Remember When

 

December 7, 2017



50 YEARS AGO • DECEMBER 7, 1967

YULE LIGHTS BRIGHTEN FALLS FOR 18TH TIME

The lights on the spruce trees along the north side of Main Street went up for the 18th yule season Saturday with members of the Thompson Falls Lions Club and employees of the Montana Power Co. and Mountain States Telephone doing the work.

On hand for their 18th year were two Lions – M.C. Sutherland and Harold Jensen – who were members of the original crew moving the trees in the winter of 1949 from the court house.

Sutherland said that holes about 10 feet by 10 feet and four to five feet deep were dug before the frost settled and the ground was also dug out around the trees and wire netting placed around the root bases. Then a large steel pan or skid was slid under the root ball and the trees pulled to their new home. The 16 trees average about 12 feet in height. Each with its ball of dirt is believed to have weighed up to about a ton.

The actual moving of the trees was done in January.

Only one tree failed to survive, but at the time Sutherland and Jensen recall there were many “doubting Thomases” in the city and a few who made bets that were never paid or collected.

In ensuing years, the Lions and BPW clubs purchased lights to decorate the trees.

Helping decorate the trees and string the colored lights across Main Street Saturday were James Langley, C.R. Duffield, Jack Hamilton, Louis Dufresne, Jim Wilson, Supt. Everett W. Long, Billy Watters, Rev. Lobell Bennett, Gerald Eldridge and Sutherland and Jensen.

The Lions who helped move the spruce trees from the court house area to the north side of Main Street back in 1949 included Kim Roberts, Ralph Space, Gerald Green, Bill Brayman, Ole Johnson, Wes Davis, Hanson, Jim Watson, M.C. Sutherland, Leon Beroth, Con Bentley Sr., Rich Wollaston, Joe Pomajevich, Hershel Butte and Harold Jensen.

CHRISTMAS DAYS ALONG THE TRAIL FROM BELKNAP TO MURRAY

(taken from the Kellogg Idaho Evening News, December 24, 1974)

LEE GEORGE TELLS HIS STORY

“I landed in the gold camp of Murray on Christmas Day, 1884, in company with Dill McFadden and Seth McFarren. The snow was about six feet deep, with a hard curst. Gold mining was at a standstill as the snow was too deep to work the placers. There were Thousands of men scattered along the creek for ten miles. The big job was to get enough to eat and in this we played a considerable part as packers. There were a number of packing outfits, coming in over terrible trails from Belknap and Thompson Falls, over the divide on the N.P. Railroad. Jim Wardner had a string of 40 mules as well as dog teams going over the trails. He charged 40 cents a pound for freight in the winter and 25 cents in the summer.

“We left the N.P. train at Belknap and put up at a hotel. The snow was piled high all along the depot and getting around was difficult.

“Next day we were seeking information about the mines and how to secure a pack train to carry us and out dunnage in. We happened to be at the train when the east bound train came in from Spokane. As we were taking in the sights, who would step up to the mail car and mail some letters but my brother Will. He and a man named Wm. Worstell had come out from Denver a month earlier. It was an agreeable surprise to all and he took me down to his tent and his partner was just lifting a pot of beans from the fire, and we were soon all busy at the eats. When they landed here a month before they went to Spokane and bought several horses and started packing from Belknap to the mines. We got most of our dunnage taken by them, but we carried 50 pounds each on our backs down Clark Fork four miles, and up Beaver Creek to the summit of Bitter Root mountains; thence, down Butte creek to Prichard and on to Murray.

“Will and Worstell took a sub-contract to carry the mail from Belknap to Eagle City, five miles below Murray. Another man and I were put on as riders. We made the trip every day except Sunday and we sure did enjoy that day’s rest. Will and Worstell kept on packing freight into the mines till the snow got too deep then we packed up and left for Murray.

 

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