Independently owned since 1905
Independently owned since 1905
Sorted by date Results 501 - 525 of 1023
Finding out that honey is basically "bee vomit" didn't deter John McNamara from eating honey and getting stung and bit by bees didn't stop him from wanting to raise bees. The 9-year-old McNamara's dream came true when he got 10,000 honey bees to start his own two hives in early May. After letting the bees acclimate in their new home, John and his parents, Carissa McNamara and Bruce Beckstead, checked on the critters last weekend to see how they were doing. "They looked real good," said John,...
Racing cars on school grounds is generally frowned upon, but it was actually encouraged by the shop teacher at Plains School last week. Nine students were involved in the race, which had been condoned by the school administration. Shop teacher Kyle Mitchell wasn't sure how fast the cars were traveling, but he guessed most of them were going about 40 mph by the time they hit the finish line. The five boys and four girls raced several times and when it was over, the champion was Tony Schaff in...
Sanders County Commissioner Tony Cox is tired of the sewer project dragging on so long, along with the constant strife between board members. "It's time to poop or get off the pot," he said at the Sanders County Sewer District at Paradise Board meeting at the Paradise Center last Tuesday. Nearly 50 people attended the three-hour long meeting, including Cox and fellow commissioner Claude Burlingame, along with six board members. Pernel Elaine Chapman, who was recently voted on the board, was...
Playing a poker card game with ping pong balls might be a little unique, but the Wild Horse Plains Back Country Horsemen found out it's a good way to raise money. Ninety-one riders gathered at the historic Jones Ranch on Little Thompson River Road about 10 miles northwest of Plains on Saturday to participate in its annual poker ride. The day-long event ended with the club's president, Kelsie Blevins, as the big winner with an ace high flush to nab the top prize, a coveted custom made breast...
It's time for one Plains High School science teacher to hang up his Bunsen burner, calorimeters and beakers in search of new horizons. Carl Benson will have the normal list of chores to do at home. He would like to lend a hand at his parent's ranch in Drummond, and explore new places in Montana with his wife, Denise. He might be leaving the science class, but you can't take the science out of him. There's one thing he's wanted to do for a long time and that's to visit firsthand one of the...
Members of the American Legion at Thompson Falls spent a few hours working on marker crosses along Prospect Creek Road last Friday morning. It was a chilly time as Bill Beck of Plains and Bob Kunch of Thompson Falls, both members of American Legion Post 52 of Thompson Falls, worked a few feet off the road, sometimes in blowing snow, repairing, painting or replacing crosses that are part of the American Legion Highway Fatality Marker Program. The markers, which are 16-inch white crosses resting a...
The Sanders County Fair is fast approaching and the fair staff has most of the events and contracts ready with only minor details to be worked out, but at last Wednesdays meeting a Hot Springs resident asked to add another event for the kids. Justin Wright told the board that he'd like to hold an Agricultural Mechanic Show, where kids from eighth grade to seniors could display agriculture related pieces they had built. Wright, a welding teacher at Hot Springs High School, said the items could...
More than 600 people gathered at the Sanders County Fairgrounds Saturday to take a look at thousands of items that were part of an estate and collectibles auction put on by Kevin Hill Auction Service. Of those, 389 people from throughout Montana, Idaho and Washington registered for the bidding, which went from 10 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. in and around the fair's Agriculture Building. The items ranged from small nuts and bolts to a 1987 Ford Colyer Oil Company truck that went for $2,500. The auction...
Attendance from the community was low but excitement from the student artists was high. "I anticipated we'd have a lower attendance due to COVID and that people wouldn't want to be coming into the school and we're just getting back into this," said Kristen Cole, the Plains High School teacher who coordinated the Plains High School Art Exhibition 2022 last Monday evening. An estimated 50 people attended the two-hour reception for the show of art students' work in the school's new auditorium,...
ALEC COLE, Plains - “My mom is the art teacher, so it supplied me with meals on the table, and I didn’t get the artistic genes she has.” KRISTEN COLE, Plains - “I just crave art. It’s part of my everyday life.” LEVI BLOOD, Plains – “It hasn’t impacted me too much, except in music. Music is a big part of my life.” MACEY SCOTT, Plains - “It gives me lots of creative outlets. And doing a show like this gives me a good perspective that I can make a career in art.” DENISE MONTGOMERY, Plains - “I couldn’t live without art.” PEYTON WASSON, Plains...
Aiming high for grades took on a unique aspect last week when physics students took to the sky for fun and a few extra points. Eight Plains High School students got a first hand lesson in aerodynamics last Thursday when they gathered in back of the school to participate in the Annual Physics Airplane Competition. The primary goal was supposed to be observing the flights of their airplanes to learn the concepts of airflow, lift, gravity, drag, and other aspects of Bernoulli's Principle by seeing...
The animals are in a big cage - one that covers 18,700 acres - but even in an enclosure, it doesn't guarantee an up close look at animals. "It's not a zoo. You might see them real close or maybe not at all. You just never know, said Stephanie Gillin, the information and education project manager at the Bison Range in Moiese, which is now operated by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation. Gillin said the bison, as other animals, roam throughout the...
The Noxon Little Cougars Rookies team claimed a 7-4 victory over the Plains McGowan Grocery at Amundson Sports Complex at Plains last Monday. Rookies is only the second level of youth baseball in Montana after T-ball. In Rookies, coaches of the batting team feed a pitching machine. The batters each get five balls pitched. If one isn't hit, they're out. They use a rubber ball instead of the traditional baseball and they play four innings or two hours. The age range for Rookies is 7-9 years old,...
