Yesterdays: Contractors storing gravel from McDonald Creek to widen Sun Road
Rev. Hinton and son bringing in Christmas tree, Dec. 12, 1954. (Mel Ruder photo)
70 years ago
Dec. 11, 1954
Contractors had 19,500 cubic yards of gravel crushed and ready from McDonald Creek to use on a widening project of the Going-to-the-Sun Road at Logan Pass. Contractors had started the work in October, but snows had since closed the pass and the gravel was stockpiled so the work could be completed in the spring.
60 years ago
Dec. 11, 1964
Plum Creek’s new plywood plant was set to begin production in Columbia Falls in early 1965. Construction of the plant began in April. The plant featured two gas fired dryers. It is defunct today.
50 years ago
Dec. 13, 1974
Mr. and Mrs. Don Hall were the winter caretakers at Many Glacier. The couple had been spending winters in the Glacier National Park Valley, which is snowed in for months, for the past five years. Mountain bighorn sheep, which winter near the cabin, often looked in the windows.
40 years ago
Dec. 13, 1984
An oil well drilling rig was working 24/7 to drill an exploratory oil well on F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber land. While the actual well site was being kept a secret, the well was about 7 miles from downtown Columbia Falls. It was expected to be about 6,000 feet deep.
30 years ago
Dec. 15, 1994
Two men from Cut Bank were charged with shooting a 4-point bull elk in Glacier National Park and another man on the west side was charged with shooting at an elk decoy rangers set up in the North Fork. It was one of the busiest poaching seasons rangers had seen.
20 years ago
Dec. 9, 2004
The Teamster Union whacked the city of Columbia Falls with a $250,000 bill, which amounted to half of what the city back then collected in property taxes. The union said the city owed it the money for health insurance costs that went back 10 years.
10 years ago
Dec, 16, 2014
Two major land use bills, the North Fork Watershed Protection Act and the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act were expected to pass Congress. Both had broad support.
The North Fork Act prohibited mining and oil and gas exploration in the North Fork and Canada and the Rocky Mountain Front Act added about 67,000 acres to the Bob Marshall Wilderness on the east side and protected an addition 208,000 acres of federal land along the front from further development.