Yesterdays: The nose knows when it comes to bears

70 years ago

July 27, 1956

Editor Mel Ruder rode a horse up to the Mount Brown Lookout and interviewed Dale Zorn and his wife. The pair were honeymooners and would spend the summer up there as fire lookouts in Glacier National Park.

60 years ago

July 29, 1966

Glacier National Park had a payroll  of about $1.286 million in ’65 and had 510 employees. In ’66 there were 316 seasonals and 61 permanent staff. The Park Service boosted employment in ’65 due to damage to trails and other infrastructure from the ’64 flood.

50 years ago

July 29, 1976

A plane that went missing in November was found in Glacier Park destroyed near Flinsch Peak and Young Man Lake. The plane was revealed after snow melted. Donald Donovan, the pilot and passenger Kathy See’s bodies were found. Donovan was about 70 feet below the fuselage and See about 75 yards above it, in 8 feet of snow.

40 years ago

July 30, 1986

Glacier National Park would clear the boundary path between the park and Canada. Superintendent Gil Lusk opposed the move, but the park did it anyway. Today there are even cameras and other sensing devices along the boundary, but no wall, at least not yet.

30 years ago

Aug. 1, 1996

Plum Creek’s fiberboard plant after a few upgrades and other work was booming; so much so that it was sold out of product until September, plant managers said. The facility continues to operate today.

20 years ago

July 27, 2006

A front page story extolled the virtues of the bear’s nose. Researcher and neurologist George Stevenson studied bear brains and surmised that not only could they smell things from miles away, but they could remember the smell and where it came from years later.

10 years ago

July 27, 2016

Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, signed the “Good Neighbor Authority” agreement that allowed states to assist the federal government with timber sales. The program is still used to great effect today to get sales completed.