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Independently owned since 1905
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The 39th Annual Huckleberry Festival in Trout Creek will kick off this weekend. Organizers are touting what an accomplishment nearly four decades has been. Had it not been for 1999, when no one stepped up to organize the Huckleberry Festival, this would have been the 40th year. Thankfully, in 2000 someone stepped up. And so, the festival continues. The fun kicks off Friday, August 10, at 5p.m. The flag will be raised to the national anthem, pledging of allegiance and followed by a celebration of everything huckleberry. As always, the festival...
A drawing has put Plains, Montana, on the map, according to Carol Harris, coordinator for the VFW Post 3596 Auxiliary Young American Creative Patriotic Art Contest, after a Plains High School student took second place nationwide. "This is a big deal. In the whole country, we're number two," said Harris, who's been the local auxiliary contest chairperson for 25 years. Malachi Paulsen was extremely pleased when he was recently notified that he took second with a black and white graphite portrait...
The Piranhas school of swimmers are out of class for the season. Ten members of the Plains Piranhas attended the Montana State Swim Team Finals at Conrad last weekend, finishing in fourth place in Class C. Twenty-two teams and 579 swimmers competed in the two-day state contest, according to Kelly Horton, whose daughter, Grace, competed in the finals. The team coach, Jack Couch, took first place in the boys' 15 to 19-year-old class 100-meter butterfly with a time of 1:7.90. Couch had been a...
More than 200 people showed up to support the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) fundraiser at the county fairgrounds Saturday evening, fetching $3,000 this year. Peg McCarthy, one of the organizers of the 4th Annual CASA Ice Cream Social, said people had a great time and it was a successful fundraiser taking in twice as much money as last year. The ice cream social is one of three annual fundraisers for the nonprofit organization. They also run a booth part time during the Sanders County...
On July 30, 1918, renown American writer and poet Joyce Kilmer, an American soldier in the famous Fighting 69th, was killed in action in the Great War's Second Battle of the Marne, the last major German offensive on the Western Front. On that day in history, the 1st Marine Aviation Force arrived at Brest, France, and the U.S. Army Air Service established the 3rd Pursuit Group, also in France. It was a substantial date in the United States for John and Jennie Henry of Arikaree, Colorado. It was...
The Noxon Limp Noodles looked as though they had it in the bag as the undefeated team went into the championship matchup against Missoula's The Other Team, which had worked its way back up from the loser's bracket Sunday at the Wild Horse Showdown Softball Tournament in Plains. Ten teams participated in the two-day tourney at Amundson Sports Complex, sponsored by the Wildhorse Sports Association (WSA). Plains had three teams – The Printery, Off in the Woods and Lei Out (comprised of Plains a...
It's best not to get Helen Durgin angry, she's proven she can shoot straight and a moving target is no problem. Durgin became the top trap shooter at the 124th Montana State Trap Shoot in Great Falls July 11-15 in the Singles Lady 1 class by hitting 100 birds out of 100 shots, a personal best for the Plains resident. She was one of a dozen women in the category and was one of nearly 10 Plains Trap Club members to participate in the overall competition. "It was so cool because I did my personal...
Batt Lulack competed on the Plains Piranhas Swim Team as a youngster and last week he was again swimming for the Piranhas, this time as a fundraiser for the team. The 46-year-old Lulack was one of 22 participants in the Sidekick Swim & Ice Cream Social fundraiser last Tuesday. The goal of the fundraiser was for a swim member to team up with another person – the sidekick – and collect pledges for laps. Most of the people pledged a flat fee. The fundraiser money goes to pay for the salary of the...
A dozen artists from Sanders County gathered for the 5th Annual Artists in Paradise exhibition at the Paradise Center last week. "It was a great time for the artists and the people that came," said Karen Thorson, president of the Sanders County Arts Council, the nonprofit organization that sponsored the event last Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the center's auditorium. Thorson said that about 300 people attended the exhibit, including visitors from Missoula, Kalispell, Polson, and even some fr...
Nearly 80 people showed up at the open house of the Paradise Center, formerly Paradise Elementary School, Saturday to see the finished Visitor's Center. The guest log displayed signatures from as far away as North Carolina, Texas, Arizona, and Washington. The Visitor's Center is one of three facets of the Paradise Center, along with the Arts Center and Community Center. It's been just over two years since the Paradise Elementary School Preservation Committee started on its vision to transform...
When Miles City’s Rhonda Shumway found she was easily fatigued and couldn’t keep up with her grandchildren, her primary care provider encouraged her to try the Holy Rosary Healthcare Diabetes Prevention Program called Healthy Lifestyles as a solution to her high blood pressure and joint pain. She was amazed that the common-sense approach, educational information, and activities really worked. “My favorite tool was the little blue book we used to record daily food and activity,” she said. “It worked and the pounds started sliding off.” She...
Kenton Pies is still horsing around with an art project he hopes to have on display along the main street of Plains. The 85-year-old Plains resident has now decided to coat his 10-foot long, eight-foot high steel horse with a surfacing concrete to make it less abrasive than the metal covering. "It's a safety issue for kids. It's less abrasive and not sharp," said Pies, who plans to have a herd of five horses somewhere along the greenway, if he can raise enough money to build all of them. His...
