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70 YEARS AGO • JANUARY 25, 1950

CONSTRUCTION ON $100,000 COUNTY HOSPITAL TO START IN THE SPRING

Sanders County will be able to build a $100,000 hospital at Hot Springs this summer, Olin Ashcraft, chairman of the drive, reported.

H.E. Kirkemo, Missoula architect, said plans for a fully-equipped 15-bed hospital will be drawn up and construction probably will get under way early this spring.

The fund for the hospital has risen to more than $60,000. A recent drive netted $22,218.48 to be added to $38,000 obtained through sale of bonds five years ago. Of the total received in the recent drive, $14,881.21 was obtained in the Hot Springs area, $4,597.27 in the Thompson Falls area and $2,740 in the Plains district. One of the largest single donations was made by the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Indian tribal council at Dixon which gave $1,500 to the hospital fund.

A new county hospital was built at Plains and the old county hospital now houses Evergreen Care Center.

BUYER AND SELLER BOTH GUILTY IN WILD MEAT EXCHANGE

According to Game Warden A.H. Cheney, Norris Irvin of Hot Springs is in the county jail in lieu of cash to pay his fine of $200 for selling elk meat for some Indians. Also implicated and fined $27.50 apiece for buying the elk meat were Paul Werth, Eric Bergman, Angus Henderson and Herb Annis. Indians, Rose and Ed Sorimpt were turned over to the Agency. Both Mr. Cheney and Patrolman Art Wilkes worked on the case which was completed recently.

COUNTIES RECEIVE FUNDS FROM NATIONAL BISON RANGE

Information received by George Mushbach, Superintendent of Refuges, from the Fish and Wildlife Service, is to the effect that Lake County will receive from the Federal Government $2,700.74 to be credited to the road and school funds for the fiscal year ending July 1, 1949, Sanders County will receive $3,057.77 – a total of $5,758.51 for both counties.

This represents 25% of money received from the sale of surplus refuge products for the National Bison Range. The receipts are largely from the sale of buffalo and other big game animals which are disposed of each year. These sales for the 1949 fiscal year amounted to $23,034.04. The receipts are pro-rated according to the acreage of Bison Range lands embraced in each county.

GAME COUNT

Frank Gummer and Pete Danielson, out of the State Fish & Game office, conducted a game count on Cherry Creek Reserve from January 17 to 23, with the following results: 279 elk, 79 mule deer and 17 white tail deer.

DRIVER EDUCATION IN MONTANA HIGH SCHOOLS IS PERSONALLY AUTHORIZED BY GOV. BONNER

Montana and the other 47 states have joined in a common program designed to promote driver education in the high schools as a means of curbing ‘teen-age recklessness on the highways and generally improving driving habits among the nation’s future motorists.’

Governor John W. Bonner personally authorized Montana’s participation and has appointed Bodley Vacura of the Montana State Highway Patrol, as state coordinator of the program. In that capacity, Mr. Vacura will promote driver education in high schools throughout the state.

My father, who was born in 1926, never took driver education and never took a driver’s test. His dad took him to the courthouse when he was 12 and told them he (my father) needed a driver’s license and they issued one to him.

• In 1930 only 24 states required a license to drive a car.

• In 1908 Henry Ford launched the Model T. Ford got his first driver license at the age of 56 in 1919 in Michigan.

• In the farm country of South Dakota kids 14 years old can get a restricted driver license. South Dakota also was the last state to issue driver’s license without exams. They finally instituted driver’s exams in 1959.