Yesterdays: Goats on Teakettle

70 years ago

Oct. 10, 1952

A mountain goat came down off Teakettle Mountain to view the construction of the Anaconda Aluminum Co. plant. The goat came within 15 feet of a worker operating a crane on the mountain. Goats are no longer seen on the mountain.

60 years ago

Oct. 12, 1962

Clearing and grubbing of the new Camas Road which would run from Apgar to the North Fork of the Flathead around the Apgar Range was underway. The road is a popular cutoff for North Fork travelers today.

50 years ago

Oct. 13, 1972

Plum Creek announced it was building a new “particle board” plant called medium density fiberboard. Site preparation was underway for the plant in Columbia Falls. The MDF plant is the last plant remaining from the Plum Creek era.

40 years ago

Oct. 14, 1982

The Montana Veterans Home in Columbia Falls broke ground on a new 50-bed addition. A local group raised enough money to buy Leo the Lion, an African Lion that was living at the Trap Zoo outside Columbia Falls. The group was then going to try to raise enough for a permanent home for the 8-year-old cat in the Flathead Valley. Columbia Falls beat Flathead 14-7 in football — the first time ever.

30 years ago

Oct. 15, 1992

After a hiker was mauled and killed by a grizzly sow and cubs on the Loop Trail in Glacier National Park, the park was considering closing off certain areas in the fall like Granite Park and 50 Mountain, which have high bear densities. They were also considering requiring parties to hike together. The man who was killed was hiking solo when the mauling occurred. The Park Service killed the sow and her two cubs, much to the chagrin of biologist Chuck Jonkel, who said the park should have closed the trail before the mauling occurred.

Due to drought downstream, the Hungry Horse Dam could be drawn down to the point where the reservoir was considered empty, with water levels below the turbines.

20 years ago

Oct. 10, 2002

Noted North Fork rancher Tom Ladenburg died at age 79. He was a controversial figure as he allowed an oil company to drill an exploratory well on his property in the late 1980s. But in the end, he put his 2,000-acre ranch almost entirely into a conservation easement, preserving its open space from development. Today, it’s one of the most scenic places in the North Fork.

10 years ago

Oct. 10, 2012

Samantha Mundel broke the school cross country record for the best time in a race at the Whitefish Invitational with a time of 19 minutes, 8 seconds.