Yesterdays: When fighter jets flew low over Glacier National Park, on purpose
Loyd Sondreson and Jack Mathison logging near Moran Creek up the North Fork in March, 1952. (Mel Ruder photo)
March 14, 1952
Montana sportsmen heard about a plan to take native trout from Big Salmon Lake in what is now the Bob Marshall Wilderness, raise broods from stock in a hatchery and then stock them into the new Hungry Horse Lake behind the Hungry Horse Dam.
60 years ago
March 16, 1962
Two F106 Delta Dart jets flew about 1,500 feet over Lake McDonald and then the Garden Wall and broke the sound barrier, making sonic booms. The idea was to create avalanches on the wall before crews started plowing the Going-to-the-Sun Road. “Operation Safe Slide” was in its third year. No avalanches resulted.
50 years ago
March 17, 1972
Glacier National Park said it would start requiring people to get a backcountry permit to stay at camps the next summer. The idea at the time was to get an idea of where people were camping. “It’s not for the purpose of restriction,” park staff said at the time.
40 years ago
March 18, 1982
The Montana Department of Transportation said a four-lane highway was the plan from the bad Rock Canyon to West Glacier. At the time, some folks were against widening the road. The original plan also called for a bike path from Hungry Horse to West Glacier. It took years and private fundraising for that to actually happen.
30 years ago
March 12, 1992
Loggers north of town were working hard to harvest 3.8 million board feet of timber from the Red White Pine sale. It was one of the few sales that would use helicopters to harvest timber. Loggers had to get the timber cut under new grizzly bear regulations. The sale was named after dead white pine in the area.
20 years ago
March 7, 2002
Plum Creek announced it would sell about 20,000 acres of land it owned in the Swan Valley. While it wasn’t evident at the time, it marked the beginning of a massive sale of land by the company over the next 20 years. Some of the parcels, which were 160 acres, were expected to sell for $5,000 to $10,000 an acre.
10 years ago
March 7, 2012
The Columbia Falls boys basketball team took second at the state tournament, losing to Dillon 54-39.