80 YEARS AGO • JANUARY 27, 1943

THE BIG SNOW

This section of Montana from all reports has experienced the heaviest snows in a decade for the past ten days. Old timers recount back to days long ago when the snow around here was three feet deep on the level. But very few of these generation here have seen such heavy snows. However, if the snow keeps falling as it is week after week and accumulating layer on layer, we may yet see three feet of snow on the level around here in the valley. We have seen January months when there wasn’t any snow on the level at all and people could burn brush.

Around Noxon – Heron the snow is even heavier than around here since they are in the heaviest rainfall and snow belts in the state. The Heron community has been practically snowbound for the past week. Commissioner M.C. Sutherland covering his district where the heaviest snowfall prevails has been on the go almost constantly directing the county road clearing machinery and crews to open up as many roads as possible.

Oh Boy! Won’t we have fun this spring if all the snow starts running off at once after a warm rain! On the high passes there is a tremendous snowfall. Some time ago before the last big snows Willis Moore reported ten feet of snow on the Burke pass. There is doubtless twenty feet or more by this time. Talk about high water if the snow goes off fast; the Clarks Fork will roar like a Niagara with the sweep of the entire Western Montana, Flathead and Glacier Park drainage for hundreds of miles pouring into it. We’re going to see some sights we predict, with the boom crews working night and day to keep the drift from piling against the dam floodgates. With the shortage of labor prevailing local business men may have to volunteer their services and patrol the boom with boom sticks to help out in the emergency as they did during the last big high water eight or nine years ago.

SNOW SNOW

Vermilion News

Due to being snowbound everyone but a few have had to stay home with not much to occupy their time except to wonder why the county snow plow doesn’t show up.

Some of the neighbors tried to make snowplows but didn’t succeed, not having enough power to handle this amount of snow.

The mail man has been unable to carry mail for the past week and a half which made matters worse. No mail and very few groceries left.

Mr. Lagge ventured out on skis Sunday. He intended to go to see Howard Bleick but found the going too hard.

GAME SITUATION CRITICAL

The wild game situation is critical in western Montana this year. The heavy snows have covered over shrubs and foliage, berries and other foods that upland birds, pheasants, deer, elk and other animals live on. This kind of winter makes a banner year for the coyotes, lynx, panther, the wolf pack and other predatory species which prey on the weakened game which cannot escape them due to the deep snow. In such winters as this isolated sections of deer and elk are slaughtered by the thousands. L.A. Wilkes, the Highway Patrolman stationed here tells us that game birds by the hundreds are sometimes seen along the roads and deer are met on the plowed out roads constantly.

In many parts of western Montana the sportsmen clubs are distributing feed to the wild game.

SEPTEMBER, 1932

TELEPHONE COMPANY INSTALLS CIRCUIT

An initial copper telephone circuit has been constructed and is now in operation between Thompson Falls, Montana and Clarks Fork, Idaho, a distance of approximately 56 miles, according to an announcement made today by Phoebe Eplin, local manager of the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company.

The new circuit also will serve toll stations in Montana at Heron, Noxon Ranger Station, Noxon, Tuscor, Trout Creek Ranger Station, Trout Creek, White Pine and Belknap. A high grade of transmission is assured by the new facilities, Mrs. Eplin said.

The cost of the new circuit was in the neighborhood of $9,000 the local manager added.