The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
Sorted by date Results 201 - 225 of 511
It was Christmas Eve in McClellan Gulch in 1867 when a young man wrapped up some late evening grocery shopping before heading to saloon to have a drink to celebrate the holiday. Among the miners celebrating the holiday, John Smoot soon found himself in an affray that would cost him his life and lead to an important - but almost entirely forgotten - milestone in the history of Montana jurisprudence: the first legal murder conviction in Montana Territory. The tale of the event...
Small businesses have faced unprecedented challenges in 2020. As the COVID-19 pandemic wore on throughout the year, small businesses continued to confront the economic fallout wrought by the virus. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the number of active business owners in the United States plummeted by 22 percent in the early stages of the pandemic. Though many businesses managed to hang on as the pandemic continued through spring, summer and fall, such...
Dawn Charron served for nearly 30 years in the Montana Air National Guard as a Supply Specialist. She retired as a Senior Master Sgt in 2014 and is now an active member of the Lincoln American Legion Post 9. "I was almost 24 years old when I joined," Charron said, "I joined the Montana Air National Guard because everything I had in my whole life was because of the Montana Air National Guard. My dad joined 25 years and a day before me. I decided I was going to provide for my...
Deviance is difficult to define and many who study the concept disagree on how it should be defined. However, the closest definition in its most basic form is that deviance is any violation of societal norms. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines an individual who is named a deviant as “a person who differs markedly from what is considered normal or acceptable.” The labeling of a deviant can be based on a range of behaviors and depends on an endless number of social norms. This includes anything from a person in a religious hom...
HELENA – The Montana Outdoor Hall of Fame recently announced the class of inductees for 2020. MHOF was created to honor individuals, both living and deceased, who have made lasting contributions to the restoration and conservation of Montana's wild animals, places and rivers. The awards also capture the stories of these conservation heroes to enhance public awareness of Montana's conservation history and inspire others to do their part to keep Montana special. The inductees f...
Harry Arvidson was a Navy submariner during World War II and was part of the crew to which the Japanese "super submarine" I-400 surrendered at the end of the war. "I went in the service in July of 1942. We had gotten into the war on Dec 7 of '41, and I was just turning 17 and so I was going to have to register for the draft, and I didn't want to go into the Army, so I joined the Navy," said Arvidson. "I finished my sophomore year and then I quite high school and went in the...
Throughout my entire life, the sport of wrestling has brought amazing people into my lane. We just lost one of the greats. In 2014 I had the privilege of becoming friends with Bob Zadick, and his wife. Bob, in his mid 70's at the time, came to me one day with the intentions of starting a wrestling club here in Lincoln. That following winter, we did just that. Bob kickstarted the Lincoln Loggers wrestling club. Through the years of working with and learning from Bob, I became...
Lincoln's American Legion Post 9 moved their annual Veterans' Day observance from the Community Hall to Hooper Park Nov. 11, due to concerns about COVID-19. Despite the abbreviated ceremony and cold weather nearly two dozen people attended to show their respects....
This summer, seven empty lots on the face of Big Mountain in Whitefish were put up for sale - the smallest was just over a half an acre and listed at $1.2 million. The owners of the Northern Lights development weren't accepting offers on the properties until Sept. 1, but once they did, offers came flooding in. By the end of October, six of the seven lots had been sold. In years past, those lots might have waited much longer for buyers, but in 2020 the quick sales exemplify...
I wonder if Tommy jinxed it when he named it After a woman, for all it might forebode. He should’ve named it Cruseville, for himself, Who opened a vein, and found the mother lode. “Just like a woman, ain’t it?” the old men grouched. Despite the gifts she gave, despite our labors, She dried up just like Silver Creek in summer, And now she is withholding all her favors. *Marysville is a ghost town in western Montana, built and established around the Drumlummon Mine in 1876 by founder Thomas Cruse. Allen is the adminis...
Stemple Pass is well known landmark in the Lincoln area. Once a primary route between Helena and Lincoln, today it's a popular byway that provides access to outdoor activities year round. But who was this pass, and the surrounding mining district, actually named for? John Adam Stemple was born in Preston County, W. Va., March 16, 1834. His family is reportedly settled in Virginia in 1774, after two brothers arrived in the colonies. Members of the Stemple clan are also said to...
Ken Gellatly joined the Army in 1961. "I got drafted, but they beat me to it. I was just getting ready to go enlist, but I wasn't sure I was going to go to the Army. I was maybe going to go into the Air Force. I wanted to be a pilot," Gellatly said. Gellatly served his basic training in Fort Ord, Calif., then got shipped to Fort Campbell, Ky. as a mechanic in the 101st Airborne. "I was in the rec room playing pool the day Kennedy got shot," he said. After that, he got orders...
