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70 years ago

May 9, 1947

The rainy season started with a storm that brought over an inch of rain. With rain, snowmelt, rivers near bank-full, and the dam as high as ever, the city prepared for flooding. A 20 percent increase in visitors to Glacier National Park was predicted, up from 201,145 visitors in 1946. The Coram Boosters Club discussed plans for a new four-room school. The Columbia Falls VFW Post requested that citizens who knew their blood type leave that information with doctors, so that emergency transfusions could be more efficient.

60 years ago

May 10, 1957

Glacier Park plows were at Logan Pass, and Going-to-the-Sun Road would be open for Memorial Day. New mayor W. F. Bennett said that the city government would have a commissioner format, because delegation of responsibility would increase efficiency. The first of three spring flood peaks occurred and Hungry Horse Dam blocked a flood flow that would have topped 15 feet, causing damage as far as Kalispell.

50 years ago

May 12, 1967

The new St. Mary Visitor Center was the first seasonal Park facility to open. The Park superintendent Keith Neilson noted that camper vehicles overcame tent camping in popularity, and that air travel prospects opened new horizons for the Park by bringing out-of-state visitors. The Montana Highway Commission lamented a lack of funding to improve “worn-out” roads. The Flathead County Airport board protested plans for a new airport between Browning and East Glacier.

40 years ago

May 12, 1977

An orphaned black bear cub that was featured on Otis Robbins’ fish and game telecast in Kalispell met a sad end when someone unlatched his cage overnight. The bear was last seen being chased by dogs across a field, and could also have been killed by a grown bear. Sun Road was plowed through Logan Pass, and could open as early as May 22, beating the earliest opening on May 23 in 1958. Park superintendent Phillip Iversen said the snow was the lowest since 1933 and matched levels normally seen in June. A trap was set for the “Avalanche” grizzly sow and her two-year-old cubs, which had treed visitors on the Avalanche Lake trail last year. Flathead National Forest and Glacier National Park capped commercial raft outfitters at three permits for the North Fork and three for the Middle Fork.

30 years ago

May 13, 1987

With the least snow in 30 years, plows crossed Logan pass, and an early Sun Road opening was predicted. The Plum Creek mill began a $4 million project to rebuild and modernize. A three-day search for missing hang glider pilot Dave Partlow was called off, with the man still lost. Citizens were called to vote on a two-year levy that would raise $53,000 to run Pinewood Park’s swimming pool. The Big Sky Waterslide opened for the season.

20 years ago

May 8, 1997

City agencies expected a capacity crowd at a flood preparation meeting in the high school Little Theater. Mark Sawyer of the Flathead Regional Development Office advised that mobile home owners compare the cost of losing their homes to the cost of having to obtain new floodplain and building permits and put in permanent concrete foundations, if they left with their house and then later returned to the flood zone. A water tank serving Lake McDonald Lodge collapsed under the weight of snow. A Polebridge photographer accidentally attracted grizzlies with grain for deer for the second year in a row, and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks split the cost with him for an electric fence.

10 years ago

May 10, 2007

Columbia Falls seniors Virginia and Charles Crawford, and their five adopted great-grandchildren, were interviewed for ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Rising water temperatures could pose a threat to native bull trout, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Wade Fredenberg said, and invasive species would be better adapted to the change.

The city council met with the Department of Transportation to discuss lowering the speed limits on Highway 2 through the city.