50 YEARS AGO • APRIL 11, 1968

PACK RIVER PURCHASES DIEHL LUMBER MILL

Sale of the Diehl Lumber Co., one of Sanders County’s major lumber producers, to the Panhandle Lumber Sales, Inc. of Idaho, a division of the Pack River Lumber Co. of Sandpoint, was announced Tuesday by Stan Diehl, one of the firm’s owners. The sale was effective April 1.

Diehl said no changes are planned in the mill’s operation and that he will serve as manager of the plant for Panhandle. His brother, Edwin Diehl, who was a partner in the firm, plans to remain in Plains and do woods work, Stan said.

Details of the transaction were handled by Stan and Jim Brown, who with his brother, Larry Brown, owns Pack River.

No major changes in operation of the Plains plant are contemplated.

Stan and Jim Brown were the guys who started the mill just east of town that is now a vacant space. It started as Brown’s Lumber Co., then became Pack River Lumber Co., renamed Thompson Falls Lumber Co., which was bought by W-I Forest Products, then Crown Pacific before it closed.

40 YEARS AGO • APRIL 13, 1978

TF LOGGER PURCHASES FIRST TREE HARVESTER

Thompson Falls logging contractor, Joe Bybee is taking a $140,000 gamble that a John Deere 743 Tree Harvester will pay off. Joe says the new machine, just released for commercial sale last June is the first in Montana.

Joe took delivery of his tree harvester Thursday and after receiving instruction in its operation began falling trees Friday for a county road right-of-way north of town. This week he has the machine at work on the Lyle “Tuffy” Smith ranch north of town logging a woodland.

The tree grabs a tree at ground level, shears the trees with hydraulically powered jaws, then picks up the tree and places it in a hopper at the side of the machine for the delimbing operation. The machine can harvest trees up to 18 inches in diameter at the base.

Other advantages provided by the machine is the fact that as logs are delimbed, the slash is windrowed or placed in a pile.

The machine will provide better timber utilization since it will cut trees closer to the ground and take advantage of smaller tops, Bybee says.

As Joe sees the machine, he thinks it will be ideally suited for use in harvesting second growth timber in the Clark Fork Valley which now is nearing harvesting stage after much of the valley’s timber was destroyed by the 1910 fire.

ARCHITECT PICKED FOR COUNTY JAIL

The Helena architectural firm of Taylor and Holtz has been awarded a contract to design a new Sanders County jail.

Commissioner George W. Wells said the one-story building will contain 4,640 square feet of floor space and be located adjacent to the present jail. “It is being planned to meet the immediate minimum needs of the county but will have provisions, so an addition can be added in later years if the needs increase and money becomes available.”

In addition to cell blocks for male, female and juvenile prisoners, the structure will include office space for the sheriff’s dept.

The three county commissioners said it is necessary for the county to take steps toward construction of the jail in order to avoid having the present jail closed, which would force the county to transport its prisoners to Missoula.

Wells noted that the State Dept. of Health and Environmental Sciences has threatened to close the jail unless the county comes up with definite plans for a new jail.

The present jail has been criticized by state inspectors because it lacks a fire escape and fire risks are considered excessive.

The present jail building will be used for county storage space and possible office space for the future.

After the construction of the new jail a number of concerned citizens learned that the commissioners were planning on demolishing the old jail and turning the area into parking space. After a lot of discussion, the commissioners were persuaded to turn the building over to the group who began the present museum group, the Sanders County Historical Society, and the building now serves as a museum.