Montana Album: Elks Lodge building plans; preventable flooding
50 Years Ago
From the Tribune week of Feb. 14, 1966
Proposed revision of Great Falls Elks Lodge building plans, including construction of a new facility in downtown Great Falls coupled with return of the 40-acre riverside park property to city control is indicated. The change in thinking is reflected in a notice mailed to the more than 3,000 members of Great Falls Lodge 214 that says the lodge members will vote on the question of acquiring three lots currently occupied by a Phillips Oil Co. station and related facilities at the corner of First Avenue South and Fifth Street. Such purchase, the notice indicates, is contingent on the Elks disposal of its riverside property.
WASHINGTON – Grazing fees on public domain lands in 10 Western states will go up 3 cents per animal unit month this year, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced Saturday. Udall said a routine adjustment under the formula in effect since 1963 resulted in an increase of the fee for the 1966 grazing season to 33 cents per animal unit month.
If conditions at the Cascade County Courthouse on Tuesday were any reflection of the total Montana situation, some state motorists technically became law violators today. The deadline to have 1966 license tabs on the front and rear of all vehicles was midnight Tuesday, and Montana highway patrolmen were to begin enforcement on the state’s highways at that time. In the city of Great Falls, police are not expected to begin issuing citations until March 1.
NEW YORK – Doting parents and well-paying jobs are showering money on millions of American teenagers. The nation’s 24 million teenagers have an estimated $15 billion a year to spend. That works out to $625 apiece — $30 more than the per capita national income in 1940. A nationwide Associated Press survey of teenagers’ income found allowances ranging from $1 to $20 a week. Girls’ allowances and jobs are estimated to provide an average of $11 a week while boys have more to spend, padding their allowances with jobs after school and on weekends.
When Cascade and Simms get together on a basketball court, particularly during tournament time, there’s no telling what will happen. And it happened again Saturday night in the Great Falls High School gym when the out-manned, but not outfought, Simms Tigers battled through three overtime periods to put down the heavily favored Cascade Badgers 74-73 in the title game of the Class C District 12 basketball tournament.
100 Years Ago
From the Tribune week of Feb. 14, 1916
Following the rapid melting of the snow on Monday night and early yesterday, Great Falls experienced such floods as it had never been forced to contend with before and which, but for the lack of adequate storm sewers on the south side of the city, would have caused little, if any, damage. As it was, many basements were flooded, some people were forced to abandon their homes in the flooded district, the new Emerson school was compelled to suspend its sessions because of the flooding of the boiler rooms of the heating plant and many people were forced to walk two or three miles to get to their houses.
Ed Pierce of the Haynes Motor company, distributor of the “Light Six,” reports, “The average owner uses a car for three years and then replaces it with a more modern type. Sold once, the adventures and wanderings of a soundly built motor car have just begun, and nothing short of a professional soothsayer could approach foretelling the future. One of the most unique letters that the Haynes company has received came from an Ohio owner who bought his car second-hand but has kept it in his possession for more than 10 years. A second letter of unusual interest came from an Arizona prospector who was using his Haynes as an iron mule in prospecting through the southwestern deserts. Lately, the machine has been converted into a grocery delivery wagon.”
FORT BENTON – Fort Benton and surrounding country is all excitement because the first grasshopper has been found, a sure sign in that section of the early arrival of real spring weather. Oscar Johnson on Thursday captured the hopper which was found headed toward the Missouri river from the south and believed to be the advance guard of a large army of hoppers, sent ahead to look for a ford for the crossing of his army. He was captured without trouble.
By action taken yesterday by the board of county commissioners, Miss Mary Hansen was made a full-fledged deputy sheriff instead of a half-deputy as she has been since her appointment. Heretofore, Miss Hansen has been receiving but $50 from the county in payment for her services in connection with the sheriff’s department. Yesterday, upon the representations of Sheriff J.H. Kommers and his report of the excellent work performed by Miss Hansen, the board authorized the sheriff hereafter to carry her upon the payrolls at the rate of $100 per month.
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