Yesterdays: Tunneling under Elk Mountain
Hungry Horse News | UPDATED 22 hours, 22 minutes AGO
The 1923 Talbott School annex looms over the grade school that was built from 1953-55 to accommodate school kids during the construction of the Hungry Horse dam. The new school was largely federally funded. Both schools, near Fourth Avenue West, have been torn down.
70 years ago
March 30, 1956
Columbia Falls had a new library. It used to be the Foley Construction office at the Anaconda Aluminum Co. plant and was then moved to land owned by School District 6. Volunteers contributed about 1,200 hours of labor to remodel the interior.
60 years ago
April 1, 1966
The Great Northern mainline would tunnel under Elk Mountain in the Kootenai National Forest for 7 miles as part of the relocation of the vital rail line due to construction of the Libby Dam. It was expected to cost $60 million and be one of the top projects in the U.S.
50 years ago
April 1, 1976
The Rainbow Family, a group of thousands of hippies still had its sights set on Montana for its summer gathering. The Kootenai National Forest was the latest federal agency to tell them they couldn’t gather on its lands. Glacier National Park had already rejected their gathering, which they estimated would be 15,000 or so people.
40 years ago
April 2, 1986
Chevron had ceased exploratory drilling on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation for oil. The well rig was near St. Mary, about 1 mile from Glacier National Park. The company declined to say whether the well panned out.
30 years ago
April 4, 1996
Stacey Lee, a Columbia Falls man, lost most of his leg after his rig slid down Talbott Road into a train after the truck he was driving slid on the ice into the trail, which was going through the crossing. The crossing did not have arms. Two passengers were uninjured.
20 years ago
March 30, 2006
The threat of a coal mines in the Canada Flathead was still very real. The Cline Mining Corp. was planning to mine coal in the headwaters of the North Fork of the Flathead.
10 years ago
March 30, 2016
The Blackfeet were hoping to eventually return wild bison back to Glacier National Park. The bison came from Elk Island Park near Edmonton and were descendants of a Montana herd from years before.