Traveling back in time: This day in Bonners Ferry History
100 Year
The school wagon, driven by Douglas Irving, was struck by a Great Northern freight train last Friday morning after the load of children had been delivered at the school house and while the wagon was being taken to the Frank Garris livery stable. It is young Irving’s custom to leave his outfit at the livery stable and return to school. He failed to see the approaching train. The engine struck in about the middle of the wagon and tossed the enclosed top off the right of way and partly down the embankment, leaving it resting on its side. Douglas extricated himself from the wreckage with only a few bruises, while the horses broke away and ran through town to the S.I. track, where they became entangled in the timber of the overhead crossing. The floor of the wagon was badly splintered at one end and other slight damages done. The train was moving very slowly, merely “floating” and about to come to a stop, which it did within a few yards of the accident. It was the freight known as the supply train. Had the accident happened while the wagon was loaded with children, without question a terrible tragedy would have been the result. The wagon is the one that carries the children living along the Kootenai river.
The school having the highest per cent of attendance in the county during the month of December was the Curley Creek school. The per cent of attendance was 100. The Curley Creek school also had the highest average attendance in November.
50 Year
Teresa Burkholder, 12, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jim Burkholder of Bonners Ferry, participated in the Little Theatre production of “Around the World in 90 Minutes,” held in Sandpoint last Wednesday evening in conjunction with the Schweitzer basin winter ski carnival.
Mrs. Theresa Bighead, 101, passed away last Sunday evening at the Boundary county nursing home following a lingering illness. She lived her entire life in Boundary county and had made her home at St. Michael’s Mission since its establishment. Official records indicate that she was born while Idaho was still a territory, on Jan. 15, 1866, in what is now Boundary county. She was a daughter of Temo and Selicitino Slackeslama. In the late 1870’s or early 1880’s married Stanislau Bighead in Bonners Ferry.
The rural home of Cliff Miller, located in Pleasant Valley, was destroyed by a fire of unknown origin Tuesday morning. Miller returned from his graveyard shift job with the Spokane International railway and the house “exploded in flames” when he opened the door. It was impossible to salvage anything from the building. There reportedly was some insurance coverage.
Seen and Heard….Monk Faber wondering if there’s a pill to fix it after falling on his face at Schweitzer….
15 Year
“Who wants to be a million-aire?” With that rhetorical question, Gov. Dirk Kempthorne on Tuesday presented a $1.3 million check to the Boundary County School District in the form of a health and safety grant. The only catch? In order to cash the check, the district must pass a facilities levy on Feb. 5. The levy would build a new high school as well as pay for major improvements to every school in the district. The junior high would be closed and after some alterations the current high school would become the junior high. The $10.6 million levy requires 55 percent to pass.
The week’s Athlete of the Week is Heidi Diel, a freshman at Bonners Ferry High School and daughter of Gus and Jeannie Diel. A post player on the Badgers’ girls “C” team, Heidi had a breakout game against Deer Park as she poured in a season-high 10 points along with five rebounds.
As far as nailbiters go, this one, went right down to the cuticles. In a wild, furious finish to a game they never controlled until the final 30 seconds, the Lady Badgers found a way to reach down and come back from a four-point overtime deficit to knock off Kellogg 38-35 in an IML game Jan. 25.
Four members of the Bonners Ferry Special Olympics Team placed high at the Special Olympics meet at Lookout Pass in Wallace last Sunday. Denise Tucker placed 3rd & 4th, Michael Bjorker and Charlie Meeker both took 2nd & 3rd, and LaDonna Gaston placed 1st & 2nd.