Remember When?

105 YEARS AGO • JUNE 23, 1916

RIVER RAISES FOOT A DAY – TRACKS THREATENED

Floods All Over the Northwest – Highest Water Since 1894 – Freak Storm Raises Havoc

With several days of extreme hot weather last week when the thermometer reached 90 degrees on Thursday, 92 on Friday and 98 on Saturday, Palouse dust storm on Sunday followed by the big thunderstorm of Sunday night, rain all day Monday followed by a foot of heavy snow Tuesday afternoon and night, nobody, whether he be Eskimo or Mexican has anything on us for variety of weather.

The Clark’s Fork River is booming, due to the warm weather, followed by the rain and then the big snowstorm and every preparation possible is being made to protect highways, railroads and bridges. The town of Clarks Fork is reported under water and all along the line come reports of bridges being washed out and trains delayed.

The Thompson Falls Power Company have had both night and day crews busy on top of the big dam clearing away the drift as rapidly as it floated down the river and diverting it through the water ways, while a crew is also working all the time at the boom above town cutting trees and logs in two that they might be more easily handled when they reach the dam. On the top of the dam an electric crane is moved back and forth along the track and is being used to raise logs and trees out of the water whenever they catch on the steel work. Many of the timbers have to be sawed in two before they will clear the steel standards and this is dangerous work for the men employed, for if by chance one should fall in the river from the top of the dam, down the falls they would go and it would be their last trip.

Over a foot of wet, heavy snow fell Tuesday afternoon and night, breaking down shade and fruit trees around the town and reports are coming in from the rural sections of whole orchards broken down and destroyed, telephone and electric wires are down and the 21st of June 1916 , the longest day of the year will be remembered as having the most destructive storm known here in history for this season of the year.

The Great Northern railroad has been tied up since Monday and if the rivers continue to raise as all signs indicate, it will be but a few days when the Northern Pacific will also be out of commission. Great Northern trains are now all routed over the Northern Pacific.

Bonners Ferry is under water from three to four feet deep and parts of the lower part of the city are under 15 feet because of an unprecedented rise in the Kootenai River. Melting snow in the mountains caused the river to rise. Reports from Libby, indicate the river may go higher.

Sunday night the Great Northern main line was cut by a washout a short distance east of Eureka.

While efforts were being made to repair this, other washouts occurred further west and on the Fernie branch. Along the Kootenai River the road is submerged for several miles, some places to a depth of three feet.

70 YEARS AGO JUNE 20, 1951

EARLY DAY LIVERY DRIVER SUCCUMBS

Word of the death of “Tuck” Allen, early-day Thompson Falls livery stable operator and driver, was received here by friends here last Saturday.

Mr. Allen came here in 1900 from Kentucky and became known by the nickname “Tuck.” In the days of the livery stables he covered most of this area of western Montana in a horse-drawn vehicle, carrying supplies to prospectors, miners and lumbermen. He reared a family here before leaving the vicinity a number of years ago. Three sons, Harold of Three Forks, James of Butte & Oscar of Thompson Falls and three daughters, Hilda and Ethel of Phoenix and Bessie of Los Angeles, survive.

50 YEARS AGO • July 1, 1971

LATE STORM STRIKES AREA

A late June rain and snowstorm struck much of western Montana Monday and Tuesday morning causing some logging operations to be curtailed temporarily because of slick and muddy roads. Heavy rain started falling Sunday evening and fell throughout Monday turning to snow in higher elevations and at Noxon and in Thompson River country. Herb Roehling, superintendent of the Noxon Rapids Hydroelectric project, reported snow had fallen during the night in the Noxon area. Five inches of snow fell at the Little Bitterroot Lake area west of Kalispell and all mountains surrounding Thompson Falls were white Tuesday morning. More than an inch of rain was recorded in this area.

In light of our recent heat wave, most Sanders County residents would welcome the weather mentioned in these articles.