Independently owned since 1905
Independently owned since 1905
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Plains was a busy day Saturday with nearly nonstop activities from daybreak to dark and food on both ends, starting with the Masons pancake breakfast at the VFW and finishing with a potluck dinner at the E.L. Johnson Memorial Park. For the third consecutive year the nonprofit organization the Free Americans has run Plains Day and once again it was a success, according to Connie Foust, the group's primary coordinator. "We are so pleased it all came together so nicely with the great involvement of...
A popular competition was brought back to Plains Day, but participants were lower than had been in the past. The chainsaw contest was initially planned for three categories – chainsaw, hot saw and pro saw – but due to the lack of entries, they did only a regular chainsaw competition. Seven men and one woman signed up for the chainsaw competition including Drew Carey, Jesse Jermyn, Taylor Firestone, Gene Ross, Dustin Wagoner and Calvin Larsen, all of Plains, Jeff Cobylk of Seattle, and Jew...
The king of low has been dethroned and there's a new limbo champion of Plains. After nearly 45 minutes and dozens of passes under the limbo stick, 20-year-old Justin Yoder demonstrated his dexterity and balance to take the crown from Jubal Ryan, 22, also of Plains, at the annual contest at the E.L. Johnson Memorial Park Saturday evening. Around 80 people lined up for the limbo contest at the pool park. All started in the same line for the first four passes under the stick. The contestants were...
A Plains woman held a book signing event for her first novel, "The Orphaned King," an epic fantasy that went on the market last Thursday. Several people stopped in for the book signing for author Charolette Noble at the Plains Public Library on Friday afternoon. "When Evil begins collecting souls in a world of magic and magical beasts, loyalists and creatures of purity hold onto an ancient prophecy. One day an orphaned King would rise from a distant world. The liberator would prevail against...
It was aged over adolescence, wisdom over youth, and energetic over enterprising. It was the Clark Fork Alliance Soccer youth versus their parents, or what one of the parents called the "Champions versus the Kids." Nick Lawyer, the primary organizer of the competition at the Amundson Sports Complex in Plains, said they've been doing a game between the kids and parents and had never won, until last Monday. "This year's going to be different; the adults are going to at least score," Lawyer said...
Graduating from high school usually means facing the real world, but 43% of the Plains High School graduates are planning to attend secondary schools, including seven that plan to attend four-year institutions. Twenty-three Plains High School seniors received their diplomas Sunday afternoon in a graduation ceremony in the high school gymnasium. An estimated more than 300 people attended the hour-long ceremony, led by Superintendent Thom Chisholm, his final graduation before retiring in June....
The Sinclair gas station has been a part of the lives of Dave and JoAnne Colyer for almost four decades, but the couple will have some time to take it easy now that they sold the business to a Kalispell man. "One has some mixed emotions after selling a business you started and operated for nearly 40 years," said Dave Colyer, who closed the sale of the station on May 16. "Everything in life has its ups and downs. The business did well and it will do well for the new owners," said Colyer. Both...
Plains Spring Cleanup Day was a big success, but the group of volunteers that coordinated the daylong project got together to discuss how they could make it even better. Over 40 volunteers showed up three weeks ago to help clean up the private property of 21 residents that needed assistance. The last time a town wide cleanup had been done was 2018, and the time before that was several years prior. But the organizers of the last one want to make it an annual event. Some of the cleanup coordinator...
High school seniors got their graduation sendoff Sunday, but the younger kids had their day in the sun last Thursday with a barbecue picnic and received awards from the local Masons, including Most Worshipful Past Grand Master Thom Chisholm, who cooked burgers and hot dogs for more than two hours. It was Chisholm that started the annual Plains School barbecue 13 years ago as a special goodbye to retiring superintendent Richard Magera, who was replaced by Chisholm. The barbecue continued every...
A handful of military veterans gathered at the Plains Cemetery to mark the graves of passed veterans in preparation of VFW Post 3596's Memorial Day ceremony. It took VFW members about an hour to place the 469 American flags on veteran gravesites and at the columbarium last Tuesday morning. Each year, Post 3596 marks the veteran gravesites. They put out six more than last year, including the grave of Dave Tupper, an Army vet and a VFW member who passed away in April. "I do this out of respect....
Plains Day is here once again with Saturday being filled with activities new and old. “This event is taking shape and looks to be a banner year for all of the events and vendors,” said Connie Foust, lead coordinator for the annual celebration. The festivities will begin once again with the Masons Pancake Breakfast at the VFW, followed by the parade down Railroad Street at 11 a.m., led by the VFW Post 3596 color guard. Sanders County Commissioner Dan Rowan, the most recent former town mayor, was selected as the parade’s grand marshal. “It is an...
The Wild Horse Plains Back Country Horsemen raised $1,200 on its annual poker ride at the historic Jones Ranch Saturday, but everything the club takes in goes to help take care of the trails in Sanders County. Doc Milham of Trout Creek was the big winner of the day with a royal flush, said Terry Collins, the club treasurer. With the top hand, Milham got to pick from 10 prizes that were donated to the event. Ninety-nine riders took part in the 9.2-mile poker ride, which had five stations...
