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Playing on the snow at Big Bend in Glacier National Park in August, 1970.
70 years ago
June 24, 1969
About 70 million board feet of timber was being harvested from the Hungry Horse Reservoir. Most of the fir and larch went to railroad ties, while the white woods were being sawn into dimension lumber. A four-wheeled drive Army truck was being used to supply Glacier Park’s Belly River Ranger Station. A road went to the ranger station at the time and it was still considered a tough 10-mile long journey.
60 years ago
June 26, 1959
Charles Schoenberger was featured on the front page. He homesteaded in the North Fork above Polebridge in 1908. He trapped fur, raised vegetables and cattle, helped build a road to Canada up Sage Creek and found coal, among other things. Back then furs were very valuable — a pine marten could go as high as $75. He also worked for the Blackfoot National Forest and fought the 1910 fire and was a trail foreman.
50 years ago
June 27, 1969
Glacier National Park was emphasizing “pack-it-in, pack-it-out” regulations in the park’s backcountry. The idea was to limit human conflicts with bears and it seemed to be working. “Glacier now has a natural free-ranging population of grizzlies. These animals are interested in avoiding man,” said Park biologist Cliff Martinka. The regulations came after the infamous “night of the grizzlies,” where two women were mauled to death by food-conditioned bears in 1967. Before that, burying or burning garbage in the backcountry was common.
40 years ago
June 28, 1979
A diesel fuel shortage was hurting local logging truckers. Mills had trimmed shifts because truckers couldn’t get fuel and when they did, it was expensive. Truckers were also striking, which didn’t help any. Changes in state law allowed wine sales at grocery stores in Montana.
30 years ago
June 28, 1989
At least 25 grizzly bears roamed the hills south and wet of the Hungry Horse Reservoir biologists found. They had been trapping grizzlies as part of the South Fork Grizzly bear project. So far this year 13 bears had been trapped and most were fitted with radio collars so biologists could track their movements. Most of the bears lived near the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
20 years ago
June 24, 1999
The American bald eagle was set to be taken off the Endangered Species List. Eagle populations were decimated by the use of the pesticide DDT, which caused their egg shells to thin and fracture. It was estimated at the time that there were more than 200 nesting pairs in the state and 10 in Glacier Park. In 1982, there were just three nesting pairs in Glacier.
10 years ago
June 25, 2009
Columbia Falls fire chief Bob Webber was fired. The city wouldn’t say why it fired Webber. Joe Williams, who was now 70, recalled a grisly grizzly bear attack that happened 50 years earlier in Many Glacier. Williams was slowly eaten alive by a grizzly, including being scalped, having an ear torn off and his buttocks chewed away. He was saved by Park Ranger Don Dayton, who shot the bear in the dark as it continued to attack Williams. Williams survived, though he had 56 one-inch deep bites in his back and numerous other injuries.