Sanders County Ledger - Your Best Source For Sanders County News

50 YEARS AGO • APRIL 23, 1970

EMPLOYMENT PICTURE BRIGHTER

AS SOME LOGGING RESUMES

The employment picture in Sanders County is improving this week as some loggers returned to the woods and the picture will brighten still further next week after one of the slowest springs in recent years.

The Anaconda Co.'s logging and log hauling operations will get back into full swing Monday. Some loggers returned to the woods this week so that hauling can be resumed Monday.

Many locals are familiar with the ACM (Anaconda Copper & Mining) road which is on the east side of Thompson River. It is a private road that was built by the ACM and is now owned by Weyerhauser. The county road parallels the ACM road on the west. As you get up Thompson River the roads cross back and forth over each other switching from east to west and west to east. After the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) boys built a road through the narrow canyon at the lower end of Thompson River, mankind was eager to get to the huge timber that was growing up Thompson River. In those days it was dangerous to drive on the company road, truckload after truckload of logs were briskly hauled down to a log landing by the mouth of Thompson River. The logs were loaded onto rail cars and sent to mills. Much of Anaconda's logs ended up underground in the mines at Butte.

Major Anaconda contractors at Thompson Falls are Al and Jerry Wulfekuhle's Little Thompson Logging Co. and LHC, Inc. Formerly Claridge Trucking Co.

A busy construction year appears in the offing, although financing and other problems are causing delays.

Work is scheduled to be resumed soon on construction of the Clark Fork General Hospital at Plains. Tuesday, the Montana Highway Commission will open bids for construction of a concrete beam bridge across the Bull River on Highway 200 north of Noxon.

Also, in the near future, the Bonneville Power Administration is expected to call for bids for construction of its new high voltage transmission line from Dworshak Dam in Idaho to the Hot Springs substation.

In June, the Montana Highway Commission is expected to open bids for clearing and construction of a 3.5 mile section of the Thompson Pass short-cut road.

In the more distant future is the construction of a new $790,000 high school at Thompson Falls.

RESTRAINING DEVICES CUT CHILD FATALITIES

If more Montana children had been required to use property designed restraining devices (bassinets, safety harnesses, lap belts, etc.), perhaps many of the children under 15 years of age who died in motor vehicle accidents in Montana would be alive.

An article in the January edition of "Pediatrics," calls upon physicians to recognize the importance of restraining devices that "afford the highest degree of dynamic protection," for children.

The following restraining devices are recommended for children according to their specific weight categories:

*Children from birth to 12 pounds should be transported in a rear-seat bassinet or car bed held in place by front and rear seat safety belts. The bassinet should be parallel to the long axis of the car, with the infant in a feet-forward position.

*Children from 12 to 24 pounds should be placed in a properly constructed rear seat safety harness or toddler seat.

*Children from 25 to 50 pounds should be placed in a good safety child seat. At present, the shield type seat design affords superior protection.

*Children weighing more than 50 pounds should use the adult lap belt and, when their height exceeds 55 inches, the adult shoulder harness should also be used.

By 1985 the first child passenger safety laws were passed. This required children under a certain age to be in a car seat when riding in a vehicle.