Independently owned since 1905
Independently owned since 1905
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The Clark Fork Soccer Alliance had a great start to its fall season with both local teams chalking up home victories. The boys U19 team defeated the Stevensville Yellowjackets 2-0 at Amundson Sports Complex last Tuesday afternoon. "For our first full game I was encouraged by our ability to move the ball as a team as this usually takes time to develop," said Thompson Falls resident Josh Allday, the team's head coach. The Clark Fork Soccer Alliance boys and girls had games scheduled a week...
The Plains Beautification Committee is looking forward to having another successful cleanup day, which will take place Saturday. This will be the first Fall Cleanup Day conducted by town volunteers. The Spring Cleanup Day was such a success that organizers decided to hold one in the spring and one in the fall each year. Committee member Garrett Boon said they have about a dozen volunteers and around 15 projects, but they welcome more of each. “We are actively going door to door looking for more volunteers and projects,” said Boon. The big dif...
There's no way to tell how many people attended the Sanders County Fair, since it's one of the few free admission fairs in the state, but it was wall to wall people Saturday and Sunday. "It's just been wonderful," said Randy Woods, chairman of the Sanders County Fair Commission, who roamed the fairgrounds throughout the week. He wasn't sure how Sunday would pan out after heavy rains hit early in the morning, but once it cleared, people showed up in droves. Woods said they might have had record...
The Sanders County Fair gets revenue from people camping, renting the grounds and buildings, vendors and taxes, but there's also a group of people whose sole purpose is to help monetarily with the fairgrounds, and last week they were back in action in an effort to make the fairgrounds a better place. The Sanders County Fair Foundation, a nonprofit organization that began a dozen years ago, was kept busy running the beer garden for the four-day fair. At last year's fair, the foundation sales...
It was a busy time for poultry barn superintendent Whitney Tanner-Spurr, who had to deal with some 80 birds, including chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, pheasants and 26 newborn chicks as of Saturday afternoon. Gordon Cummings of Ronan was once again the poultry judge, as he has been for the last 17 years. Cummings did things a bit differently this year. He first conducted the poultry interviews for the two seniors and six juniors. Each of the seven girls and one boy took Cummings to his or her...
There were only four competitors in the sheep contest - one senior and three juniors - yet it took more than an hour to get through the showmanship, meat and breeding competitions. Hannah Warnes of the South Side Sparks took the grand champion in the senior division. In the junior class, Ayla Rehbein of the South Side Sparks nabbed grand champion with June while Kyla Warnes took the reserve with SpongeBob. Contestants also included John McNamara and Moriah Champneys, both of the Plains club....
Pigs once again dominated the animal kingdom of the 4-H fair with six groups and nearly 40 swine in the barn. After some two hours of judging and in front of a crowd of more than 75 people, Mikiah Cook of the South Side Sparks nabbed the coveted grand champion ribbon in the senior category, followed by Josie Uski of the Hot Springs Future Farmers of America (FFA) taking the reserve champion. The swine competition was divided into three classes, but with a high number of pigs, each class was...
Doug Horner of Noxon said the rabbit barn was full this year with 29 rabbits, including seven from 4-H, but his biggest thrill this year might have been that his daughter, Brianna Horner of the Trout Creek Mavericks took grand champion ribbons in the meat class with Twix and overall with KitKat. The seven 4-H contestants were all juniors this year, including Brianna, who showed Comanche, and will compete in the senior division next year. There was also only one boy, Andrew Frank, of the...
There were only two competitors in the 4-H goat showing this year - Brielle Clarke of the Hot Springs Wranglers and Isabella Buchanan of the Whitepine Happy Workers. Both girls took home grand champion ribbons, Buchanan in the senior division with Nigerian dwarf Daisy, and Clarke with Marley, an Alpine sable. Buchanan took grand champion in the meat class and Clarke the reserve champion. Hannah Booth, who had raised goats for several years and showed them as a 4-H member in California, served...
"Good boy, good boy, good boy," Josh Ekberg of the Whitepine Happy Workers kept telling "Hank" his polled Hereford during the 4-H junior showmanship beef competition at the Sanders County Fair Saturday morning. Judge Chad Booth even pointed out to the crowd how pleased he was that the 14-year-old was talking with his animal during the competition, which got him a blue ribbon. Ekberg was one of seven in the junior competition and one of 21 to take their 4-H steer intothe arena, which included 14...
The annual veteran suicide awareness display is up, growing and changing, a testament to it being a "living display," said Ed Foste, who started the program six years ago to bring awareness to the suicide problem of military veterans. Foste, a Navy veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) set up the display of a kneeling military man and woman silhouettes, a cross and a tattered Green Star flag, which specifically using the shabby looking American flag to illustrate a...
The fairgrounds was a busy place the Saturday before the fair with nearly 200 kids and adults sprucing up the place in preparation for the big annual event. It was Fair Readiness Day as the 4-H clubs of Sanders County got their barns and the pavilion ready for show time. More than 75 4-H kids, along with over 50 parents, 4-H leaders and barn superintendents, spent Saturday cleaning the facilities, inside and out. They filled the animals' stalls with wood shavings and did minor repairs on stalls...
by Ed Moreth The Plains Horsemen hadn't won a football game in two years. It looked like that might change at Friday night's game with a tie score for most of the first half and the Horsemen holding their own, but in the end, the Mission Bulldogs pulled off a 34-6 victory in the first contest of the season. The Plains boys would have had two touchdowns in the second quarter and taken the lead, but a flag for an illegal block nullified one touchdown. A touchdown pass in the second quarter was...
