Yesterdays: New Highway 2 completed through Columbia Falls

70 years ago

Oct. 15, 1954

Eight hundred new telephone books were to be mailed out. That was double from just a couple of years prior. Today telephone books are a relic, though still used by some businesses and individuals who still have landline phones.

60 years ago

Oct. 16, 1964

A group effort restored the old Shay steam locomotive at Depot Park at the end of Nucleus Avenue. At the time the steam engine was 60 years old. It’s still there today and groups still take care of it. A church group most recently gave it a coat of paint. The Shay was used in logging operations in the Swan Valley about 1914.

50 years ago

Oct. 18, 1974

The United States had formally raised issues about pollution from a proposed strip coal mine up Cabin Creek in British Columbia, Canada in the headwaters of the North Fork of the Flathead. It would be the first in a decades-long battle against mining in the drainage.

40 years ago

Oct. 18, 1984

Gov. Ted Schwinden and Columbia Falls Mayor Colleen Allison swung a ceremonial ax through a birch log to mark the opening of the new U.S. Highway 2 through Columbia Falls. It’s the same layout the road has today. The log was a nod to the town’s timber heritage.

30 years ago

Oct. 13, 1994

Drag racing snowmobiles on grass was a big thing in Columbia Falls. The races drew 1,000 fans.

20 years ago

Oct. 21, 2004

Thomas Parkhill, a 1997 graduate of Columbia Falls, was named one of the “50 hottest bachelors” in the U.S. by Cosmopolitan Magazine. The magazine featured a shirtless picture of him in a pair of jeans.

10 years ago

Oct. 15, 2014

The Columbia Falls football team downed Frenchtown 41-0 to go to 5-1 on the season. The Wildcats would lose to Hamilton 27-21 in the first round of the playoffs that season.