No headline
The Martin City and Coram MC&C team won the Bad Rock Canyon Softball League’s regular season in 1969 and second in the end of year tournamenrt. Front row, from left, are Laura Hanks, Lil Bras, Rosie Treat, Carol Wilkens and Marlene Potter. In the back row are Barbara Birnel, Sandy Djonne, Janet Mendenhall, Karen Leitz and Lavon Mundell. (Mel Ruder photo)
70 years ago
Aug. 12, 1949
Newlyweds Bud and Mrs. Block were the new lookouts at Thoma Lookout up the North Fork. They arrived to the lookout by pack train. The Glacier View Ranger District had six lookouts working that summer, as the fire danger, like it does most summers, had increased.
60 years ago
Aug. 14, 1959
The B&F Excavating’s river boat float was the top float in the Progress Days Parade. They got $30 for taking first prize. Bud King Construction received the new contract for improvements at the Many Glacier, Two Medicine and the new St. Mary campgrounds. King was out of Missoula and the contract was for more than $200,000 worth of work, which included new roads, parking areas and the extension of sewer and water services.
50 years ago
Aug. 15, 1969
A major draw down of the Hungry Horse Reservoir had people angry, as it was the height of the summer season and the lake level was very low, exposing hundreds of feet of shoreline. There was a water shortage because of a dry, late winter and a drier than normal spring and summer. The hot lunch price at Columbia falls schools was raised 5 centers to 35 cents per meal.
40 years ago
Aug. 16, 1979
For the second year in a row, the Columbia Falls swim team won the state swimming championship. Swimmer Keith Munson had three individual state titles. The Kalispell Weekly News, under the ownership of George Ostrom, was in its fifth year and called itself the “fastest growing newspaper in Montana.” Ostrom, as one can imagine, did not write for the Hungry Horse News at that time.
30 years ago
Aug. 17, 1989
Plum Creek workers had some sizable bonuses in their paychecks. The company distributed about $1,000 each to its 750 hourly employees. The huckleberry harvest was well below previous years — a late freeze had hurt the crop.
20 years ago
Aug. 12, 1999
Two men were injured after they crashed their airplane into the Spotted Bear River. Pilot Paul Wells of Whitefish was able to land the plane in the riverbed. Engine problems were the suspected cause of the crash of the V-35 Beechcraft. A blondish black bear that many folks reported as a grizzly bear was prowling around the Montana Veterans Home before biologists could catch and move it.
10 years ago
Aug. 13, 2009
Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar visited Glacier National Park and the Flathead Valley. Salazar said he supported efforts to stop mining exploration and development in the North Fork of the Flathead River. Front page photo featured him walking along the river at Blankenship with Sens. Max Baucus, Jon Tester and Glacier Park Superintendent Chas Cartwright.