Yesterdays: Composting toilets for GNP chalets
With a green thumb, Cal Grise Jr. inspects a geranium at his nursery in Columbia Falls. Grise had 35,000 plants and hoped to sprout another 15,000 to 20,000 before opening on Mother’s Day. Photo taken in 1984 by Bob Kennedy.
70 years ago
March 5, 1954
Columbia Falls started the action to become a third class city. The municipality was defined as an incorporated town with about 1,800 residents. The main difference would be a city budget, which the town did not use. Three resolutions for the extension of city limits were adopted, with proposals to expand the border from Fourth Avenue East to Sixth Avenue East and from Second Street North to Railroad Street, and to add the Hoerner addition and Lenon Gardens.
60 years ago
March 6, 1964
Above normal snow depths were reported in Glacier National Park; 59.4 inches of snow and 18.45 inches of water were measured at the Columbia River system headwaters. Dog quarantine remained in place until March 15 as the City of Columbia Falls attempted to wrangle its stray dogs. One hundred and fourteen dog licenses had been purchased since Feb. 5, as compared to 62 for all of 1963.
50 years ago
March 8, 1974
A four-car caravan of Bigfork High School Spanish class students was set to drive to Mexico come April, students were fundraising for $232 each to make the trip. Overnight stops were planned in Salt Lake City, Grand Canyon National Park and Nogales, Arizona before crossing the border and traveling by train.
40 years ago
March 8, 1984
The Wildcats were headed to state with the help of senior Cary Finberg, who fired 91 shots over four games (his 22.7 average easily led all tournament scorers), shot 49% from the field and led the Cats with 41 rebounds and six steals. “I knew it was my last chance, and I figured I better do something,” Finberg said of the divisional tournament.
30 years ago
March 10, 1994
Preliminary plans for composting toilets, new water and waste disposal systems were released for Granite Park and Sperry Chalet, estimated to cost $4.2 million. In the past, Park workers would periodically drain septic tanks onto the ground at the chalets — a practice that attracted grizzly bears to the area — and waste would sometimes bubble to the surface through outdated drain fields.
20 years ago
March 4, 2004
Glacier National Park’s bighorn sheep saw a baby boom, with 80 lambs per 100 ewes. Columbia Falls’s population also grew, up 31% since 1990, and while housing construction had doubled in recent years, median housing prices increased by 21%.
10 years ago
March 5, 2014
Avalanches coming down from slopes along Glacier National Park’s southern border temporarily covered U.S. 2 and BNSF railway tracks. The Wildcats swept the divisional basketball tournament, both boys and girls teams came home champions.