Time Capsule: From the archives of local weeklies
Lake County Leader | UPDATED 1 day, 3 hours AGO
The Flathead Courier, December 4, 1958
Excess Bison Kill Started
Annual slaughter of excess bison started Monday at the National Bison Range headquarters at Moiese. As has been the case for a number of years, Henry Helgeson, Missoula butcher, is in charge of the herd reduction.
Sixty bison will be taken in the reduction program this year, Helgeson said. The work will continue through the week.
Helgeson will have killed a total of 3,543 bison when he completes the butchering program now under way.
The herd is reduced each year to carrying capacity of the range, here being a calf crop each season to bring numbers beyond the desired load.
Slight Drop In NP Freight Haul
Northern Pacific freight traffic handled through the Missoula yards of the railway showed a slight drop in November from the same month of 1957, division officials said.
Total for the past month was 54,855 freight cars here.
In November last year it was 5,368 freight cars.
End of phosphate ore loading and completion of the beet harvest were factors in the slight reduction of traffic handled. There was considerable loading of Christmas trees in the region during the past month.
Freight car movement was 2,364 car less in November than in October, one of the heaviest months on the system as to freight traffic.
Montana Power Pays $194,340 County Taxes
The Montana Power Company has mailed checks totalling $194,340 to Lake County Treasurer C. W. Reynolds as the first-half payment of 1958 property taxes.
The checks are part of the company’s record $4,070,521 Montana property tax bill for 1958, according to Emmett F. Buckley, manager of the firm;s tax department. Montana Power operates in 41 counties. The state’s schools receive more than 60 percent of the property taxes the company pays, Buckley said.
The first-half payment to Lake County was made in two checks, one in the amount of $190,562, on which the company is making no protest, and the other for $3,778, which is being paid under protest:
Buckley said the company objects to what it believes to be an excessive assessment by the State Board of Equalization on inter-company properties. Montana Power contends this assessment is in error and has brought suits to recover the taxes based on this portion of the assessment.
“We are not protesting the assessments made by county assessors. It is only part of the state board’s assessment that we believe is in error,” Buckley said.