing what it did every fall since 2002. Everything else this month falls on one side of that date or the other, and a few events land right on top of it.
What changed at 15 Mollys Lane
Michael and JoAnn Frey started Clark Fork Meats in 2002 as a custom processor. They handled slaughter, cutting and wrapping for domestic animals and processed wild game during hunting season, all alongside the smokehouse products.
The business now looks different. The slaughter side ended in December 2025. The shop still sources meat for its retail counter and its ready-to-eat line, and it has moved to USDA inspection, which lets it sell anywhere in the country. For hunters, the part that matters is this sentence: the shop accepts "clean, boneless wild game any time of the year for grinding or sausage making."
So the sausage and burger are still on the table. What has changed is the condition your animal has to be in when it reaches the counter. Breaking the deer down and boning out the meat is now your job before drop-off. The listed hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 15 Mollys Ln. That means an animal taken on opening Saturday waits until Monday for drop-off, and it waits in your garage or cooler.
Another option is listed on Highway 200. Cut Above Meats shows up in a business directory as a meat processor at 6623 MT-200 in Plains, phone 406-499-6629. We could not confirm what it is taking in for the 2026 season, so call before you count on it.
The first half of the month belongs to the school
The opener sits more than two weeks out, and until then Plains is busy with homecoming. Homecoming week runs Monday, Oct. 5 through Friday, Oct. 9. The Plains School Board meeting covered by the Sanders County Ledger on Oct. 1 laid out the week: a parade, a bonfire, karaoke night, hall decorating, the Horsemen Olympics, and the homecoming king and queen competition. The week ends with the home football game against Superior on Friday, Oct. 9. The school calendar lists kickoff at 7 p.m. We have not found a published time or route for the parade yet. The school is the place to ask.
The same Ledger story has two smaller items worth knowing on game night. Principal Heidii Fettinger entered the school in a T-Mobile sweepstakes and won $5,000, and that money is going to the football field. The drama club also has a new director. Taylor Boles, a 2011 Plains graduate who was a student director when the troupe won the Montana Thespian Festival with "Our Diamond," takes over from Terri Henry and Cathy Emmett, who retired in June after more than 20 years. She told the board she would like to stage one play this fall and is leaning toward a comedy, though she did not have a specific play in mind yet.
Archery season, which opened Sept. 5, closes Sunday, Oct. 18. That leaves a five-day gap before the rifle opener. It is the last calm stretch of the month and a good week to clear cooler space and sharpen knives.
Saturday, Oct. 24 is where everything lands
Three things fall on the same day, and they pull in different directions.
- First light: The general deer and elk rifle season opens. It runs through Nov. 29.
- Noon to 3 p.m.: The Clark Fork Valley Elks hold their Halloween trunk-or-treat at 2519 Industrial Way in Thompson Falls. It runs until 3 p.m. or until the candy runs out, with a party afterward until 4 p.m.
- 6 p.m.: Cancer Network Sanders County holds Casino Nite at the VFW Hall on Lynch Street in Plains, with bingo, card games, raffles, appetizers and a live auction. It is for ages 21 and up.
The trunk-or-treat is the closest organized Halloween event we found for families in Plains this year. It is a week early and down the highway. We found no Plains trick-or-treat or trunk-or-treat listing for Oct. 31. If one gets announced, it has not been posted where we looked.
For a household with a hunter and young kids, this Saturday takes some planning. Casino Nite starts after dark, which helps. A hunter who packs up at dusk can clean up, get to Lynch Street, and still catch the live auction. The hard part comes before that. Any deer down that morning needs to be skinned, cooled and quartered that day, because Clark Fork Meats' new rules mean someone has to bone it out before Monday's drop-off.
A short checklist before the opener
This is the practical version of the change at Clark Fork Meats, plus one item from the Ledger's late-summer coverage.
- Plan to bone out at home. Clark Fork Meats takes clean, boneless game for grinding or sausage. It no longer handles whole animals.
- Count on a weekday drop-off. The shop's listed hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Call Cut Above Meats before the 24th if you want a full-service option. The directory listing gives 406-499-6629, and we could not confirm its 2026 game intake.
- Look over FWP's district regulations for the units you hunt. The statewide dates are only the outline.
- Keep the August deer report in mind. On Aug. 27, the Sanders County Ledger reported deer deaths suspected to be linked to EHD around Hot Springs, Valley View and Mission Valley on the Flathead Reservation. If you see anything unusual in the field, report it to FWP.
FWP's check stations for 2026 had not been announced when we checked. Last year's Region 1 locations included Highway 200 west of Thompson Falls. Wait for this year's release before planning a route around them.
Halloween goes back to the VFW Hall
A week after Casino Nite, the VFW Hall hosts the month's other big event. The Horse Plains VFW Auxiliary Holiday Bazaar runs Saturday, Oct. 31, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 201 E. Lynch St. The AllEvents listing promises more than 24 vendors, door prizes, a raffle, a bake sale, specialty coffee and food trailers, all pitched as a head start on holiday shopping.
Halloween falls on the second Saturday of rifle season this year. A hunter who spent opening weekend boning out a deer can drop the meat at 15 Mollys Ln. sometime that week and still make the bazaar. The school calendar also marks Oct. 30 and 31 for Plains volleyball districts, so some families will be at the gym or on the road that day.
The town got itself ready for all of this weeks ago. At Plains Beautification Day on Sept. 19, volunteers cleared juniper brush from Dorothy V. Johnson Park and put together a 10-foot steel table for a town park. One more possible change is coming to town: therapist Lisa Kinser, who runs Shine On Positional Release Therapy & Sports Medicine by appointment out of Warrior Fitness, told the Ledger she hoped to move into her own Plains building as early as the end of October.
Here's the whole month in order. Homecoming week starts tomorrow and ends with the Oct. 9 game against Superior. Archery closes Oct. 18. The rifle opener, the Elks trunk-or-treat and Casino Nite all land on Oct. 24. The VFW Auxiliary bazaar is on Lynch Street on Oct. 31, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Deb has lived and worked through more than 25 Sanders County hunting seasons, and she keeps up with what changes in town each fall. If your October plans have you thinking about a place with room for a game cooler, a shop out back, or river frontage close to your hunting units, give Deborah Warren a call. Contact Deb for a local market consult.
