Yesterdays: Folk line up to get X-rays
Jim Peters was drying 100 square feet of sweet corn for seed at his garden south of Columbia Falls in October, 1963. (Mel Ruder photo)
70 years ago
Oct. 2, 1953
The state board of health brought a mobile chest x-ray unit to Columbia Falls. It was estimated that 1,200 people would get the x-rays, as health officials would scan the images for tuberculosis, cancer and other respiratory diseases in the population.
60 years ago
Sept. 27, 1963
Editor Mel Ruder took a trip from Spotted Bear to Schafer Meadows and back again along the Trilobite Range by horse with Spotted Bear Ranger Dick Strong. The Gable Peaks Trail had been closed for 20 years but had just reopened that summer. “.. The nation’s heritage becomes the richer for having the 950,000 acre Bob Marshall Wilderness,” Ruder wrote. Today the wilderness complex is more than 1.5 million acres.
50 years ago
Oct. 5, 1973
Sportsman Bar owner Bill Fish was upset that Columbia Falls had allowed a church to set up within 600 feet of his bar. The Church of Christ was now in the Gesek Building across the street from the bar. Fish was going to complain the state liquor board.
40 years ago
Oct. 6, 1983
The Columbia Falls football team was hoping to get its first win of the year as it was set to face Flathead. Back then the Wildcats were AA and had lost their first three games — the last one to Libby, 21-7. Anaconda and Havre were also AA at the time.
30 years ago
Oct. 7, 1983
In two separate incidents, hikers in Glacier National Park used pepper spray to deter charging grizzly bears. The incidents were believed to be the first time the spray was used to stop a bear in the park. Tim Rubbert’s encounter was a dramatic one. He sprayed a grizzly while the bear attacked his friend, Jim Cole. The bear went after Rubbert and he sprayed it. Once the spray hit the bear, it veered off. Cole suffered a broken bone in his wrist and a head wound to his scalp where the bear bit him. It was put back together with a surgical staple.
20 years ago
Oct. 2, 2003
Kathryn Heistand of St. Mary probably saved her friend Kelsey Ray Running Wolf’s life when she sprayed a bear with bear spray that jumped on Running Wolf during a hike in Many Glacier near Mount Allen. The bear first pinned Heistand against a tree and then jumped on Running Wolf. The two women weren’t seriously injured, but they did get covered with the spray, which is highly unpleasant.
10 years ago
Oct. 2, 2013
A government shut down also shut down Glacier National Park. The lack of a funding bill for the federal government meant hikers and campers all had 48 hours to get out of the park. The shutdown didn’t last long and Glacier reopened about a week later.