2021: A year in review
It was a disgrace as a bus drove into the Wild and Scenic Flathead River at Blankenship trying to get to a free camp run by the Forest Service. Despite a petition by neighbors and river enthusiasts, the Service kept the camp open anyway. (Chris Peterson photo)
By CHRIS PETERSON
Hungry Horse News
A look back at some of the top stories of 2021:
1) A vaccine was developed and launched for Covid-19 by several manufacturers. Some of the first folks to get it were veterans on the Montana Veterans Home as well as staff. But by the time it became widely available later in the spring, only about 43 percent of eligible folks even bothered to get it. Meanwhile, two variants made people sick, including the Delta variant and now, the Omicron variant. The rolling average for a few months in Flathead County was about 900 cases a week. But the virus primarily kills people 50 and older and after a while, no one seemed to care much. Mask mandates were dropped almost everywhere.
2) The housing market continued at its torrid pace, with the median price in Columbia Falls about $450,000 by November, according to Realtor.com. That, in turn, sparked a housing crunch, as rents have gone up and inventory is very low. Developers have announced or are working on new housing projects, but groundbreaking for most won’t happen until 2022. With no affordable housing, the labor market was super tight and many businesses had to curtail hours.
3) Columbia Falls Boy Scout Kaylee King made a bit of history, both locally and nationally, as she was one of the first girls to obtain her Eagle Scout rank, the highest ranking in scouting. Boy Scouts started allowing girls in their organization a few years earlier and several local girls are now involved.
4) After five years of tests and development, The Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. finished its feasibility study/ remedial investigation of the defunct Superfund site that was once the aluminum plant. It said the best way to clean up old dumps at the site and contaminated soils was to create a slurry wall barrier around landfills rather than dig the earth up and haul it away. That plan received a cool reception from the Columbia Falls City Council. Groundwater near the landfills is contaminated with high levels of fluoride and cyanide.
5) Glacier National Park announced for the first time ever it would require a ticket to enter the Going-to-the-Sun Road corridor from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend. The Park estimated it turned away about 350,000 cars that didn’t have tickets. Even with the system, Glacier was on pace to break visitation records in 2021. Visitors either got up early, when they didn’t need a ticket, or came later, after 5 p.m., when they didn’t need a ticket, either. The Park Service will implement a similar system this summer, though will require tickets to enter the Polebridge Entrance as well.
6) In passing … Dick and Charlotte Sapa, the longtime owners of the iconic Blue Moon Nite Club, died within weeks of each other. Jack VonLindern, a local pioneer in search and rescue, died in March. Ralph Ammondson, longtime Hungry Horse News printer, died in May.
7) Neighbors petitioned against a camp at Blankenship along the Flathead River. The camp on Forest Service land was seen as a nuisance by neighbors and contrary to the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The Forest Service, even after a bus got stuck in the river, kept the camp open, however.
) Construction of the new Glacier Gateway Elementary School started, but there was worry that delays in steel shipments might delay the project, which is expected to open in fall of 2022. The Ruder Elementary remodel and additions were completed by year’s end.
9) A study found that popular trails in Glacier Park saw a bump in use by more than 80% from 2012, while other trails stayed flat. The Avalanche Lake Trail is the most popular in the park.
10) With broad support and a blend of federal, state and local funding, the Bad Rock Wildlife Management Area would now be owned by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The nearly 800 acre swath of land along the Flathead River just east of Columbia Falls was previously owned by the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co.
11) A federal judge found that the Flathead National Forest’s roads plan in its 2018 Forest Plan for grizzly bears security was flawed and ordered the agency to fix it.
12) A woman camping in town in Ovando was killed by a grizzly. The bear had raided a chicken coop and there may have been food in the tents of party. The bear was found and later killed.
13) There was concern about the Hay Creek Fire up the North Fork after the region saw record-breaking heat and little rain. The fire, however, was all but quenched after rains came in August. It ended up not threatening any homes. The Boulder 2700 Fire near Flathead Lake however burned down about 10 structures, including several homes. The summer was the hottest ever, the National Weather Service said. December saw record warmth, too, and a wildfire in Denton in central Montana burned down about 26 homes and 49 structures total, including two historic grain elevators.
14) The 2020 census noted that Columbia Falls city population topped 5,300, an increase of 13.3% over 2010.
15) In sports… The Columbia Falls girls cross country team won its first-ever state championship, while the boys soccer team came up just short in its bid for a state title against Whitefish for the second year in a row, losing to the Bulldogs 3-2 in the closing minute of the game.