Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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Most of my 12.438 readers know that I have been a trucker in a past life. Up until my retirement in February 2000 I had set a tire on every foot of United States Interstate save I-4 which diagonals across Florida, and assorted bypass routes. In my nearly 2.5 million miles I never received a moving violation. That’s not to say that maybe sometimes I warranted a speeding ticket but I managed to dodge the bullet on a couple occasions. One of those times was in Nevada on I-80 coming off Golgonda Summit which is a pretty straight 6% grade of m...
The Fourth of July will soon be here. Do you remember how you used to celebrate this holiday? You may even remember when it wasn’t a three-day holiday. My thoughts turn to fireworks. Remember when fireworks were done on an island in Fort Peck Lake? You may remember the bumper-to-bumper traffic returning home from the night’s entertainment. That might have been before camping at the lake was so common. There may still be a lot of you that never spent the night camping at Fort Peck or the Pines unless you attended a summer camp there. You may rem...
I wanted to share some information on the Gregg Gianforte “Bring Our Families Back” tour that was held at the Cottonwood on June 11, 2015. Gregg and his wife Susan visited with us and we found them to be very informative. They have many ideas on how rural Montana cities and towns could see many Montana folks moving back to their roots and still holding high paying jobs by telecommuting. Gianforte and his wife Susan have called Bozeman home since 1995. They are parents to three boys and a girl and fully understand the concern parents have when t...
There is something about songbirds this time of year that can catch the ear, eye and heart of even the most preoccupied person. It doesn’t matter where: mountain tops, middle of the prairie, downtown, uptown. It doesn’t matter what you call them: tweety birds, little brown jobs, neotropical migrants. Songbirds are nesting, raising young and – at least the males – singing their blessed little hearts out. Sure a dedicated birder with keen hearing can tell the difference between the songs of a savannah sparrow and vesper sparrow. Or with a quick...
This column originally ran Jan. 1, 2014. We are reprinting it due to its author's recent Second-Place honor for Best Column Writing at the 2015 Montana Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contest. I thought I’d better get this off my chest while I still have a chest to get it off of. (Off of which to get it? … From which to get it off? … Forget it, I am what I am.) See, here’s what happened over Christmas. I was sitting in my recliner, reclining watching football when I had an attack of “heartburn” or acid reflux as those in the know at th...
Do you remember highways from previous days? Of course a lot of them, or maybe I should say all of them, no doubt started out as gravel roads and as traffic and funds allowed, roads were paved, but what I notice as I drive our present highways is the changes made over the years. Of course the width of even our two lanes is much greater than past generations drove, but what interests me are the changes made in the layout of the roads of the past. If you observe, you will notice the grades and bridge abutments of previous roads. I am sure that...
City workers fill potholes downtown just before 5 a.m. on Friday, June 12. Street Foreman Karl Krause assured attendees at the June 15 City Council meeting that road crews are hard at work despite intermittently inclement weather conditions and a long list of damaged streets to patch up....
This column originally ran Aug. 27, 2014. We are reprinting it due to its author's recent win for Best Column Writing at the 2015 Montana Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contest. In church last Sunday, I felt a very light touch on the back of my hair. Wondering what was touching my hair, I suddenly realized it was my almost 3-year-old granddaughter, who was ever so carefully using one tiny finger to gently go from about the middle of my hair to the end of the strands. And then I smiled as I heard her whisper to her mother, "Mom, I...
It was a good week for us here at the Courier, at least when it comes to wins and placement in the Montana Newspaper Association's Better Newspaper Contest Awards for 2015. Our own Sandy Laumeyer took First Place in the Column Writing category. Her submission was titled "The Touch of a Hand." Congratulations, Sandy! The Courier also took Second Place for Best Newspaper Promotional Ad for a selection from our popular special section, "Hi-Line Farm & Ranch." Second Place for Best Sports Story went to former publisher Jim Orr for his entry, "The...
I live in Fort Peck, but I spend much of my time in Billings. Because of that, I didn't read last week's Courier until Sunday. I was very disappointed in the review of Krakauer's book. Although DK Holm's level of detail indicates that he actually read the book, somehow he missed Krakauer's overall message, which is that rape is on college campuses is commonplace and handled poorly by the justice system. Just reading the book jacket makes it clear that what happened in Missoula is representative of a "national plague of campus rape." Holm's...
Branding of the current year calf crop has been finished by a lot of our rancher friends. Who remembers the days of a wood fire for the purpose of heating branding irons? I know that many of us have seen an occasional branding using a wood fire, but have you ever wondered about the early day brandings, and just where the wood for these branding fires came from? Sometimes, in the eastern part of our state, we can drive for miles without seeing a tree so it is pretty certain that preparing for those early day brandings must have included wood...
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The time is rapidly approaching when the US Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has to do something or get-off-the-pot concerning listing the greater sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). However, a reprieve may be in the making as Congress debates a bill that would postpone listing for another 10 years. I would bet the Service and their supporters are quietly lobbying hard for passage of this bill since it not only lets them off the hook (I will try to explain why this is...
