Yesterday's Memories

10 Years Ago:

Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, in collaboration with Carroll College and Montana State University, has confirmed this season's first signs of West Nile Virus-positive mosquitos in Phillips, Sheridan, Blaine, Cascade, Prairie and Teton counties. In addition, an American White Pelican near the Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Sheridan County tested positive for West Nile Virus (WNV). No case of human infection has been reported in Montana, but 174 cases of WNV have been reported to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention from other states. The highest rates reported this year have been in North and South Dakota.

Silver Airlines' Essential Air Service contract for five eastern Montana cities will expire on Sept. 27, but residents will not be grounded while the new carrier, Cape Air; gets organized. "It's not like the airline is going to up and leave on that specific date if there's not another airline," said Steve Bennett, a spokesman for Silver Airlines. "We are acting in good faith. We care about the community." Bennett contacted The Courier on Tuesday after being informed about a Courier article published July 31, which announced the choice of Cape Air as the new EAS provider and stated that Silver Airline would leave Sept. 27. "We want to make sure your readers don't think that come the end of September, they'll be out of luck," Bennett said.

A touch of yesteryear will be on display at Saco Fun Days this year when Terry Korman, who lives near the Bjornberg bridge northeast of Saco, operates a restored cross-cut saw dating back to the 1850s, powered by a team of horses. The demonstration will take place Saturday, Aug. 31, at approximately 1:30 p.m. just north of the Big Dome Hotel and will last for a half-an-hour. "I don't want to make the horses stand out there too long in this heat," Korman said. The saw originally belonged to Korman's grandfather.

BNSF Railway Company (BNSF) plans to invest an estimated $115 million on maintenance and rail capacity expansion projects in Montana this year, a significant amount of it along the Hi-Line. BNSF will expand capacity in Montana by constructing three new unit train staging tracks about three miles east of Glasgow and will enhance safety by adding machine vision technology at Miles City to help detect damaged equipment. BNSF will also continue its robust track maintenance program in Montana, which will include more than 2,300 miles of track surfacing and undercutting work, the replacement of nearly 100 miles of rail and about 310,000 ties, as well as significant signal upgrades for federally mandated positive train control.

Mostly the same faces but a new name and colors have been added to the list of teams for the upcoming District 1C volleyball season. The team formally known as the Saco/Hinsdale Panthers has now become, by virtue of a team vote, the Hinsdale/Saco Wildfire. Second year head coach Kathy Siroky will remain at the helm with April Wills assisting and taking charge of the JV.

A dangerous chokepoint that migrating antelope encountered each year just west of Nashua now has one less hazard the animals will have to contend with. Old woven-wire and barbed wire fencing strung for about a mile along U.S. Highway 2 has long served as a potential barrier for pronghorn and other wildlife trying to cross the lousy road and get over an adjacent set of Burlington Northern-Santa Fe train tracks. In fact, ground on both sides of the old fence – which was removed by a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 6 crew and others on Aug. 11 and 12 – is littered with skulls and skeletons of all sizes of antelope that didn't make it through the man-made gauntlet. Instead of jumping fences, most pronghorn prefer to go under them whenever they can. But that's not possible with sheep-style fencing that has heavy-gauge wire panels right to the ground.

25 Years Ago:

Thursday, Aug. 20, 1998

Despite the effort of 23 volunteers using all of the city's fire fighting equipment in a nine-hour battle, firefighters were unable to save the Rustic Lodge in Glasgow Friday afternoon. The business, with a market value of $135,655, according to the Valley County Assessor's Office, was considered destroyed in the fire. Only the manager's quarters escaped extreme damage, suffering mostly smoke and water damage.

St. Marie residents are seeing definite signs of change in the tiny retirement community north of Glasgow. One of the more obvious changes has been the departure of Terry Parks and the sale of Valley Park Inc. (VPI) holdings to Quantum Inc. of Montana. Quantum has purchased 450 of the 500 units held by the bankrupt BPI under an agreement with BRH Inc. and is now the debtor in possession. Another 100 units previously held by BRH were sold to an individual but the 50 units left should be picked up by Quantum as well.

The continuing fascination with dinosaurs and the fame of last year's local Tyrannosaurus-Rex discovery drew more than 750 visitors to the Fort Peck field station open house on Sunday. The former Western Area Power Administration warehouse has been thoroughly renovated into a modern preparation facility with an extensive security system and a vault to protect the valuable finds. Chunks of hillside the size of refrigerators have been encased in plaster and hauled here to be opened meticulously, picked apart for the precious relics encased within. Pneumatic air scribes whirred like dentist's drills as patient volunteers carefully removed the rock and dirt from the fossil surfaces.

