Remember When?

105 YEARS AGO • AUGUST 2, 1917

BIG HAUL OF CHAR

Fishing For Market, Spokane Man and Sons Seine 300 Pounds of Big Trout

A Spokane man and his sons are seining for char at the mouth of Prospect Creek. A sein seventy-five feet long and eight feet deep is used in the process. Tuesday they succeeded in drawing in nearly 300 pounds of the big trout. These are to be marketed in Butte and the fishers receive 15 cents a pound for them so that their day’s work carried with it a good reward. At present the fish are contained in a tank at the mouth of the reek. A special permit from the state game warden to use the seine and market the fish costs five dollars.

80 YEARS AGO

WANT SUPERVISION

Supervision of Swimming Hole Being Organized

A movement is underway to provide a lifeguard at the local swimming pool. This action deserves support of every civic and fraternal organization in the vicinity.

If successful, this program will result in the employment of Harvey Brauer to supervise use of the swimming hole during the period of 3 to 5 p.m. each day, Monday through Friday, until school starts in September.

Our bathing place is dangerous to life for even good swimmers. It is almost prohibitive for youngsters in the learners’ class, unless controlled by a qualified swimmer. The old swimming hole was at the river west of Wild Goose Landing Park.

Tentative plans contemplate roping off an area for beginners placing improvised buoys for guidance of skilled swimmers and above all else it will provide a watchful eye over our Thompson Falls kiddies, while they engage in a necessary but dangerous sport.

Support by clubs, lodges and other organizations is certainly to be expected. It will cost but little. It may save the life of some bright-eyed youngster – maybe yours or mine.

50 YEARS AGO • JULY 6, 1972

Artifacts which may be from “Salish House,” one of three trading posts built by David Thompson, fur trader, cartographer and explorer who was a partner in the Northwest Co. of Canada in 1908, have been uncovered near Thompson Falls by students and faculty members from the University of Montana Dept. of History and Anthropology. The artifacts, including trade beads, parts of a flintlock from an old rifle, a 10-gallon wooden keg and bits of metal from a bucket have been discovered in exploration since 1961 as part of a continuing search to locate the definite site of the Salish House.

40 YEARS AGO • JULY 15, 1982

BASS PLANTED IN RESERVOIR

The first planting of smallmouth bass in a stream in the Clark Fork River drainage was made here Friday when the Montana Dept. of Fish, Wildlife and Parks released approximately 118,426 fingerlings at the Flatiron Ridge boat landing.

According to Joe Huston, Region One fish biologist the bass should reach catchable sizes of 15 to 18 inches long in two or three years.

The fingerlings were trucked here from the Federal Fish Hatchery at Miles City. They were spawned six weeks ago.

Large mouth bass have resided in the Noxon Rapids Reservoir for several years and anglers have reported catching them, particularly in the shallow water at Finlay Flats.

Huston said the Finlay Flats water was seined a few weeks ago and some four-pound bass were netted and released.

He said the smallmouth bass is a “territorial fish” and not prone to migrate.

The release of the bass fingerlings is the latest in a continuing effort by the Montana DFWP and WWP to create a satisfactory fishery in the Noxon Rapids Reservoir.

In the years since the reservoir was flooded in 1960, the state agency and utility have conducted numerous studies and made several plantings of different fish varieties. Included have been several plantings of rainbow trout, brown trout, ling doc, and now smallmouth bass. Several efforts have been made to establish a native trout population by planting trout eggs in the spring water at the Richard Wilkinson place above the mouth of Prospect Creek.

Most of the work has been carried out by state employees and financed by WWP grants.