Yesterdays: Ridley Scott eyes Glacier Park for 'Blade Runner' scene
Crews from Morrison-Knudsen put down evergreen matting above the Going-to-the-Sun Road to control erosion as a part of a contract to widen and improve the road along the Garden Wall in June, 1951. (Mel Ruder photo)
June 15, 1951
The Glacier National Park summer season was in full swing. Glacier estimated that late June travel would be about 2,600 visitors a day and would ramp up to 4,800 a day in July and August.
60 years ago
June 16, 1961
The Columbia Falls Chamber of Commerce had secured a lease on 30 acres near the Flathead River for a new campground site, or that was the hope. The city was hoping the state land board would approve the lease. The chamber had wanted a campground, which was a “stone’s throw” from the silver bridge, for some time.
50 years ago
June 16, 1971
Glacier National Park was expected to hit 10,000 visitors a day by July 1, It had about 1.2 million visitors for the entire year the year before. Today it sees three times as many people. A black bear nipped a man in the arm as he sat in his car with the window rolled down near Avalanche campground.
40 years ago
June 16, 1981
Director Ridley Scott was considering filming part of his new movie “Blade Runner” in Glacier National Park. The scene to be filmed would be a futuristic car traveling down a highway. The scene was expected to take five to six days of work. The film went on to be a science fiction classic.
30 years ago
June 13, 1991
On June 11, the area saw 0.9 inch of rain, which had broken the old record for 0.74 inch on the same date in 1901. Mel Ruder was to be named a master editor-publisher by the Montana Newspaper Association.
20 years ago
June 14, 2001
Members of the Kitchen family posed for a photo in front of Deer Park School. All but one generation spanning more than 100 years had graduated from the small school south of Columbia Falls.
10 years ago
June 22, 2011
William P. Yenne had petitioned the U.S. Board of Geographic Names to have a pillar known as B-7 on the Ptarmigan Wall named after his father, William J. Yenne, who was a longtime packer in Glacier and the author of the book “Switchback,” which chronicled his adventures both in and out of the park. The name of the peak was never changed. Today, the Park Service is more inclined to change names of places based on traditional Native American names.