Independently owned since 1905
Independently owned since 1905
Sorted by date Results 651 - 675 of 1044
The extreme hot weather draws people to the Clark Fork River to splash around in the cool water, but sometimes it's just an extra perk when having to work. It was 100 degrees last Wednesday when members of the Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District took to the water for their first training on their new jet skis - rescue watercrafts. The 10 men and two women spent three hours in the river performing various rescue training exercises at the Sanders County Fairgrounds beach. "It was really hard for...
The new American Legion youth baseball team of Sanders County nabbed second place at the "Boys of Summer" tournament at Belgrade last week after being defeated by the Belgrade Bandits 10-2. "The boys were disappointed that they didn't win the championship, but I was pleased with their performance," said Jon Zigler, head coach of the Clark Fork Valley Riverdogs, the only American Legion team in Sanders County. The Clark Fork Valley Riverdogs were one of six teams in the weekend play. Zigler said...
It took the American Legion at Thompson Falls less than 30 minutes to put more than 200 flags to the flames in a proper retirement for Old Glory last Monday. "A flag may be a flimsy bit of printed gauze or a beautiful banner of finest silk. It's intrinsic value may be trifling or great, but its real value is beyond price, for it is a precious symbol of all that we and our comrades have worked for and died for - a free nation of free men and women, true to the faith of the past, devoted to the id...
The four-wheeled beasts have returned to Plains and they kicked up a lot of dirt last weekend, including "Zilla," the monster of monster trucks and one of five that entertained with a crushing rampage Friday and Saturday at the Sanders County Fairgrounds. The Monster Truck Family Reunion Tour was put on by Hylite Real Entertainment, owned by Ricky Fowler of Lake Dallas, Texas. Fowler was behind the wheel of the 18-foot long, 11-foot high Zilla, a highly modified 2008 Ford 250 Super Duty,...
A group of people in Paradise were busy making mountains last weekend, and even though they worked on them for almost a half a day, they won't be any taller than about 28 inches. Three men and two women spent six hours at the Paradise Center Saturday carving mountains from large chunks of Styrofoam for the center's railroad display. The mountains will be placed on the display in front of the mountain photomural that was attached to the wall in April. The foam-formed mountains will give the...
by Ed Moreth The Paradise Center - formerly the Paradise Elementary School - will be receiving $185,720 in grants for two large projects they hope to get completed over the next nine months for capital improvements to the building that houses the main visitor center. The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust of Vancouver, Washington, announced last week it was awarding $62,500, half of the total cost, to the center to replace a boiler system that had been installed in Paradise Elementary School in the...
Youth soccer players of Plains and Thompson Falls received some special instruction last week, getting guidance from some of the best soccer players in the state. A University of Montana Lady Griz coach and three players spent 90 minutes at Amundson Sports Complex last Wednesday with 25 boys and girls from the Clark Fork Valley Soccer Alliance and Thompson Falls Blue Hawks soccer teams, providing the kids with tips to improve their skills. In an effort to raise money to help pay for their trip...
A new medical facility will be opening in Plains with a staff of 38 combined medical years experience. Costner Care Family Clinic located along Railroad Street a block from Clark Fork Valley Hospital on the east side of Plains is scheduled to open for business on July 1. The new practice will be run by Family Nurse Practitioner David Costner and his wife, Registered Nurse Julie Costner. The couple will be primary care providers for all ages, said David, who has been in the healthcare business for 16 years and a provider for 10 years. He has...
The Clark Fork Valley Soccer Alliance U13 soccer team finished the regular season on top with a 5-0 triumph over the Thompson Falls Blue Hawks at Amundson Sports Complex last Tuesday. It also ended with a Plains member collecting a "hat-trick," scoring three goals in one game. Ten-year-old Katherine Wrobleski picked up the second hat-trick of the season for the team, bringing her total goals for the season to seven. Ava Lawyer, 11, was the top scorer with 14, which also included a hat-trick...
More than 300 people from first-graders to adults showed up at Amundson Sports Complex in Plains Saturday to take part in the daylong basketball competition hosted by the Wildhorse Sports Association. Seventy-eight teams - one from Belt, Montana, 299 miles away - participated in the 5th Annual Wildhorse Shootout 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament. It was the biggest showing they've had, some 20 teams more than 2019, said Erika Lawyer, one of the coordinators of the event. Lawyer also estimated there...
At the Plains Day Dance Party Saturday evening, getting down didn't refer to boogeying - it was getting down, as low as a person could get without hands, knees or butt touching the ground. It took only about 20 minutes to come up with a winner in the "tall" category of the annual limbo contest. For 22-year-old Jubal Ryan, it took a crab-like walk with knees turning in ways that would make most people cringe to get below the stick at 26 inches above ground to become this year's limbo champion. Ry...
A small crowd gathered at the Plains Cemetery for VFW Post 3596's Memorial Day service on Sunday evening in remembrance of those military veterans who served their country and have passed on. Post 3596 Commander Ron Kilbury led the ceremony at the American flag, the centerpiece of a section of the cemetery surrounded by numerous veterans' gravesites, each with a small American flag placed by the post members and volunteers the previous week. Senior Vice Commander Dave Tupper, an Army veteran,...
