History - Looking Back for October 18, 2023
A look back at past Pilot articles by Julie Engler
50 Years Ago
October 18, 1973
The Montana State Highway Department set the cost of curbs for the proposed roadbed construction on Highway 93 at $2,485. The city of Whitefish was informed that funds from the gas tax fund could be used for this project. The highway department was proposing to replace the roadbed on 93 between Second and Fourth Avenues and notified the city earlier of the city’s responsibility for the cost of the new curbing.
40 Years Ago
October 20, 1983
A group of Kalispell businessmen and Flathead County Commissioner Mel Wollan decided to press for a new route to the Big Mountain Ski area. Wollan has long advocated a new road to Big Mountain and in the past has suggested routes through the Haskill Basin area west of Whitefish. Bill Martin, chairman of the board of Winter Sports, Inc., parent company of the ski resort suggested the group wait until a preliminary master plan is completed before taking further action. Dale Haarr of Kalispell, who helped organize the meeting, told the group he feels the road is “miserable,” and he hates to send his children on it in the winter.
30 Years Ago
October 21, 1993
The Whitefish City Council unanimously defeated a request to zone 66 acres of agricultural and unzoned land east of the city to allow for an industrial park. An overflow crowd of more than 60 people packed the small council chambers and spilled out into the lobby to show their opposition to the proposed zoning, which would affect land located east of East Second Street, between East Edgewood and the Burlington Northern Railroad. “I’m thinking generations down the line,” said Councilor Jimmy Welsh. “On the whole, that place out there is not the place for an industrial park.”
20 Years Ago
October 16, 2003
Chris Burke liked to describe himself nonchalantly as a “backcountry plumber” who’s been known to fix chain saws with a common click pen. His official title was seasonal maintenance worker at the Granite Chalet, a historic chalet built in 1914 in Glacier National Park. A federal award added one more world to his job description: courageous. “For the courage you displayed, selflessly risking your safety and life in a successful attempt to save the lives of 39 individuals trapped at Granite Park Chalet during the Trapper Creek fire.”
10 Years Ago
October 16, 2013
Plans to construct a $70 million resort hotel and convention center in Whitefish were scrapped. An unnamed Midwest developer withdrew his proposal for the Two Elks Lodge due to personal health reasons, explained Kellie Danielson, president of Montana West Economic Development. The resort would have included a 150-room hotel, year-round ice rink, a 45,000 square-foot water park with a wave pool and splash park, an outdoor amphitheater, jogging trails, restaurants and a retail shopping plaza.