No headline
In August, 1968, ranger Kerel Hagen, foreground, leads Dr and Mrs. John Snow and nurse Marilyn Myhre along Lake Ellen Wilson in Glacier National Park. (Mel Ruder photo)
70 years ago
Aug. 8, 1947
Scientists were planning to start the annual measurements of glaciers in Glacier National Park on Aug. 25. This year, they would measure Jackson, Grinnell, and Sperry, the Park’s largest. At the time, there were 60 glaciers in the Park. Sperry Glacier measured 840 acres in 1900 and had receded to 330 acres in 1946. In 2017, Sperry is about 215 acres.
Three vacationers from British Columbia were injured by bears in three weeks while feeding the animals on Going-to-the-Sun Road. One woman sustained scalp wounds that required stitches. A bear swiped her as she tried to pick up a piece of toast and throw it closer to the bear.
The school board voted to sponsor hot lunches at a cost of 6 to 9 cents each.
60 years ago
Aug. 9, 1957
Pacific Gas and Electric Company was eyeing the North Fork of the Flathead River as a possible natural gas transmission route. It would cost about $100,000 per mile.
A doe named “Suzie” was competing with “Baby Doll” to be the deer “beauty queen” of the summer. Suzie was so commonly seen and photographed that a trailman had to put a red ribbon around her neck with a sign that said “I’m not wounded.” The doe had taken to lying under Trick Falls to keep flies away, and visitors often reported her as dead.
50 years ago
Aug. 11, 1967
The new Camas Creek entrance to Glacier National Park was scheduled to open Sept. 1, making Waterton Lakes and Glacier more accessibly linked. The hope was that visitors would stay longer. The Park had spent $2,500,000 on the first portion of the road.
Flathead National Forest fire control officer J. Frank Mcneely reported 59 fires so far during the season.
40 years ago
Aug. 11, 1977
Mary Margaret Shelton, 23, was arrested for killing her 2-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter by suffocation and strangulation at their home south of Bad Rock Fire Hall. Sources said the woman, at the time pregnant with her third child, was depressed and had been hospitalized three times.
30 years ago
Aug. 12, 1987
Dan Geer, who had a ranch 17 miles north of Browning, had lost eight ewes and one lamb to wolves. The wolves were avoiding capture .by wildlife specialists. Once caught, they would be relocated to the west side of the Continental Divide.
The huckleberry crop was the poorest it had been in six years, reported bear researcher Kate Kendall. An early spring with hard frosts in May and June had depleted the berry crop, which represented 30 percent of bears’ diet in late summer.
20 years ago
Aug. 14, 1997
A 23-year-old Wisconsin man survived a 500-foot fall off Great Northern. Nathan Knoke was hiking with two friends, all of the men without crampons or ice axes, when he “plummeted” down a snow chute. He sustained a head injury but was declared to be in serious but stable condition when the story went to print.
Jack Housel, Jr., of Libby landed a record-breaking rainbow trout on the banks of the Kootenai River. The fish weighed 33.1 pounds and was 38.62 inches long. Housel caught the trout at 10:30 p.m. and had to use a grocery scale to weigh it. The scale only went up to 30 pounds, so Housel knew he had a record catch. A gill was sent to Missoula for analysis and the rest of the fish was eaten “barbecue-style.”
10 years ago
Aug. 9, 2007
City council voted 5-2 to purchase the 28 acres that became River’s Edge Park for $945,000, despite estimates that it would cost an additional $600,000 to $700,000 to develop.