Plains Day 2021 will start with a pancake breakfast at the VFW and end with a potluck dinner at E.L. Johnson Memorial Park. In between will be an array of activities for children and adults alike, according to Amy Dishaw, one of the coordinators of this year’s event and a member of the “Free Americans,” the nonprofit organization that volunteered to put on the annual celebration. “There is a ton of excitement about Plains Day. People want to celebrate after a tough year,” said Connie Foust, also a coordinator. “We have done outreach to...
Plains is the new home for an old business. Action Mining Services, Inc., a company established over 40 years ago, set up operations in the former Butcher's Nook building and are open for business. Action Mining Services manufactures and sells mining supplies that deals mainly with professional mining companies, but it also works with individuals as well as amateur prospectors who want to find and process precious metals on their own. "We have a lot of weekend warriors that have buckets and...
Tom Charlton doesn't plan a big birthday bash when he turns 95 next week, but at least it'll be more than when he turned 19 when he was fighting for his life. On June 8, 1945, Charlton was a Marine Corps machine gunner on the island of Okinawa and an estimated 130,000 Japanese soldiers were dug in for a last ditch effort to keep the allies from their next objective - Japan. Days passed before Charlton, a private first class, even realized his birthday had gone by. The Battle of Okinawa was the...
It's a matter of vets honoring vets as 13 military veterans from each of the five services gathered at Plains Cemetery to place American flags at the gravesites of veterans that date back to the Civil War. It took the veterans, along with seven non military volunteers, including two children, a little over an hour to put out the 471 flags. The 12-by-18 inch flags are placed each year at veterans' graves in preparation of Memorial Day. Navy veteran Katlyn Wall showed up to make sure three of her...
A new group has been established to help hunters, outfitters and ranchers in Montana deal with the wolf population problem. The Sanders County Chapter for the Foundation for Wildlife Management was created only two weeks ago as the first Montana chapter of the organization, which started in Idaho 11 years ago because of the wolf problem there. "We've been trying to get a chapter in Montana for about five years now, but we've been legally blocked, but now we have it," said Dan Helterline, vice...
The old log schoolhouse in Plains received a major spring cleaning last week in preparation for Plains Day and other summer events. The project began last Wednesday, when Warren Hill, owner of Blackjack Power Wash, spent about one and a half hours cleaning the outside of the schoolhouse and using his powerful machine to strip off most of the old decaying paint from the building windows and doors. The job would have cost the Plains Woman's Club just over $100, but Hill, a Plains resident for the...
A project that's been in the making for more than 10 years has gone sky high - literally. It's a homemade airplane made at the home of Walt Pickering of Paradise by Walt and his son, Gordon, who will be taking the experimental amateur aircraft back to LaPine, Oregon, where he is a practicing veterinarian. For now, however, FAA regulations dictate that the aircraft be flown for 40 hours before he can fly it 400 miles to Oregon. Gordon flew his new plane for about 30 minutes the first time last...
The Clark Fork Valley Soccer Alliance U12 Classic chocked up its fifth victory of the season Saturday in a face off against the Libby Kootenai Rapids 7-2 at the Amundson Sports Complex in Plains. The Clark Fork team split the day with a 6-1 loss to the Missoula Strikers, an all boys select team earlier in the day. Nick Lawyer's U12 team carries a record of five wins, six losses and two draws, putting them in seventh place of 26 teams in Montana. Their next game is scheduled for Wednesday, June 2...
The Clark Fork Valley Riverdogs American Legion youth baseball team chalked up its first victories at its only home game Saturday at Amundson Sports Complex against the Libby Loggers. "They played well in all facets of the game today," said Jon Zigler, head coach for the Riverdogs. The Riverdogs nabbed a 14-8 victory in game one and an 8-2 triumph in the second game. Zigler specifically praised his boys on their pitching and defense. "We hit the ball well with men on base and our running game...
The owners of the Washtub Laundromat in Plains takes pride in a clean and efficient establishment, but now it's a lot more appealing, thanks to a group of art students from Noxon High School, who painted a colorful mural for customers to see. Owner Chad Kavanaugh said there were bare walls at the laundromat that needed "perking up." "The mural is great, totally exceeds my expectations," said Kavanaugh, who purchased the laundromat with his wife, Lynne, last October. "It really brightens up the...
Being out in an open field is not fun when there's thunder and lightning, unless it's on a baseball field and it's the Thompson Falls Thunder and the Plains Lightning Tigers t-ball tykes. They don't keep score in t-ball, so the competition level was low, but the entertainment level was high. The teams matched up against each other at Amundson Sports Complex at Plains last Monday evening, but the scene was anything but a standard baseball game. "Don't lay down," "pick up your glove," "stop...
“Plains Day 2021 is shaping up to be an amazing event,” said Mary Halling, one of the coordinators on the planning committee that’s setting up activities throughout the day Saturday, June 5. Though the committee hasn’t locked down specific times for many of the events, committee member Connie Foust said they’ll be starting with the Mason Pancake Breakfast at the VFW from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. One of the most popular activities of years past is returning to Plains this year, courtesy of VFW Post 3596. It’s the crosscut competition, which will...
Thousands of animals, big and small, call the Bison Range home, but the biggest land mammal of North America is the refuge's biggest attraction - the bison, also known as the American buffalo - that numbers over 300 at the 18,700-acre refuge. Saturday was the range's season opener when visitors could take a leisurely ride along Red Sleep Drive, a one way 19-mile gravel road that makes a giant loop around the Bison Range, called the National Bison Range before the Confederated Salish & Kootenai...