Work to get the roads of Plains fixed began last week with Farmer Street, considered the worst of the 12.5 miles of town streets. The crew of Traver's Excavators Service, Inc., of Thompson Falls began work on Monday installing a storm drain near the intersection of Farmer and McGowan Streets. Ben Travers, the company owner, and his crew, Josh Meuchel and James Warner, dug a five-foot deep ditch that went for about 30 feet to install two concrete catch basins, which will have grated manhole...
Mike Hensler, a longtime fisheries biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP), is the new regional fisheries manager in northwest Montana. Hensler began serving as the FWP Region 1 fisheries manager, based in Kalispell, on July 1. “Mike has been one of FWP’s emerging leaders for a long time when it comes to both native fish conservation and recreational angling, and we are fortunate to have him step into this important leadership role,” FWP Region 1 Supervisor Jim Williams said. Hensler is replacing Mark Deleray, another longtime FWP e...
IN YOUR FACE BRITAIN – Anthony Livernois of Plains furls an American flag at a local event while wearing a shirt that pokes fun at Great Britain, the nation that United States won its independence from. Livernois said he received a few comments when they first saw the shirt with the British colors, which was accompanied with the words "Happy Treason Day Ungrateful Colonists." Livernois, son of Ron and Kim Robinson of Plains, has been in the U.S. Army for 20 years and stationed in Wichita, K...
The Plains Community Decay Ordinance had only been law one day when someone picked up a complaint form, said Plains Mayor Dan Rowan. The complaint hasn’t been returned to City Hall yet, but enforcement of the new ordinance is likely to soon begin. Rowan said the enforcement will depend whether it’s a fire hazard or police matter and likely it will be the department chiefs who will respond. The town’s council unanimously voted to eliminate Section 7.12, entitled “Junked Vehicles” from the new ordinance, but that doesn’t mean people will be abl...
Plains Piranha Jack Couch captured first place in each of the three events at the Plains swim meet at E.L. Johnson Memorial Pool Sunday and when he wasn't zipping through the water, Coach Couch was giving his team members last minute guidance before each event. "I was happy with every one of them. They've improved a lot over the last couple weeks," said Couch, the Piranha's new coach and the team's top competitor. He took first place in the 50-meter butterfly, finishing at 29:08 seconds. His...
"The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival," John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, after the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. But it was two days later that Congress accepted the final wording of the Declaration, prompting the nation's Founding Fathers to select July 4 as the momentous day. The...
One group in Plains are proud to be losers. They even received an award for their feat. Becky Powley and Janie McFadgen of TOPS – Take Off Pounds Sensibly – were awarded Division Awards at State Recognition Days at Great Falls June 15-17. Powley nabbed first place in Division IV and McFadgen won top honors in Division VII. The two received the recognition for losing the most weight in their divisions for 2017. Powley and McFadgen are members of MT TOPS 202, the Plains chapter, which meets every...
It was the third year for the Local Yokel's Car & Truck Show at Ripples Ice Cream Parlor in Plains, but the first time the sponsors had a People's Choice Award for the top vehicle, which went to Plains resident Wally Logan and his 1941 Chevy pickup. Logan did all the work himself, except for the paint job, including the pickup bed, which is featured with red oak, locust and mahogany wood. Winning the People's Choice means Logan's vehicle will be on the cover of the 2019 show poster. Twenty...
A group of kids demonstrated their cowpoke skills at the Sanders County Fairgrounds last weekend roping and riding as part of the Southwest Youth Rodeo Association competition. Sixty-eight boys and girls participated in age classes from under 7 to 18 years old during the two-day event. The Plains competition was part of a youth rodeo circuit that started in Ramsey two weeks ago and will finish up with state competition in Butte on August 27. Last weekend's event drew youth from 20 Montana...
The one-room schoolhouse on Railroad Street is a community relic and perhaps the oldest building in Plains, and over the last two months it received a facelift that will extend its life 60-70 years, according to Kirby Matthew, a restoration specialist. It took nearly two months and 250 hours of labor from 15 volunteers to refurbish the old logs on the 18-foot wide by 30-foot long Horse Plains schoolhouse, located on the corner of Railroad and Clayton streets in Plains. The school was built in...
One of the first signs that fire season is right around the corner came last week when the Forest Service got Patrick's Knob Lookout ready for business. With winds gusting to more than 20 mph and large patches of snow still scattered around the lookout tower, members of the Forest Service and the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) opened the station in preparation for lookout Chris Herrick to stand his summer watch over the forest. Herrick, who also was on hand to get the tower ready, will begin his...
The Sanders County Fair Commission held its monthly meeting for the first time in nearly a year in the pavilion, which caught fire during the 2017 fair. Day Springs Restoration started working on the pavilion kitchen late last year and completed their work last week, although Chris McGuigan, the fair manager, said three of the five sinks leaked. The manager and board were not pleased that the contractor took this long to complete the work, a job that cost about $60,000 and cost the fair some $5,000 in lost revenue. A wedding last weekend was...
Nine artists are showing their work at Clark Fork Valley Hospital for the third quarter Art on the Walls exhibit, which opened last week. "I'm always impressed by the art and feel lucky to know some of these artists personally," said Tonya Revier, the hospital's marketing coordinator, at the artists' reception last Thursday. The reception included musical entertainment by pianist Rachel Huenink and refreshments prepared by the hospital's culinary department. The artwork along Main Street...
