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Admiring a snowman in Hungry Horse in January, 1950 are, from left, Gary Latham, Jimmy Potter, Diane Haight, Judy Criswell, Roberta Campbell and Lalonie Sterner.
70 years ago
Jan. 13, 1950
President Harry Truman had requested $30.5 million for the Hungry Horse Dam project. If approved by Congress, the amount would see the project 68 percent complete in 17 months. The Columbia Falls boys basketball team had an 8-1 record midway through the season. They were coached by Ralph Bergstrom.
60 years ago
Jan. 15, 1960
Liquor stores sales in 1959 were up. Joe Opalka, who owned the Columbia Falls liquor store said sales were about $143,000. Sales the year before $123,000. He credited growth in the community as the reason for the increase.
50 years ago
Jan. 14, 1970
Sen. Mike Mansfield said that pollution was the main concern for the nation. Mansfield said that if something wasn’t done to curb pollution it would not only hurt natural resources, it would hurt “the health of our people as well.” The search for five young men killed in an avalanche on Mount Cleveland in Glacier National Park was scaled back, with Ranger Bob Frauson saying the full extent of the tragedy would be revealed in July, when snows melted.
40 years ago
Jan. 10, 1980
Statistics from Glacier National Park showed a dip in visitation of about 9% over the previous year, with 1.44 million people visiting the park in 1979. Two skiers weathered a winter storm in the Bob Marshall Wilderness by hunkering down in a trapper’s cabin. One had frostbite and both had hypothermia.
30 years ago
Jan. 11, 1990
An audit concluded that not collaring grizzly bears in Glacier National Park was probably hurting bear research there; but park biologist Cliff Martinka said the park was generally against collaring bears due to their wild nature and public sentiment that they didn’t like to see bears collared. Today Glacier, in cooperation with the state, routinely collars bears for research purposes.
20 years ago
Jan. 13, 2000
Plum Creek announced it would invest $69 million into its medium density fiberboard plant in Columbia Falls. The project was expected to increase the company’s MDF workforce by about 15 percent. Meanwhile, American Timber announced it was closing its sawmill in Olney after 71 years of operation.
10 years ago
Jan. 14, 2010
School District 6 announced it was considering closing Canyon Elementary School to save money. The school at the time had about 100 students, but enrollment had been dropping for seven years straight now.