Had a great idea last week. Or rather, Facebook tipped me off to a great idea. There are a lot of potholes around the place generally and someone shared a pic of a flower that had been planted in what appeared to be one of the many road gashes here in town. I loved the idea for the paper and thought I’d loop the city into my scheme by encouraging them to fill one pothole per week for an ongoing series sponsored by Glasgow Flower and Gift. I got our sponsor on board (thanks, GFG!), sent a reporter to place a daisy in a local pothole. She took a...
Virgil, Good piece on children and how they learn to speak! YES!! It all starts at home – the parents or guardians are responsible. If your kids didn’t learn it til after they started school or daycare, you can put the blame on the parents or guardians of the kids in your child’s class or daycare. It’s sad, very sad, that parents have such low self esteem and disrespect for their children. Disrespect for other people all together! If I hear someone speaking with profanity around children, I will confront them. But really, do they even care?!...
Beautiful, harsh, breathtaking, difficult, inspiring. What do these words describe? The prairie. With the arrival of spring, bright yellow sweet peas begin to open their petals to the sun, followed by bluebells covering the prairie with beauty and color. Not long behind, the cactus starts flowering, adding their brilliant colors to the palette. An abundance of life can be found on the prairie. Throughout the day and into the night you can hear one symphony after another. Life on the prairie presents challenges that take courage and strength to...
The place was Kingman, Arizona, U.S.A. I was coming out of the Petro Truck Stop about five miles east of Kingman one evening when a moth dive-bombed directly into my ear. Now, Grannie always said, “You’ll go crazy if a moth flies into your ear.” I always thought phshaw to that until I had it happen to my ear. The bug fluttered a bit, stopped, waited a few seconds or so and fluttered again, stopped ... fluttered ... stopped ... fluttered. If this goes on for 30 to 40 minutes your whole body tenses up waiting for the next flutter. It CAN make...
The Valley County Refuse District #1 is made up of eight citizens, representing two from Glasgow, one from Opheim, one from Nashua, one from Fort Peck, one from Hinsdale, one from Lustre and one county commissioner. Meetings are the third Tuesday of every month, at the Valley County Courthouse in the community room. They start at 5 p.m. and are open to the public. The 2015 board members of the Valley County Refuse Board are Dan Carney (chairman), Dan Durell (Glasgow representative), Glen Guenther (vice chairman and Fort Peck representative),...
Glasgow Mayor Becky Erickson invited me to lunch at Sam’s Supper Club for an informal chat May 28. The setting for our meeting clued me in to the fact that I could leave my notebook at the office, as I tend to do when meeting potential subjects of my own reporting on a friendly level around town. I didn’t expect the full court press on stories for the paper, in other words, and I didn’t get it. Erickson’s main concern was personal: “I hope you aren’t finding it difficult to make friends and meet people,” she asked, kindly, during what we both...
I am a local to Glasgow, Montana and am currently a senior attending the University of Montana working toward a Major is Art Education. I plan on teaching at the Secondary level. With teaching art it is very difficult for me to choose one medium that I focus in because I have to be well rounded in all art mediums. Therefore I enjoy working will various mediums, however, my personal bodies of work currently have revolved around ceramic pieces. Most of my work is experimentation with creating...
Last week Tom Brokaw appeared on the Dr. Oz show to talk about his cancer diagnosis. Because of prior commitments, I missed seeing it. I’m sure it was a very moving interview, as Brokaw is a master of words. As a cancer survivor since 2010, and now once again fighting it, I decided to put to paper some of my thoughts about having cancer. Cancer is an ugly word and an ugly disease. Not only does it destroy one’s body physically, it can also destroy a person emotionally, mentally, spiritually and their family as well. It can take away all hop...
What do you consider to be the most endangered species in America? Could it be the number one topic of the day: the American Bison? Or, could it possibly be the Gray Wolf, the Sage Hen, Whooping Crane, Black-Footed Ferret, Pallid Sturgeon or the Sprague’s Pipit. And what about the Side-Hill Gouger and the Jackalope? (Very rarely seen these days and nearing extinction much like the T-Rex) There are 104 species of fish listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) along with 29 species of snails. At last count there were 63 mammals listed as bein...
It has been a crazy spring but a lot of you have your gardens planted already. Do you remember what a chore planting a garden was? Some people were lucky enough to have a horse that pulled a walking plow to work the ground for planting. Others had to spade the garden with a shovel (spade). I remember my mom hiring a couple of young neighbor boys to spade our garden, but at the time we lived in town so maybe using a walking plow pulled by a horse was not an option. Never having to do much more than experiment with either method, I can’t say that...
FWP Information and Education Program Manager for Region 6 Marc Kloker (left) and Lakeridge Motel and Tackle owner Gene Moore will provide expertise and insights into area fishing beginning next week. Our own novice sportsman James Walling will write the regular feature with their assistance. Look for it in the sports section....
Our controversial contributor Virgil Vaupel is well known for his curmudgeonly tales spiced with vitriolic viewpoints. I've been here less than a month and there is much we disagree about already. You'll read plenty about that in columns to come. Since he sounds off this week on a subject about which we largely agree (shocker!), I'm taking the opportunity to talk about how much I admire the guy. During a recent lunch at the Cottonwood, Mr. Vaupel raised the bar on my estimation of his talents. For starters, he introduced me to a journalism...
