No headline
A worker leaves the Anaconda Aluminum Co. smelter under construction, circa 1954 (Mel Ruder photo).
70 years ago
September 12, 1946
It was reported that 100 carloads of lumber were shipped from Columbia Falls by the Great Northern Railroad during August. School District 6 anticipated enrollment from the current 600 students to jump to 1,800 when construction of the Hungry Horse Dam actually started. The Wildcat football team was “ready to show their stuff” in a 9-game season, beginning with a game at Choteau.
60 years ago
September 14, 1956
The Columbia Falls City Council approved the purchase of a custom built Howe fire engine for $20,153.63. The school board was encouraging voters to sign a petition to get a bond issue onto the ballot for the upcoming vote. The issue: $1,490,000 to erect a new high school.
50 years ago
September 16, 1966
The erection of the fourth and fifth potlines at Anaconda Aluminum Plant was expected to bring 1,000 construction jobs to Columbia Falls in the coming year. Betty J. Clark, 28, of Columbia Falls, was charged with second degree murder and was awaiting assignment of a defense attorney by district court. Clark was charged following the death of her husband, who she allegedly shot following a “family argument.”
40 years ago
September 16, 1976
Roscoe Black, 36, of St. Mary and Theresa Wadden, 22, of Winona, Minnesota, were recovering after a grizzly attack the week before. Black suffered bites to his thigh, shoulder, and hand; Wadden was bitten on her foot and calf after the bear dragged her from the tree she had started climbing to get away. Jim Kanzler, formerly of Columbia Falls, Terry Kennedy, 22, of Columbia Falls, and Steve Jackson, 21, of Bozeman, pulled off the ascent of Mount Cleveland’s north face, which had previously been unclimbed.
30 years ago
September 17, 1986
Jeff Brown, 25, and Patricia Duff, 23, of New York, survived a bear attack. Brown was left with two broken arms and severe bite wounds, while Duff’s leg was injured after the bear pulled her from a tree. The bear went back and forth between the two as each hit it with their backpack and rocks to distract it from the other. The bear eventually lost interest. Duff used her own scarf as a tourniquet on her leg and the two were able to go find help. Christopher Ness, 14, of Kalispell, was fined after shooting a black bear sow north of Polebridge, leaving three cubs orphaned.
20 years ago
September 12, 1996
The Sun Road was scheduled to reopen by the end of the week following construction work to reinforce a retaining wall west of Logan Pass. Columbia Falls Fire Department responded to a grass fire the week before that turned out to be caused by a homemade bomb made of several sparklers wound up with black tape. Shelly Frislie, a home economics teacher at Columbia Falls Junior High, was getting ready to switch places with another teacher through an exchange program that would take her to Australia.
10 years ago
September 14, 2006
Developer Stephan Byrd stated that odor would be a “non-issue” for the proposed sewage treatment facility on Canyon Elementary School property. The Columbia Falls planning board rejected plans for a housing development to be created on 212 acres at the junction of highways 2 and 40. Winter was expected to come sooner rather than later, with snow expected.