The Montana Business Assistance Connection has been working in Lewis and Clark, Broadwater, and Meagher counties for more than two decades to support local economies and livability. MBAC mentors businesses through collaborative work with partners like the Service Corps of Retired Executives, the Small Business Development Center, and Chambers of Commerce to help local business owners identify ways to support the unique needs of their community. MBAC has supported a number of...
Work to rebuild the Matt King House has been underway for much of this summer, with work to raise the walls taking a big step forward last week...
Shooting Stars "I'll toss my coins in the fountain, Look for clovers in grassy lawns Search for shooting stars in the night Cross my fingers and dream on." ~ Tracy Chapman Lincoln, Montana is lucky enough to see two varieties of shooting stars over the course of the year. Dodecatheon pulchellum, also called the darkthroat, pretty, or prairie shooting star, is native to Montana and shows up in early spring. The meteoric variety of shooting star is visible locally in the night...
Editor's Note: As many of our readers are aware, the Lincoln-area has a significant population of veterans of the Armed Services. In honor of Veteran's Day this year we are kicking off a what we hope will be a regular series of features highlighting individual veterans and their service. Don LaRoque served in the Navy submarine service for 14 years as a sonar technician. LaRoque grew up in Great Falls and joined the military a few months out of high school, in 1978. "I always...
Lincoln resident Theresa Proff raises a variety of animals on her property, most notably bobcats and African cats. Proff bought her first bobcat after she got married and moved to Montana from Alaska in 2011. "I've been a cat lover all my life. We had an opportunity to buy a bobcat kitten from a breeder in Arkansas, so that was the start," she said. The bobcat, Lakota, is now eight years old. "I got another bobcat kitten from a breeder in Montana," said Proff. His name is Tund...
Ken Crymble has worked with the Lincoln Volunteer Fire Department for about 15 years, and recently celebrated his 50th year as a firefighter. Over the years, Crymble has worked in city fire departments, in mines and in rural departments like Lincoln. Crymble started out fighting fires in February, 1970 when he first got on with the Fire Department in Riverton, Wyo. "Then I got into the EMS part of it, too," said Crymble, who was part of the second group in the state of...
Hunters will be taking to the field this weekend for a Montana tradition. If you're out game, be safe and good luck! Remember, with Montana FWP's switch to regular paper tags this year, keep them in a sealable plastic bag, before and after validating them, to keep them from getting wet and unreadable. If you have a successful hunt and bring home a trophy, send the BVD a photo.. We'll be glad to publish it....
The BVD picked up 15 awards in the 2020 Montana Newspaper's Association's Better Newspaper Contest. The Dispatch, a Division 1 newspape with a circulation of fewer than 1250, picked up seven first-place awards, three second-place and five third-place awards. This year marked the most awards Lincoln's newspaper has won since first entering the annual contests in 2014. The BVD won a first place award for page design for the page featuring Lincoln High School Entrepreneur Class'...
"The planted larch trees are burnished gold. What a wondrous forest they have become." -Tomonari The western larch, or Larix occidentalis, is also known as the western tamarack or hackmatack. Montana is home to a second species of larch, the Larix lyallii, also known as the subalpine larch, the alpine larch, and the woolly larch, but these usually grow at a higher altitude than the western larch. Larch trees are known as deciduous conifers, meaning that although they may look...
A new book by Dr. Amy Dempsey, entitled Destination Art is set to showcase Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild as one of only about 200 worldwide art destinations. This is the second edition of the book Destination Art published by Thames & Hudson and is due out April 2021. It will be the first time BPSW has been featured in a book. Kevin O'Dwyer, artistic director and curator of BPSW, had a previous project called Sculpture in the Parklands included in the first...
This past weekend was the annual Alpine Artisans Tour of the Arts. Artists were featured at galleries through the Seeley Swan Valley, Ovando and Lincoln. With advertising in Helena, Missoula, Great Falls, Seeley and Lincoln newspapers, people came from as far as Idaho and Billings to see artists and their artwork in the Blackfoot Valley. While some galleries saw more traffic than others, Lincoln artists Lisa Gibson, Sally Bogart, Gwendolyn Hendricks, and Tammy Jordan, all disp...
ge-ne-al-o-gy : the study of family ancestral lines (Mirriam-Webster dictionary) October is National Family History Month, and there are dozens of free resources to support the research of family lines and personal histories. Genealogy can be an exciting way to learn more about relatives (including ones you might not know you have), the history of places, and more. Resources for genealogical research include tools to help categorize, store, and map information; repositories of records, such as Census data, vital records, and...
