No headline

70 years ago

Oct. 1, 1948

Dude, a 26-year-old packhorse for Glacier Park was set to be retired. The story described him as “sure footed and gentle.” He worked in the park since 1929. Also retired were pack horses Chief, 20, and Clarence, 21. A big lake was expected at the mouth of the South Fork and Flathead Rivers as gravel was being taken out for the Hungry Horse Dam.

60 years ago

Oct. 3, 1958

Efforts to put a TV tower on Teakettle Mountain were successful after Royal Creek Logging built a road to the summit of the mountain for a TV translator. Six Flathead lumber mills donated funds to build the three miles of new service road needed to reach the summit.

50 years ago

Oct. 4, 1968

A new bridge over the Middle Fork of the Flathead was nearly complete. It replaced an Army Bailey Bridge that was used over the river after the original bridge was washed out in the 1964 flood.

40 years ago

Oct. 5, 1978

A 40-car Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train derailed near Blacktail. Most of the cars were carrying wheat. Crews worked through the night to get the line back open. Timber harvest “dropped sharply” on the Flathead National Forest at 90 million board feet. It was the lowest total in about 20 years, the Forest Service said.

30 years ago

Oct. 5, 1988

Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. employees were told they would get profit-sharing checks for the third year in a row. The company had 678 hourly employees at the time. Today, the plant is completely defunct and almost completely torn down. Dave Shea left the Belly River as ranger there for the past 11 summers. Shea, who was an accomplished ranger and biologist in the Park, wanted to spend more time with his wife Genevieve at their home in Oregon.

20 years ago

Oct. 1, 1998

Harry Huntley grew a 91-pound pumpkin in his garden on Bruner Road. Urval Warner said he wasn’t interested in selling his farmland on both sides of U.S. Highway 2 south of the Blue Moon, despite the booming real estate market. At 92, he figured he was the oldest active farmer in the valley.

10 years ago

Oct. 2, 2008

Nobel Prize-winning scientist and climatologist Steve Running of the University of Montana said the west should expect bigger and more intense wildfires — a prediction that’s proven all too true. The fire season in the West at the time was now 78 days longer than it used to be, he noted.