Yesterdays: Steam engine used to heat AAC plant

70 years ago

Nov. 19, 1954

Aiding construction at the Anaconda Aluminum Co. Plant was a 17-ton Great Northern Railway oil-fired steam engine. Heat from the engine was used to allow workers to complete the office building and other interiors at the plant.

60 years ago

Nov. 20, 1964

Glacier Park ranger W.E. Welch was on patrol when he spooked a flock of grouse. He looked back behind him and there was a full-grown mountain lion. The lion sat down yawned and Welch said, “Nice pussycat.” The lion got up and walked leisurely away.

50 years ago

Nov. 22, 1974

The Texas Pacific Oil Company was seeking a massive oil and gas lease on the Flathead National Forest spanning some 250,000 acres. One lease was up the North Fork near Whale Creek south to Canyon Creek and the other went from Riverside to the Bob Marshall Wilderness on the east side of the Hungry Horse Reservoir.

40 years ago

Nov. 22, 1984

Glen Carr was still missing, despite an extensive search. The hunter was in the No Name Creek area near Spotted Bear when he didn’t return to camp. Carr’s horse was found, but he was not.

30 years ago

Nov. 17, 1994

A small earthquake jarred the area. It was 3.5 on the Richter scale with an epicenter west of Kalispell. The 1959 earthquake that shook Montana and created Hebgen Lake on the Madison River was 7.5 on the Richter scale by comparison.

20 years ago

Nov. 18, 2004

Denise Cofer, the Republican candidate for Flathead County Commissioner, asked for a recount after Democrat Joe Brenneman beat her by 131 votes. She would still end up losing.

10 years ago

Nov. 19, 2014

A “hair trap” study of wolverines in Glacier National Park headed up by park biologist John Waller found that there were about 50 wolverines in the park’s 1 million acres. 

The wolverines were lured to stations with venison and then left hair in barbed wire behind. From the hair, biologists used DNA analysis and modeling to determine a population estimate.