One Plains girl might be a bit sheepish when talking with adults, but when it comes to showing sheep, she can be quite talkative. Ayla Rehbein of the 4-H club South Side Sparks showed her Suffolk Hampshire last year and took grand champion accolades in showmanship and reserve championship in the breeding class. Though she's showing "June" again in showmanship, she's showing her newest sheep in a new class this year. The 10-year-old Rehbein of Plains will have her two Olde English Babydoll...
One Plains woman is planning far ahead by forming a new softball club in Sanders County. Although the season doesn't begin until late next spring, Whitney Tanner-Spurr wanted to get a jump on forming the Sanders County Smoke 12U girls fastpitch softball team. She held tryouts in Plains and Thompson Falls last week and is planning a third one this week for those who couldn't make the first two. So far, Tanner-Spurr has 25 girls from Plains, Thompson Falls, Trout Creek, Noxon, Heron, and one from...
The Sanders County Fair Commission agreed at its monthly meeting last week that they are confident of a successful 2023 fair, which takes place Aug. 31 to Sept. 3. "It's going to be a great fair this year," said board member Kim McMahon at last Wednesday's meeting at the fairgrounds pavilion, which included Sanders County Commissioners John Holland and Dan Rowan. The fair board, along with Manager Melissa Cady, and 4-H representatives Juli Thurston and Wendy Carr, ironed out a few minor details...
The Town of Plains might become a "Tree City" and get an Arbor Day Grant to financially help with the removal of the aging trees around town. It was Jonalie Comeau, the deputy town clerk, who brought the arbor program to the attention of the mayor and town council in an effort to save the town money when dealing with trees. Mayor Chris Allen said the town has spent more than $8,000 on tree removal this year alone. "Unfortunately, we've got a lot of old problem trees," he said, adding that...
The annual Artists in Paradise show saw four new participants this year with people from Plains, Thompson Falls and St. Regis. Eleven people showed their artwork at the Paradise Center Thursday, Friday and Saturday. People from in and outside of Sanders County stopped in for the three-day showing, including several from out of state who were in the area for the Baroque Music Festival at Quinn's Hot Springs Resort. Many people stopped in all three days, said Ilene Paulsen, the show's primary...
A Frenchtown man volunteered his time last week to provide a free clinic to 4-H members with horse projects. Tyrell Burklund gave a special three and a half hour lesson to a dozen 4-H kids from the Hot Springs Wranglers, the South Side Sparks, the Whitepine Happy Workers, and the Trout Creek Mavericks at the 4-H horse arena at the Sanders County Fairgrounds last Thursday. Burklund spent three hours with the kids, juniors and seniors, of five different levels of expertise, giving them...
Plains Mayor Chris Allen swore in the newest member of the Plains Police Department at City Hall on Friday morning. Rick Nickolaus joined Chief of Police Brian Josephson and Officer Rob Geenen to bring the police department back to full force. Nickolaus replaced Chris Reyna, who was dismissed in May. The town couldn't fill his vacancy until the Plains Police Commission held a hearing to confirm Reyna's termination, which it did two weeks ago. Nickolaus was one of three candidates, all men from...
The 12-spotted skimmer dragonfly checks out movement to its right while taking a break on an old plant shaft. This species of dragonfly is common to the 48 contiguous state and are most active in July and August and are territorial, often aggressive toward other male dragonflies, according to the Montana Field Guide. They are two to two and a half inches long with a wing span of just over two inches. The eat smaller flying insects....
A Clark Fork Valley Hospital doctor was recently presented a prestigious honor from the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana Program. Dr. Jessica Valentine received the 2023 Outstanding Rural Attending Award for her work as a preceptor with family medicine residents at Clark Fork Valley Hospital, which hosts several residents each year. "During their time here they work each day with a preceptor who supervises their work and offers learning opportunities. This is a model similar to...
Even during the summer months, Plains School was hopping with kids and at one point it was hopping with bugs. But there was no need for an exterminator, they were just visiting. Brenna Shea from the Butterfly House and Insectarium in Missoula was one of the guest speakers for the Plains Schools Summer Program, which ended last week with a trip to Wild Horse Lavender, a farm and ranch about 12 miles west of Plains. This was the third year the school held this summer program, which Principal...
Near 100-degree temperatures didn't seem to deter boys and girls and men and women from stepping out onto the hot pavement of the old Plains airport runway Saturday for a day of basketball. Eighty teams signed up for the 7th Annual Wildhorse ShootOut Tournament at the Amundson Sports Complex, which ran from 9 a.m. to almost 4 p.m. Saturday. The final competition finished at 3:40 p.m. when the Polson Wolf Pirates defeated the Hamilton Shake and Bake 9-4 in the seventh and eighth grade boys...
A gathering at Fred Young Park Saturday was all about community, camaraderie and history. Saturday was "Pioneer Day" for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints across the country to commemorate the arrival of Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon pioneers at Salt Lake Valley in Utah in 1847. The Plains LDS Church has once again celebrated the day with food, music, lawn games, dancing, and fellowship, but the annual event was for anyone, not just members of the church....