Plans for this year’s Plains Day gala are shaping up and organizers are bringing in a blast from the past to help with the celebration. The festival will take place on Saturday, June 4, and has activities taking place along the downtown greenway, Fred Young Park and E.L. Johnson Memorial Park, commonly known as the “pool park.” The Free Americans, the group that stepped up to organize the festival last year, volunteered to do it again and they’ve selected Alvin Amundson as this year’s parade grand marshal. Amundson and the late Clark Coffee sta...
To some of the neighbors of Plains High School it might have looked like an invasion, but it was instead a group of teenagers and an adult launching rockets at night. It wasn't all fun and games - but most of it was just that - it was part of a science class at Plains High School. Ten students and science teacher Carl Benson gathered at the high school football field shortly before 9 p.m. last Monday to launch the model rockets they made for physics class. In all the years that Benson has been...
The Noxon Cougars continued their winning streak with a 17-3 victory against Plains at Amundson Sports Complex last Tuesday, but winning isn't the most important part of the minors level of baseball, said both coaches, it's learning the game and having fun. Fun was a little difficult at last week's game when Mother Nature turned on the wind and cold. Several students donned coats. One warmed up in a vehicle when his team was up to bat and several on the Plains team used hand warmers donated by...
For the first time in two years the Plains High School Art Department will host a live reception for an exposition of its students’ work. Plains High School Art Exhibition 2022 will take place on May 9 from 6-8 p.m. in the school’s new auditorium. Cole is unsure at this point how many pieces of art will be in the show, but believes there could be around 200 with a variety of mediums on display — graphite, ink, acrylic, watercolor, colored pencil, marker, digital, wire, metal, plaster, tape, ceramic, and digital photography. The art displ...
The Clark Fork Valley Riverdogs split a doubleheader last weekend against the Bitterroot Red Sox with one loss and one win. The Riverdogs head coach Jon Zigler said the first game was a slugfest for the Sanders County Legion team in Hamilton Saturday. The same team had pummeled the Riverdogs every game last season, but the coach said his Dogs displayed confidence and there was continued banter between the dugouts. “It was a back and forth affair that came down to the very last play,” said Zigler, head coach for the second year. On the pit...
by Ed Moreth There was a bison stampede some five miles from the Bison Range through the town of Dixon, but no one was hurt, although a few people were out of breath and might have been sore the next day. The stampeders weren't buffaloes, they were humans participating in Dixon's annual Bison Stampede, an event to raise funds for school improvements. The event had three races, including a 10K, 5K and a one-mile Fun Run through town that all started in front of Dixon Elementary School. Runners fo...
A group of high school students are more prepared for real world employment, thanks to a two-hour exercise held last week at the school with people who are already working in the real world. Twenty-four students from Plains High School's Jobs for Montana's Graduates class and the Business Essentials class participated in mock interviews with 24 community business men and women in the new gymnasium and art classroom last Monday. Nicole Cockrell, who runs the JMG class, felt the students did very...
Kids certainly got their kicks Saturday at Amundson Sports Arena for a complete day of soccer between Plains, Thompson Falls, St. Regis, Frenchtown, Stevensville, Libby and Kalispell. Games began at 9 a.m. with the oldest group, the U16 Clark Fork Soccer Alliance of Plains taking on the Kootenai Rapids of Libby and finishing the day with the U12 Clark Fork Soccer Alliance facing the Frenchtown Force shortly after 5 p.m. The U12 Clark Fork Soccer Alliance claimed victory in both games,...
The Clark Fork Valley Riverdogs had their first shutout of their two-year existence in a 12-0 victory against the Mission Valley Mariners at Amundson Sports Complex at Plains Sunday. It was also a first for Riverdog Trenis McDonald to pitch a shutout in his two years with the team. In facing 21 batters, he had six strike outs, chalking up 43 strikes out of 60 pitches. The 17-year-old McDonald walked only one batter, hit one, allowed only five hits in the game, and caught a pop fly to end the gam...
Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros, at 5 feet, 6 inches, may be the shortest player in Major League Baseball right now, but he's got nothing on Ezra Booth, who stands at 40 inches and got to first base every time he went to the plate. He's only two inches taller than Ember Paquet of the opposing team, but then the tallest player on either team is Darren Heathers at 50 inches. Tuesday was opening day for the T-ball players as the Plains Cheetah Speed took on the Plains Cats & Dogs at Amundson...
Even with heavy snow the previous day and slightly chilly weather, there might have been a record crowd at the Plains Easter Egg Hunt put on by the Plains Lions Club and the Assembly of God Church on the Move in Plains Sunday. "It was covered with snow this morning. I had to put on boots to go sloshing around in it," said Jessica Peterson of the Church on the Move and the primary coordinator of the annual event. Peterson and five other volunteers put out 6,500 plastic eggs on the lawn covered...
The auditorium was dark as the actors of the Montana Repertory Theatre each stepped onto the stage to tell their story - which was also mostly dark - of their times in combat in the Middle East. The play "Reentry" was a compilation of narratives from Marines in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq during the 2000s and how it impacted them and their family back in the states. The five actors took on the lives of Marines and family members to tell their stories. Just over 30 people attended the...
