History - Looking Back for October 4, 2023
A look back at past Pilot articles by Julie Engler
50 Years Ago
October 4, 1973
Officials of Big Mountain expressed anger and concern over fallacious complaints and rumors that the resort’s sewage treatment system was overflowing into First Creek. “We don’t know what it is all about, but these false complaints and rumors have got to stop,” said Norm Kurtz, business manager of the ski area. A verbal complaint made to the State Board of Health office in Kalispell claimed that sewage was being dumped into First Creek by the Big Mountain lagoon system. State officials immediately checked First Creek for coliform and bacteria and checked the lagoon system for its operation.
40 Years Ago
October 6, 1983
Officials from Whitefish and Butte Central met with representatives of the Western A athletic conference to plead their cases concerning a fight after the football game between the two schools. Whitefish athletic director Phil Sword and activities director Terry Williams were going to represent Whitefish at the meeting. The fight occurred after the game as Butte Central was leaving the field. According to Whitefish Police Detective Dan Voelker, Jerry Caldwell, 19, and Chris Wallace, 16, were assaulted by members of Butte’s football team. Caldwell suffered a broken jaw in the incident. Wallace was not seriously injured.
30 Years Ago
October 7, 1993
In separate incidents, Whitefish residents hiking in Glacier National Park used cayenne pepper spray to repel attacking grizzly bears that had charged to within five feet of them. One hiker, Tim Rubbert of Whitefish, used the spray on a grizzly after it had mauled and bitten his hiking companion, Jim Cole of Blankenship. Two other hikers, Jeff Johns and Charlie Scott, both of Whitefish, emptied their cans of pepper spray into the face of a sow that charged them while they were hiking down from Ahern Pass.
20 Years Ago
October 2, 2003
The Whitefish Police Department did some spring cleaning. Anyone interested could buy a piece of Whitefish criminal history in a silent auction in the council chambers. An old bank vault converted by police into an evidence locker was used to store the contraband and unclaimed evidence. Most of the available items were shotguns, handguns and hunting knives, which represent many years of Whitefish criminal activity. Police Lt. Rus Merkley estimated a quarter of the items were taken off of felons who were not allowed to possess weapons. Another quarter were taken into possession due to a crime, with the remainder of merchandise consisting of unclaimed evidence and items turned in by owners who no longer wanted them.
10 Years Ago
October 2, 2013
Plans for a new subdivision on Lion Mountain were in the works. Whitefish resident Ian Collins was proposing to develop Tamarack Ridge with 32 lots on nearly 30 acres off Haugen Heights Road east of the Old Town neighborhood. The undeveloped property was zoned as a country residential district, but Collins was requesting a rezone to estate residential to allow for greater density. The property is outside city limits, but within the Whitefish planning jurisdiction. It was expected to be annexed into the city as part of the subdivision development.