Time Capsule: Polson college rents school, Polson wins speech meet, bass fishing praised

The Flathead Courier, May 12, 1966

School Board Authorizes Building Use by College

Polson school board members, on Monday night, unanimously approved a motion to allow Mission Mountain College to use school facilities for its five-week summer session, June 12 - July 15. The board instructed Supt. W. R. Anderson to confer with college representatives to determine what rental rate would be paid.

Anderson estimated that the amount would be between $300 and $500 for the period.

Requesting the facilities was Dr. Ralph Y. McGinnis, who will be the director of the summer session. He said there would be a need for a maximum of six classrooms; use of the gym; and use of the Lincoln auditorium for about eight of the public lecture programs.

He also said there would be a need for library space and that a local school librarian would be employed on a part-time basis by the college. Dr. McGinnis said it could be arranged to have the library open only during hours that the librarian is on duty.

He outlined some of the background of the college project for board members. He said directors of Western Montana Higher Education Council, Inc., decided last winter to incorporate. They waited until spring to do so because they wanted to decide on a location first. They considered a number of sites, including Kalispell, Columbia Falls and Hamilton.

Deciding upon Polson, the directors obtained options on a nearby two-mile stretch of land along the Skyline Drive area south of Polson.

Corporate papers were filed, the name of the college selected, areas of course offerings determined, and the decision was made to operate a summer session this year, offering a limited college academic program in 11 or 12 areas …

Polson Girls Do Well at Speech Meet

Two members of the Polson High School forensics club competed in the state speech meet at Bozeman. They were Sheila Gill and Laurel Williams, who advanced to state after placing in the district meet. They competed in oratorical declamation and serious declamation.

Miss Gill went through the semi-finals on the topic "How Great Can a Woman Be?" Miss Williams advanced to the finals with her selection, "The Diary of Anne Frank." She placed fourth in state.

Kremlin High School won first place in the Class B-C Sweepstakes. Polson took second.

At the awards banquet, Miss Polly Plank of Polson was awarded an $875 scholarship in drama to Eastern Montana College at Billings. A grant-in-aid was also presented to her in recognition of her outstanding work in drama over the past two years.

Area Bass Fishing Is Praised

Some of Western Montana's lakes actually need more bass anglers to harvest the abundant supply of fish in them.

This is the theme of a feature article in the May issue of a national outdoors magazine (Field & Stream).

"Montana's Ignored Game Fish" by Pete Czura is the result of a Montana Chamber of Commerce-sponsored trip by Czura through the Big Sky Country in cooperation with the Montana Fish and Game Department.

Getting special attention is a vast area bounded by Thompson Lakes on the west, Hungry Horse Reservoir on the East, the Polson-Ronan country on the south and Kalispell on the north.

Czura tells of his experiences fishing with Bill Marquardt of Kalispell and Bill Browning, Montana Chamber travel and promotion manager. Delano Hanzel, fisheries manager at Kalispell, is an authority on the statement about the need for more bass fishing.