Yesterdays: Heritage Days hits a rough patch
Mr. and Mrs. Harry Holcomb at their Trail Creek home up the North Fork, March 14, 1952. (Mel Ruder photo)
70 years ago
March 14, 1952
Columbia Falls and the Flathead Valley was still awaiting word on where the new Anaconda Aluminum Co. plant would be located. Two stuffed black bear cubs would be on display in Great Falls. They were accidentally killed when Urval Warner and Leonard Reeves cut down a cottonwood tree that they cubs were denning in with their mother. The mother survived. The tiny cubs, did not.
60 years ago
March 16, 1962
The Junior Nationals Alpine Ski Championship were held on Big Mountain. Editor Mel Ruder took a photo of some of the top skiers from across the U.S., calling them “clean cut alert teenagers.”
50 years ago
March 17, 1972
C. Lawrence Thomas, president of Conrad Bank, lamented the loss of timber harvest under the 1968 U.S. Forest Service management plan. He claimed the Flathead was hit especially hard and it would mean loss of jobs. For every 1 million board feet of timber cut, it meant seven jobs were created, he said.
40 years ago
March 18, 1972
Heritage Days was on the ropes. The annual town celebration might not happen in 1982, organizers said, because it was $3,000 in debt after a Valentine’s Day dance lost money as did a concert. The committee that put on Heritage Days said that even if the debts were covered, 1982 events would have to be self-supporting.
30 years ago
March 19, 1992
Burlington Northern Santa Fe was spending $3 million on the tracks that bordered Glacier National Park in the hopes of reducing derailments. The new track came in quarter-mile long lengths and were welded, rather than bolted together. Neighbors came out in force against against an RV park at the end of Nucleus Avenue. It’s the Cedar Pointe subdivision today.
20 years ago
March 14, 2002
Despite hosting the tournament, the Columbia Falls High School volleyball team couldn’t come up with a state A volleyball championship. The Wildkats ended up taking fourth.
10 years ago
March 14, 2002
A wolf attacked Rod Cogliati’s dog near the family’s rural Columbia Falls home. The wolf bit the dog more than 20 times, but ran away when Cogliati went after it. Vandals knocked over more than 30 headstones at the Woodlawn Cemetery.