Yesterdays: 2,000 cattle shipped to Wyoming

70 years ago

Feb. 27, 1953

The Hoerner brothers had offered to donate a full block of land for a new hospital in Columbia Falls near the Little Bemidji section of Columbia Falls and the 38 acres of homesites purchased by the Anaconda Aluminum Co. for homesites. There is no hospital there today.

60 years ago

March 1, 1963

More than 2,000 cattle were rounded up from the 3C Bar Ranch on the Blackfeet Reservation and shipped via rail to Cody, Wyoming, The cattle were owned by H.P. Skoglund, who owned the Minnesota Vikings football team at the time.

50 years ago

March 2, 1973

Mason Riley of Columbia Falls caught a 5-pound rainbow on Mission Lake on the Blackfeet Reservation through the ice. Riley, a fifth-grader, said he caught the fish while his dad waited in the truck, to get out of the wind.

40 years ago

March 3, 1983

Ronald Smith asked for the death penalty for killing two Browning men near Summit at Marias Pass. Smith, from Alberta, Canada, told the court at the time it was “The rational way out.” Smith said he preferred death by lethal injection, rather than hanging. He remains on death row today.

30 years ago

March 4, 1993

A power shortage in the Pacific Northwest meant less available power for the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. That meant the plant would see layoffs and company officials said things might not get better for a couple of years.

20 years ago

Feb. 27, 2003

The county said a new bike path on River Road from Highway 2 to Columbia Falls Stage Road should be complete by sometime in the summer. The bike path was never built and the road is even more dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists today, as traffic is even worse.

10 years ago

Feb. 27, 2013

An across-the-board 5% cut to Park Service funding could mean the Going-to-the-Sun Road might not open as early as previous years. As it was, the road opened June 21, which is about on par with other years.