Remember When?

50 YEARS AGO • JULY 3, 1969

ROUNDUP ‘SUCCESSFUL’

The rain stopped and the crowd came out and the 6th annual roundup was a success, according to Bob Hill, president of the sponsoring Jaycees.

A gross total of about $900 was taken in during the weekend, Hill said, “but few bills are paid and it will be a couple of months before we know how much will really go to the center.”

Local riders came home with the prizes in the motorcycle races, held for the first time this year on the new Jaycee track next to the community center. Dennis Lyght won both the A main for 250 cc and 100 cc machines, Happy Borgmann won the open class and Delbert Lyght was first in the race for 14-year-olds and under.

Hill won the Old Man’s Race and another Jaycee, Dave Simpson was second.

June Thayer came closest to guessing the exact time it would take a 55-gallon drum to float from the mouth of Cherry Creek to the Thompson Falls dam and won a set of lawn furniture. The barrel took one hour, 27 minutes and 14 seconds to travel the distance and Miss Thayer guessed 1:27:38.

Bill Brown was the closest guesser on the scale of a load of logs and Frank Polinsky came closest to estimating how long a junked car would run without water in its radiator and oil in its motor. The vehicle ran for 16 seconds.

A team called the Pee Wees composed of Corky Willhite, Hank Laws, Bob Hill, F.O. (Tubby) Burch and Ron Kazmierczak won the tug of war contest and divided $15 among the members.

The Thompson Falls 4-H club won first prize in the float contest for the annual parade and the TF Boosters Club was second. Cub Scout Den 5 was first in the children’s division.

40 YEARS AGO • JUNE 28, 1979

LOGGER DAY OFFERS FULL DAY OF FUN

A full day of fun and activities is on tap for Thompson Falls residents and visitors Wednesday, the Fourth of July starting with a pancake breakfast at 6:30 a.m. and ending with a fireworks display at dusk.

In between, the day will be marked by a marathon run, logging contests, a truck driving competition, tugs of war and an old fashioned ice cream social.

E.G. Akins, assisted by his wife, Jackie, Jan and Gerry Petersen and Bill Chisenhall will serve the pancake and sausage breakfast. It will be offered at bargain prices: $1.25 for adults and $1 for children.

Akins will also be in charge of the hamburger stand at Ainsworth Park during the logger contests.

The first competitive event will be the logger marathon which starts from the Montana Power Park. The 4½-mile run will go across the high bridge to the Cherry Creek junction, up to the Prospect Creek road, across the Highway 200 bridge and back to the Park.

The marathon is being arranged by Carla Parks, assisted by Joyce Reeser, Mindy Miles and Saira Smith.

The Logger Day contests start at 10 a.m. at Ainsworth Park and are expected to continue through most of the afternoon. Martin Olsson chamber of commerce president, and Dan Parks are in charge of the contests, which will include competitions in chain sawing, axe throw, single and double buck cross cut sawing, log rolling axe chop, tugs of war and truck driving.

Bill Dickinson is in charge of the trucking competition.

A new feature of this year’s Logger Day, the third annual for Thompson Falls, will be a worker class chain sawing contest, designed for local working loggers.

Loggers competing will use their own bar and chain and use their choice of three powerheads being supplied for Logger Day events by Ross Wilkinson.

Sawyers with “hot saws” will compete in a special class. Other chain sawing classes will be for women, novices and professionals.

Norm Williams is supplying an apparatus to permit dry land log rolling using roller bearings.

The tug of war is being scheduled between loggers and Forest Service employees with each group entering seven-member teams. Olsson said other groups are invited to enter the tug of war contests also, including woman’s teams.

The fireworks display is being handled by Stuart Kilgore and Gary Johnson and will begin at dusk.

Jim Frost will be in charge of the beer and soft drinks served at Ainsworth Park during the competitions.