Remember When?

105 YEARS AGO • JULY 3, 1919

HERON GENERAL STORE ROBBED

Robbers Secure $3,150 in Money and Goods on Friday Night

The general store of Kinney Honberger at Heron, near the Idaho line, was robbed of goods and money valued at $3,150 by two men shortly before midnight on last Friday night and the proprietor and one customer were held up, tied up, and put in the cellar where they finally worked themselves loose and notified Sheriff Hartman.

The goods stolen consisted of $1,500 in Liberty bonds, $700 in thrift stamps, $750 in cash and three cases of whiskey, valued at $80 each.

The two men entered the store about 11 p.m. and asked for sardines and crackers. When Mr. Honberger served them, they drew revolvers and covered him. Then they started to tie his arms to his sides and his feet together. While they were engaged in this Fred Allen, a customer, walked in. He was held up and tied up also, and the robbers took the two men through a trap door into the cellar.

When the robbers searched Honberger and Allen they missed a small penknife that Allen had in his watch pocket and he succeeded in getting the knife and cut himself and Honberger loose, and immediately notified the authorities here (considering the time period, I imagine they had to go to the train depot and have a telegraph sent).

When Sheriff Hartman, Deputy Roy Hart, Jack Prouty and Alex Allen arrived at Heron they were told that there were three men in the gang and that they came to Heron by automobile and departed the same way, and as it was impossible to telegraph to the nearby towns it was necessary to start out tracing the automobiles that had left Heron.

As it later developed there were three men in the party and they walked to Heron and escaped the same way, going to Clark Fork and Hope, Idaho.

60 YEARS AGO • JULY 2, 1964

JAYCEES TO BUILD FLOATING DOCK

Plans to construct an inverted “L” shaped boat dock at the boat landing for the Thompson Falls reservoir at the east edge of the city were announced Tuesday by the Thompson Falls Jaycees.

The dock will extend southward approximately 80 feet into the lake and then run eastward approximately 40 feet parallel with Highway 10A. The shorter end will be anchored by a cable to the large rock which has the diving board anchored on it now.

The dock will be floating, but anchored all the way around. The area in the center will be used as a public swimming pool with the dock separating boat traffic on two sides.

The entire project will be for use by the general public.

DRY CLEAN FIRM OPENED BY SAINTS

Saint’s Dry Cleaning, a coin-operated self-service dry cleaning establishment, has opened for business in the Sint Building in the space formerly occupied by Duke's Sporting Goods. (The building has burned and there’s a burger food truck there now.) Mr. and Mrs. H.R. Saint are the owners and operators.

The establishment is equipped with two automatic RCA Whirlpool machines. The machines dry clean, dry and cool clothes automatically.

30 YEARS AGO

JUNE 23, 1994

MAIL ARRIVES - SIX YEARS LATE

It’s said that neither rain nor sleet nor snow will stop the mail from getting through but what about decommissioned ships?

Last week Jeannette Guldseth of Thompson Falls received an unsealed letter that she mailed to her son Bob while he was in the navy six years ago.

“I got it back last Saturday, the eighteenth of June, 1994,” Guldseth said.

The only explanation Guldseth received was the return to sender stamp on the front of the letter and a return address stating that the U.S.S. Pyro, the ship Bob Guldseth was stationed on, had been decommissioned. Flecks of plaster were also stuck to the front of the letter.

She said she hasn’t a clue what’s in the letter but will send it to her son in Carmel, California, where he now works.

In six years Guldseth said she never gave the letter a second thought.

Jeannette Guldseth is the mother of Julie Guldseth Watts of Plains.