Bison are the biggest mammal in North America, but sometimes a herd in the distance looks like little dark dots. A visitor's chances of getting a closer look at the mighty beasts became much better at the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Bison Range Friday when Red Sleep Mountain Drive was open for visitors. The seasonal grand opening of the 19-mile long Red Sleep Mountain Drive nearly tripled the viewing possibilities at the range, which has three walking trails, including the mile-long...
A school gymnasium is the place for racing, but last week eighth-grader Cody West might have reached a speed of 55 mph with his CO2 rocket car, nabbing first place honors in the Technical Education Shop Class annual "CO2 Drag Race." The 14-year-old was undefeated in his four heats and the championship round against classmate Emelia Rivinius. "I just tried to make it as aerodynamic as possible to go down the track as fast as it could," said West, who finished with a time of 5.537. Rivinius...
A Thompson Falls man has continued his displeasure at the way the Sanders County Fair Demolition Derby is being handled by the fair commission and the contracted promoter. Rick Sanders, a veteran demolition derby driver, provided the board with nearly a dozen questions with his concerns with the derby, including an accusation that last year's promoter, Tim Denson, and his help were drinking alcohol while inspecting the cars. He also stated that Denson allowed cars in the competition that had...
The Plains School superintendent has only weeks until he's free from the responsibility of running three schools, 67 staff and teachers and 445 students, but he's not planning to breeze by in his final days. June 30 will be the last day for Thom Chisholm, who is retiring from the education field after 30 years, but between now and then he's preparing to close out the books for this year, working on the next fiscal year's schedule, getting building projects finished, assembling important...
A group of students put in some extra time in school last week that will help them with employment after graduation. The nine girls and three boys, all seniors, were part of the Jobs For Montana Graduates "mock interviews" last Tuesday in the Plains High School gymnasium, where a dozen community members gave up their time to provide realistic job application experience. It was the first time for all but two of the volunteer business locals to participate in the annual program. Joel Collett of...
A group of Sanders County people traveled to Bigfork to show their staying power in a rigorous and muddy competition of the 10th Annual Montana Spartan Race. Two men from Hot Springs took part in the Elite Spartan Super Race on May 6 and eight men and women competed as a team in the Montana Spartan Sprint Race on May 7. Andrew Leichtnam of Hot Springs finished in fourth place out of some 20-30 competitors in the elite category of the super, which is the most competitive heat in the race....
A group of Sanders County kids received some special coaching from the University of Montana last week at Plains. Jay Landham, a coach for the Lady Griz soccer team, spent two hours with youth soccer players from Plains, Thompson Falls, and St. Regis with his "Coach J's Keeper Clinic" at the Amundson Sports Complex. He spent an hour with each group last Tuesday teaching the fine points of defending the goal. "Goalkeeping is all about efficiency," said Landham, who's been a coach for the Lady Gri...
A handful of kids took flight from school Thursday, but they were returned by Plains resident Randy Garrison, the one that took them away. It was part of a hands-on lesson for the Plains High School physics class that centered around the fundamentals of aerodynamics and Garrison had just the way to demonstrate what they already got in the classroom lesson by Plains High School science teacher Brooks Sanford. Garrison used his Cherokee Piper 235 airplane to drive the lecture home. The students ...
The Plains Town Council meeting last week began with disputes over recent citations of the town's Decay Ordinance, but they came with an equal show of support for the law as people rose in defense of law enforcement's actions. Much of the talk centered around the home of Archie Knerr, an elderly man who lives on Third Street and has piles of wood, steel, plastics and other materials surrounding his house. His name has come up numerous times since the ordinance was enacted in 2018. "It's a...
They didn't get as many volunteers as hoped, but the Plains Spring Cleanup Day on Saturday was still a big success, said Lana Dicken, one of the primary coordinators of the daylong project. "It was fantastic. Lots of people showed up and worked hard all day," said Dicken, who had gone door to door over the last two weeks to recruit volunteers and to find those who wanted help getting garbage and other materials hauled away. "People were excited about coming out to serve and do the community...
The Paradise Players prompted cheers and tears in their latest performance last week with its rendition of "Steel Magnolias." The all woman cast provided almost three hours of entertainment Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Paradise Center with nearly 60 people in attendance on each of the first two days and with Sunday drawing the biggest crowd of about 80 people. Steel Magnolias is a dramatic comedy about a group of small-town women in Louisiana that share a special bond and in the end deal...
It's not rocket science, it's not even science class, but science is helping the eighth-graders of Plains Junior High School with their projects in shop class. The 10 girls and four boys in the class started working on their wooden cars last week and will probably be competing in the annual "CO2 Drag Race" at the end of this week in the new gymnasium. It's all part of Kyle Mitchell's Technical Education Shop Class and the purpose of the class is to teach the kids a mixture of mathematics,...
The Plains Cheetos won their first game of the season recently when they defeated Superior 17-16 in the bottom of the fourth inning at the Amundson Sports Complex in Plains. "The boys played well. We've been working on preventing steals in practice and they did a great job keeping the steals under control," said Amy McGraw, head coach for the Cheetos, a name the kids voted to use. The minors level is the first one to get actual pitchers. Rookies use a pitching machine and in the youngest level,...
