Remember When?

70 YEARS AGO • JUNE 6, 1951

WILL BE ONE OF FINEST IN NORTHWEST

Thompson Falls soon will have one of the most modern lumber manufacturing plants in western Montana. Rebuilding and expansion of the Thompson Falls Lumber Company plant is nearing completion and the mill will resume operations within about two weeks according to manager Arden Davis.

The local plant will have further distinction in that it will be the only one in the Pacific Northwest, aside from tidewater operations, rigged to mill, kiln-dry and plane timbers and lumber 36 feet in length.

The modernization program was started last December. Besides the new mill, the company has constructed two new double-track Moore dry kilns and a new boiler house.

The new mill building is 30 by 100 feet in size and houses a new filing room as well as the new head rig and a new 7 ft. band mill. The portion of the mill containing the edger, trimmer and slasher will be rebuilt later.

With 17 small motors and six large ones ranging up to 250 horsepower in size, the new mill is all-electric except for the steam-driven 14-inch shotgun for the carriage. This is the largest piece of equipment of its kind manufactured.

The big head rig has been designed so that it will be capable of sawing timbers and lumber up to 36 feet in length from logs up to four feet in diameter. To accomplish this, the carriage has a trailer which can be detached when shorter logs are being sawed.

Work has been completed on a new boiler house 48 by 53 feet in size, except for laying a cement floor. The building is of cement block construction and has a new sawdust hopper adjacent. Two 150 hp boilers were installed. More than 51,000 bricks went into the foundation for the boilers, according to Oscar Christensen, fireman, who says he knows because he "packed most of them."

As with other new construction, the company used its regular plant personnel in order to provide them continuous employment.

Steam is carried from the boilers to the new Moore kilns in a four-inch overhead line. After the mill resumes operation, some lumber may continue to be shipped to the Dover, Idaho, planing mill and kilns of Pack River Lumber Company for processing. The Thompson Falls planing mill has a double-profile high-speed planer.

Various lumbermen from over the Northwest who have visited the new plant here say that it is one of the finest and most efficiently designed units of its kind in the region.

40 YEARS AGO • JUNE 11, 1981

TROUT CREEK NAMED HUCKLEBERRY CAPITAL

It's official!

Trout Creek is the Huckleberry Capital of Montana.

And the Trout Creek Community Improvement Association has a proclamation signed by Gov. Ted Schwinden proving it.

The framed proclamation was presented to the association Monday night at its June session by State Rep. Chris Stobie. Accepting the proclamation was Don Park, president of TCCIA.

In addition to proclaiming the community as the Huckleberry Capital of Montana, Gov. Schwinden also proclaimed the dates August 15 and 16 as Huckleberry Festival dates in Montana. It perhaps is a coincidence that the two August days are the dates for this year's third annual Huckleberry Festival at Trout Creek.

The idea to have Trout Creek designated as the state's top huckleberry community originated with Judy Simonson. She made the suggestion to Cabinet District Ranger Ron Humphrey and he advanced it to Park. They in turn contacted Rep.Stobie who sold the idea to a cooperative Gov. Schwinden.

Stobie also reported that Dick Vinson of Vinson Timber Products had his mill build a large highway sign calling attention to Trout Creek's new designation. The sign can be erected at either approach to Trout Creek, Stobie told President Park.