Yesterdays: Dog survives avalanche
Working on the cabins at Swiftcurrent in Many Glacier in March, 1955. (Mel Ruder photo)
70 years ago
April 1, 1955
The first hourly employees started work at the Anaconda Aluminum Co. plant. They worked on the new boiler-compressor. One of the first men was Frederick A. Bickle, 31. Other workers were expected to come online in mid-April at the paste plant, where coal, coke and pitch were combined to make potliner, the story noted.
60 years ago
April 2, 1965
Glacier National Park plow crews were at Avalanche Campground and were encountering record snow depths. The previous year there was 32 inches of snow, this year 56 inches.
50 years ago
April 4, 1975
Glacier National Park was looking to update its grizzly bear management plan, with particular emphasis on backcountry campsites and their relation to bears and bear habitat. The Park Service had already made it a federal offense to feed bears and it had its garbage secured from grizzlies, so they were no longer feeding at dumps like they had in the 1960s.
40 years ago
April 4, 1985
The Montana Department of Transportation announced it was going ahead with plans to improve about 10.9 miles of Highway 2 from Hungry Horse to West Glacier. An environmental group was challenging the plans, which included widening the road, changing its alignment and putting in passing lanes.
30 years ago
April 6, 1995
City council decided to continue to call the city’s mayor the “mayor” after the city changed to the city manager form of government a couple years prior. The mayor was just a figurehead and the goal was to change the title to “chairman” of the council. But the majority of counselors wanted to keep the title, so it stuck.
20 years ago
April 7, 2005
Attorney Jim Cossitt’s dog survived an avalanche. The dog was with Cossitt skiing on Flattop Mountain near Marias Pass when a cornice broke off and the dog went with it. The mutt somehow survived unscathed, even though it tumbled into the snow, which broke trees as it roared down the mountain.
10 years ago
April 1, 2015
Plum Creek announced it would invest about $10 million in its plants in Northwest Montana, including $6 million in the MDF plant in Columbia Falls.