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70 years ago

Jan. 10, 1947

Columbia Falls Mayor Chris Raaen declared he was sick and tired of wandering horses in town, eating shrubs and making a mess. He said he was going to get a pony and some rope and round up the strays and put them in a barn and feed them. The owners would then be billed. The Wildcats lost to Whitefish in basketball 26-24. The game was 8-4 at the half.

60 years ago

Jan. 11 1957

Columbia Falls had a new ambulance and the volunteer association was looking for donations to pay the last $600 payment on the rig. The ambulance looked like a station wagon. The city had started an ambulance service two years prior, with a 1938 hearse. The reason for the ambulance was there wasn’t a hospital in town. Dulane Fulton was rehired as School District 6 superintendent and he got a raise from $8,000 a year to $9,000 a year.

50 years ago

Jan. 13, 1967

Canyon Logging was expanding in Columbia Falls with a $50,000 payroll. The company at the time hauled about 3 million board feet of timber a month. The Forest Service was looking to fill 250 seasonal jobs. Ray Hoerner was killed in Vietnam by shrapnel. He was a specialist in the U.S. Army. He was the first Columbia Falls High School graduate killed in the war.

40 years ago

Jan. 13, 1977

The Forest Service was holding a series of workshops on the Great Bear Wilderness Study area. The region would eventually become the Great Bear Wilderness we know today. Lack of rain and snow had the Bonneville Power Administration warning that it would cut off a portion of the power to the Anaconda Aluminum Co. by mid-February. The BPA was looking for other areas to get power from to keep the plant running, which employed 960 people at the time. Chris Newman scored 31 points as the Wildcats beat previously unbeaten Polson 52-46.

30 years ago

Jan. 14, 1987

Glacier National Park was allowing firewood cutting by permit along the Inside North Fork Road. More than 100 permits had been issued and cost $10. A mild winter was allowing access to the wood, which had been killed by beetles. A mountain lion was hanging around Lake McDonald and had been seen three times in one week by one woman. NBC was planning to air a segment on Glacier Park’s wolves.

20 years ago

Jan. 9, 1997

With a snowy winter, significant deer kills were expected. The prime winter range had about 30 inches of snow. Marriages outnumbered divorces in the Flathead, with 652 marriages to 461 divorces. Law enforcement said it wouldn’t enforce a new federal law that made it illegal for a person convicted of domestic abuse to possess a gun. Sheriff Jim Dupont said it was a hard law to enforce and was an unfunded federal mandate.

10 years ago

Jan. 11, 2007

The Columbia Falls High School, with increase enrollment, was contemplating going to AA. The high school had 878 students. Twenty Canyon Elementary students got new bikes for having perfect attendance for the first half of the year. Lincoln Cheetham organized the effort, buying some bikes himself and lining up sponsors for others. The Columbia Falls girls basketball team beat the heavily favored Whitefish Bulldogs, 54-40. The Wildkats were ranked near the bottom of the pack to begin the season. So much for polls.