Yesterdays

60 Years Ago

Jan. 4, 1952

Economic indicators were improving in the North Valley, with winter employment at Plum Creek increasing from 50 to 75, and payrolls at the Hungry Horse Dam construction project reaching $60,000 a week. Workers for Mountain State Power Co. were clearing deep snow for a 3,000 kva substation near the Great Northern depot at the north end of Nucleus Avenue.

Lyle Lane, 36, was ticketed for shooting a yearling moose out of season about six miles north of Columbia Falls. A cow moose and its calf were following a snowplow on the North Fork Road to avoid the deep snow, but so was a pickup with two game wardens inside. Two minutes after the plow driver called out to a man on a porch, "There goes a moose," the game wardens heard a crack. When the wardens called over to the man, "Did you get him," the man replied, "I sure did."

50 Years Ago

Jan. 5, 1962

Columbia Falls firemen responded to 61 calls in 1961, including 36 outside the city limits. Total property damage came to $15,000, including $13,000 for the Ellman residence. The Ellman family was camping on June 4 when the an interior fire blazed out of control. Fire chief Howard Greene said 15 fires started in chimneys, 14 in grass or brush, seven from overheated stoves or furnaces, and four at the city dump.

Six scuba divers retrieved a "mystery" boat from the depths of Glacier National Park's Lake McDonald. The speedboat had been stripped and the bow filled with rocks to purposely sink it near the Lake McDonald Lodge. A trailer used to haul the boat out of the Park had been salvaged from the lake in 1961 near the Sprague Creek Campground. Divers included Jack Strickland, Guy Heldstab, Bob Vosburgh, Tony Dumay, Ron Koppang and Bill Lokken.

40 Years Ago

Jan. 7, 1972

A U.S. District Court Judge ruled that a high school boy in Hamilton did not have the right to wear long hair, but Whitefish attorney Frank Morrison drew a distinction between that case and one involving Richard Rose in Columbia Falls. The Hamilton boy claimed he wore his hair long for political beliefs, which Judge Russell Smith said was an inadequate reason. Rose, who had complied with the regulations and was back in school, wanted to wear long hair for reasons of style, Morrison explained.

Talk of a countywide curfew was on the agenda for a joint city-county meeting at The Hanging Tree in Whitefish. Recommendation was a 10:30 p.m. curfew on weekdays for anyone under 18. The Saturday and Sunday morning curfew time would be 1:30 a.m.

30 Years Ago

Jan. 7, 1982

While the number of visitors to Glacier National Park increased from 1.4 million in 1980 to 1.7 million in 1981, the number of case incidents dropped from 2,159 to 1,734. Included in the 1981 incidents were two rapes, 11 burglaries, 48 larcenies and one automobile theft. No arrests were made in any of these cases. The estimated value of stolen property was $17,423 and the value of recovered property was $4,100.

Colleen Allison was sworn in as the new mayor of Columbia Falls. New councilors included Bob Waltmire, Harold Murray and Will Loveall. Right off the bat, Allison was unable to get a group of attorneys to agree to represent the city. A committee was formed to look into that problem.

20 Years Ago

Jan. 2, 1992

Bear sightings in Glacier National Park in 1991 was the fourth-highest in history., with 1,245 black bear sightings, 896 for grizzly bears and 314 for unknown. The total was 29 percent higher than the previous year. A black bear was killed after campers at Bowman Lake Campground intentionally fed it.

Whitefish mountaineer Ted Steiner, 28, made the second successful winter climb of Glacier National Park's Mount Jackson on Jan. 2. He reached the summit solo at 8:30 a.m. and then used skis to return to the Going-to-the-Sun Road. He made it to Big Mountain in time for his ski resort job at 4:30 p.m.