With over 120,000 anxious hunters waiting by their mailboxes to find out if they were successful in drawing special antelope, elk or deer licenses or permits through this year's annual drawings, Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials have announced that technological advances are now allowing FWP to be even more responsive to customer needs and to provider information in as many easily accessible forms as possible.

50 Years Ago:

Thursday, Aug. 16, 1973

Walter Lanz of Save-A-Mile Grocery of Glasgow Air Force Base paid a record-shattering $2 a pound for Bennie Boreson's Cross-bred Grand Champion Steer at the Fat Beef Sale highlighting the final day for the Northeast Montana State Fair in Glasgow. The Tampico-raised steer weighed an even 1,300 pounds, bringing the total price for the animal on-the-hoof to what may be a state-wide record of $2,600. Lanz said the animal will be sold over his meat counter next week to celebrate his first anniversary at GAFB.

The City of Glasgow anticipates calling for bids on a $200,000 project to convert the flood-plagued sewer lagoon to a more modern, smaller and aerated lagoon. A year-and-a-half in the paper-mill, Mayor Jim Christinsen learned last week that sufficient federal EPA funds are available for the project and that Glasgow sits second on the priority list of the State Health Department.

The Montana wheat farmer at last is coming into his own, with prices skyrocketing, with a good crop for the most part, and with demand for all kinds of grain apparently going to continue into the foreseeable future. It is a dramatic turnaround from the days when the wheat supply was so large that growers had to pile it on the ground because there was no room in the elevators, when the market was under a dollar a bushel, and when the government sponsored reduction in acreage by paying the farmer to let part of his land lie fallow.

A group of young men and women wearing costumes reminiscent of the 50's invaded several stores here with their crazy antics last week. Members of the Fort Peck Summer Theatre were completing the final segments of a new motion picture, "The Isle of Forgotten Dreams," to premiere this weekend. "We began shooting in June, shortly after we arrived for the season," said Neal Lewing, director of the film, "and I can safely say this picture has a little something for everyone." The film, dealing mainly with various types of movieland nostalgia, was filmed entirely in Fort Peck and Glasgow.

Twenty-eight boys and girls, 15 years of age and younger competed in the 4th annual recreation golf tournament Monday at the Sunnyside golf course, sponsored by Bryon Tressler and Joe Svien. Excellent golf was shot by these youngsters and improvement in the fundamentals of this sport is indicated by the scores turned in. In the 15 and under group a battle developed between Jeff Secor and Mark Hunter, both coming in with identical 52 9-holes totals. Secor was declared the champion in an extra hole playoff. In the girls division, 15-year-old Judy Barnhart played excellent golf, carding a 59 for nine holes with Jan Tressler placing second.

75 Years Ago:

Thursday, Aug. 19, 1948

The Valley County fair closed Thursday night with new records in attendance, gate receipts and entries, according to a compilation completed by Secretary Steve Urs. Gate admission for the three days reached a total of 6,890, not including children under 14 who were admitted without charge the first day. Including this figure would bring the total to more than 7,000, Mr. Urs said.

Glasgow Veterans of Foreign Wars baseballers turned in one for the record book, when they achieved a no-hit, no-run game to defeat Scobey, 8 to 0, in a contest at the fairgrounds Sunday afternoon. Although the game was scheduled on short notice, it drew a large attendance. Felling, hurling for the Vets, turned in 12 strikeouts for a superb exhibition, while support by teammates helped make the record. The visitors showed lack of practice, but had a good pitcher in Nelson.

Clifford Doke, with a high 1,080 out of a possible 1,200, took first place in the Future Farmers of America judging contest, one feature of the Valley County Fair last week. Second among the 15 competitors was was Glenn Dix, with 965, while Dick Lamphier, was a close third, with 940.

News of record-breaking harvest figures in southern Valley County this week were marred by reports of severe losses for a number of localities in the northern portion that were swept by wind and hailstorms. With a flood of heavy spring wheat hitting the local elevators, most of them were "plugged" several times this week. First few days of the harvest saw an ample supply of grain cars, but the supply dwindles and by Tuesday night most elevators in Glasgow were not accepting grain.

When the thermometer reached 107 here Wednesday it wasn't the hottest in the country but it was a high of the year in Glasgow, the Glasgow weather bureau station reported. The summary for the past week shows maximums ranging from 90 to 107, while lows ran from 60 to 67. Wednesday's figure was the highest August temperature since 1926 and the highest since July, 1947. "Cooler" was the forecast for Friday.