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70 years ago

Oct. 3, 1947

Mrs. Matt Brill woke up to find a black bear staring back at her in the window. The bear had gotten into the basement of their home, 50 miles up the North Fork, and found itself a bowl of butter. It ate 3 pounds of butter without breaking the bowl. The couple, on their way down to town, followed a moose for 3 miles. The moose ran 30 mph at first, then slowed to 15 mph and then finally got off the road. There was no way to pass it, they said. Rocky Mountain Lumber, with a mill near Essex, was expected to fold by the winter.

60 years ago

Oct. 4, 1957

Construction on a new highway that would run through the Swan Valley had begun. It would link up with Highway 35 at the Brown Church. There were plans for a dam at Spruce Park in what is now the Great Bear Wilderness. The dam would be a 350-foot high earth filled dam that would make a 2,600 acre lake. A 37,000-foot tunnel would then connect the outflow to a power plant at the Hungry Horse Reservoir. The estimated cost was $50 million.

50 years ago

Oct. 6, 1967 The $352 million Libby Dam project was termed “good” and “mostly ahead of schedule” by the U.S. Corps of Engineers. Moisture had finally ended the long fire season, but Glacier Park still had some smokes. The Park had seen .52 inches rain, but ranger Gary Bunney said the Park could use some more. Largest fire in Glacier was the Flathead Fire, which burned about 8,500 acres.

40 years ago

Oct. 6, 1977

The Oneys of Deer Park had a bumper crop of pumpkins. One picture featured Richard Oney, 12, with a 101-pound pumpkin. Four hundred bison had been rounded up at the National Bison Range. The annual roundup culled the herd in the wildlife refuge in Moiese each year. Calves were vaccinated and the herd was to be reduced to about 315 animals. Folks bid on the surplus animals. The largest bull was just under 2,000 pounds and was 7 years old.

30 years ago

Oct. 7, 1987

It was the beginning of the end of the kokanee salmon run up the Flathead River. Salmon numbers had plummeted in lower McDonald Creek from 21,500 to just 144 fish this season. The fish used to make annual runs up the river to the creek to spawn. Bald eagles followed, eating the fish as they died. Only five eagles had been spotted, while the year before there had been 21. Profit sharing had bolstered morale at the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. plant, though the company didn’t disclose how much of the profits it would actually share.

20 years ago

Oct. 2, 1987

Columbia Falls resident John Horine won a fishing trip during a raffle at the Northwest Montana Fair. But his luck didn’t end there. On the chartered trip with his sons and friends, they caught four lake trout that were 35 inches or longer.

10 years ago

Oct. 4, 2007

There was sadness as the Martin City Post Office closed. The post office boxes were taken down and moved to Hungry Horse. The operator of the post office, Valerie Johnson, was being paid about $21,000 a year to run the post office, but was working 42 hours a week to keep it open. As such, she couldn’t make ends meet, particularly since she had to pay an employee in order to get a day off.