Yesterdays: Porcupines plentiful enough for a bounty, populations no longer so abundant
E.C. Clapper, Jim Whit and Adolph Rehmer press apples for cider in a 50-year-old press on Oct. 22, 1950. (Mel Ruder photo)
70 years ago
Oct. 27, 1950
A funeral for A.O. Westberg was planned. Westberg was one of the first people to live in Columbia Falls in 1891. He came here by wagon train. His first job was hewing rails for the Great Northern Railroad. He then built a sawmill at Half Moon. It burned down and he built another one at what is now the location for F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber. He ran it until 1920 and sold it to State Lumber and then built another mill in Columbia Falls. He was a wealthy man.
60 years ago
Oct. 28, 1960
Editor Mel Ruder called for a bounty on porcupines for the damage they did to trees and human equipment, like vehicles and ax handles. Today there are few porcupines regionally and almost none in Glacier National Park, even where there is no hunting.
50 years ago
Oct. 30, 1970
Crews were drilling a test oil well up the North Fork, but this time in the U.S. about 1,400 feet south of the border and 900 feet west of the North Fork Road. The well was less than a mile from Glacier National Park.
40 years ago
Oct. 30, 1980
The Hungry Horse Dam operators said they were adjusting flows from the dam to help salmon. It was estimated that the year before half of the eggs dried out or froze because river levels were lowered after the spawning run. Today, save for a smattering of fish in Glacier Park, the salmon run is no more.
30 years ago
Oct. 30, 1990
Jim Dupont was running for Flathead County Sheriff. He noted that the county at the time only had three deputies per shift and it was time to spend more money on the department.
20 years ago
Oct. 26, 2000
Forest Service worker Shawn Otto was flown out of Black Bear in the Bob Marshall Wilderness after he had a reaction to an insect bite, most likely a spider, in his leg. The bite became infected and he could no longer walk.
10 years ago
Oct. 28, 2010
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wanted to reintroduce mountain goats back into the Whitefish Range. The goats would be imported from the Crazy Mountains near Bozeman. The transplant never happened, however, as Glacier National Park officials were worried about the transplanted goats spreading disease to herds in the park.