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Gayle (Martin) Smith turned 99 Aug. 15. Smith is a member of the Martin family of which Martin City is named for.
70 years ago
Aug. 15, 1947
Work on the new Hungry Horse News building started. The log cabin, which houses the newspaper today, was built by experienced logman Clarence Ray. At the time, the intersection the newspaper faced was Main Street and Highway 37. Smokejumpers landed on Heaven’s Peak to a fire there, viewed by hundreds of tourists in the Glacier Park. Three hundred and fifty-one people were employed working on the Hungry Horse Dam project.
60 years ago
Aug. 15, 1957
Motorists who were feeding a black bear in Glacier National Park along the Sun Road had to abandon their car when the bruin, who was sick of waiting for a cookie, climbed into the car through the open window. The family, in turn, fled out the other side of the car. There were no reports of injuries. Plum Creek bought a 9.5 million board feet timber sale up McGinnis Creek for $122,434, plus about $40,000 for stand improvements and slash removal. That’s roughly 1,900 truckloads of logs.
50 years ago
Aug. 18, 1967
Glacier Park had fires in 11 locations, including the Huckleberry Mountain Fire in the North Fork, which was the largest. Two women, Michele Koons and Julie Helgeson, were killed by separate grizzly bear attacks. Koons was killed at Trout Lake and Helgeson near Granite Park Chalet. Both bears were used to getting into human garbage and camp foods.
40 years ago
Aug. 18, 1977
Bruce E. Hardy shot Darrel D. Litchfield at the Big Sky Manor Trailer Park with a .30-06 rifle. The two argued outside and Hardy shot Litchfield in the chest from about 10 feet away. Hardy then shot himself in the chest and died. Litchfield died en route to the hospital. The men both worked at the Anaconda Aluminum Co. plant and had an argument about two weeks earlier, but a motive was still unclear.
30 years ago
Aug. 19, 1987
It was the third summer Glacier Park employees were carrying bear spray as part of their equipment. The spray was getting mixed reviews at the time. The nozzle, they found, was too easy to break, and some rangers said there wasn’t enough spray in the can. But others liked it because it was readily accessible on their waist. Still others said they weren’t yet convinced it was effective. Today, it’s common practice to use bear spray and its been shown to be 98 percent effective.
20 years ago
Aug. 14, 1997
Plum Creek Timber Co. celebrated its 50th anniversary. Columbia Falls golfer Craig Stotts hit not one, but two holes-in-one in local golf courses. Stotts aced the sixth hole at Eagle Bend and then the fifth hole at Buffalo Hill golf course.
10 years ago
Aug. 16, 2007
The cost of fighting fires in Northwest Montana had topped $41 million. The fires to date had burned 243,000 acres. A girl in Glacier National Park was seriously hurt after a rock fell on her while she was hiking the Grinnell Glacier Trail. The rock weighed about 20 pounds. Pastor Peter Erickson joined Our Savior’s Lutheran Church. He had been a pastor in Chester prior to coming to Columbia Falls.