Yesterdays: 1963 two grizzlies sent to Ohio zoo

70 years ago

June 26, 1953

Rain in West Glacier was about an inch more than normal. Snow at the Big Drift was 50 feet deep when the pass opened.

60 years ago

June 28, 1963

Glacier National Park donated two grizzlies to a zoo in Columbus, OH. The young bears had become frequent visitors at the Swiftcurrent campground and park officials decided to trap the bears rather than destroy them. The two bears were caught and transported via crates in a train baggage car to their destination.

50 years ago

June 29, 1973

The Flathead Canoe Race, a 96 mile paddle from the Canadian Border to Old Steel Bridge in Kalispell was on for the third year running. Racers stopped to camp at Big Creek on the North Fork and competitors came from as far as Seattle to participate.

40 years ago

June 30, 1983

James Watt, Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of the Interior, came to Kalispell to tout his pride in the success of the administration before the ‘84 election. A logging truck slid off North Fork Road killing the driver, Stanley York.

30 years ago

July 1, 1993

A grizzly sow charged a 33-year-old angler and his horse near Cracker Lake. Jonathan Bowling, a park wrangler from WI. told the Hungry Horse News he believed he had been attacked by the same bear earlier in the week as the park investigated the incident.

20 years ago

June 26, 2003

The new Harry Potter Book, The Order of the Phoenix had readers in a frenzy rushing to bookstores to grab a copy. Barry Sundberg of Columbia Falls along with 11 others died in a tragic fishing boat accident off the coast of Oregon.

10 years ago

June 16, 2013

A massive thunderstorm wreaked havoc in West Glacier, knocking down numerous trees – one of which damaged the backcountry permit office in Apgar.