Yesterdays: Tourist industry jobs ten years ago paid about $10 an hour

70 years ago

April 27, 1956

Gordon Construction started working on the new Anaconda Aluminum Co. employee Club. The large building is now Columbia Falls City Hall, but at the time, it included a host of amenities, such as a six-lane bowling alley.

60 years ago

April 29, 1966

The new B&B was the Flathead’s largest food store at the time, at 28,900 square feet. Mel Lane was the store’s first manager. The store is still located on Nucleus Avenue.

50 years ago

April 29, 1976

Divorces in the Flathead had soared from about four marriages to every divorce to one marriage for every divorce. A study found that 50% of divorces had a spouse that was 19 or less when they married.

40 years ago

April 30, 1986

Glacier National Park has been the site for several suicides over the years. On this date, man drove his car to Packer’s Roost off the Going-to-the-Sun Road, hooked a hose to his tailpipe and ran it into the cab, gassing himself.

30 years ago

May 2, 1996

Counties in Montana at the time endorsed a statewide 4% sales tax that would almost replace most of the property tax in the state. Skip Hanson, of Hanson Trucking, was named Montana’s small businessman of the year.

20 years ago

April 27, 2006

Sandry Construction was awarded a contract to repair a slump on the Going-to-the-Sun Road near the East Side Tunnel. The contract was about $2.46 million. The big contract to overhaul the entire road though, would later to go HK Construction of Idaho, which caused a big stir amongst Montana contractors. 

10 years ago

April 27, 2016

A study found that Glacier National Park visitors spent millions in the local economy, but the jobs they created weren’t high paying. A lot of jobs were in hotels and other service industry and paid just $10 an hour.