Yesterdays

60 Years Ago

July 13, 1951

The Montana Highway Department began a study of the economic impact of Glacier National Park by surveying visitors as they left the Park at West Glacier, St. Mary, Many Glacier and Kennedy Creek near the Canadian border. The previous year's study concluded the Park brought about $10 million into the state.

Gertie, the female "bum" black bear often seen begging along Glacier Park's Going-to-the-Sun Road, lost one of her two cubs. Park naturalists were considering moving Gertie and her remaining blonde cub away from the highway.

50 Years Ago

July 14, 1961

In the first reported injury of the year in Glacier Park caused by a black bear, a young Canadian boy was clawed when he reached out of a car window toward a year-old cub. The boy's father kicked the cub away, but a nurse's hand was bitten by the bear when she tried to help the boy.

Tom Harrington, the observer at Glacier Park's Mount Brown lookout, reported watching a porcupine take on several mountain goats in a battle that ended when both sides found something else to do.

40 Years Ago

July 16, 1971

Three "bum" black bears were helicoptered from roadside and campground areas to Surprise Pass in Glacier Park.

The 125-pound sow, her 20-pound cub and a 90-pound two-year-old had been trapped by Park officials but returned to cause more trouble.

Snowcat grass drag races were scheduled for a site about 1 1/2 miles north of Columbia Falls with 220 yards of wet grass and 200 yards of shutdown area.

30 Years Ago

July 9, 1981

Dave Reynolds, of Martin City, used a brightly colored umbrella to ward off a charging grizzly bear sow while hiking with three companions up The Loop Trail in Glacier Park. When a girl from Bozeman couldn't get up a tree, Reynolds popped open the umbrella and hid behind it. The charging bear stopped, sniffed the umbrella and departed with her cubs. Reynolds said he was treed three times in the past.

The Flathead National Forest approved an oil exploration permit for Denver-based Mountain Geophysical. The company planned to set off 840 explosions in the North Fork from Thoma Creek south to Coal Ridge, which called for drilling 24 holes per mile, each 50 feet deep and packed with 30 pounds of dynamite and pea gravel.

20 Years Ago

July 11, 1991

Edith Roosevelt Derby Williams, the granddaughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, joined 300 other people at a rededication ceremony for the 180-ton obelisk at Marias Pass. The obelisk was installed in the center of U.S. 2 in August 1930 and moved out of the way in 1989.

10 Years Ago

July 12, 2001

The new Columbia Falls Junior High School was nearing completion. The $12 million facility included 30-plus acres. The building was divided by grades and featured larger classrooms, some up to 1,200 square feet.