This Day in Bonners Ferry History
100 Year
Mrs. Harrington is conducting an agricultural experiment which may be of interest to many local people. She read that if potatoes were peeled extra thick the peelings could be used for seed. She experimented along this line and now has a small patch of healthy looking potato plants which are likely to mature and yield as heavily as if they had sprouted from whole and quartered seed.
John Johnson, James Berg, Miss Mayer and Miss LaBrosse had a miraculous escape from serious injuries Sunday night when Johnson’s auto, in which the young folks were riding, turned completely over and landed bottom side up in the road near the Bonners Ferry Lumber Company’s boom camp, pinning its occupants underneath. The accident occurred when a part of the steering gear suddenly broke. Johnson was coasting the car down a grade and was not going at any great rate. When the front wheels hit a bank of sand in the road they seemed to double under and threw the body of the car over them. None of the occupants of the car were seriously injured but all were badly bruised and Miss Mayer was seriously cut on the ankle with broken glass from the windshield. She was taken to the Bonners Ferry hospital.
Several hundred tons of dirt and gravel caved in on the hill at the south end of Main Street Tuesday night just after the workmen had left. The dirt struck one of the wagons Contractor Gines uses in hauling to fill the slough by the court house and broke a wheel.
A.V. Hemming reports that his oat crop this year is a fine one and that it averaged 91½ bushels to the acre. He is now sorry that he did not plant a larger field.
50 Year
One of the highlights of the 1967 Boundary county fair was the 4-H and FFA Market Sale, 4-H club and FFA members were elated at the support they received at the sale. The sale included 24 head of market lambs, 12 head of hogs and 10 head of steers. Market steers average an all-time high of 49.1c per pound. Sheep averaged 40.5c per pound and hogs averaged 33.3c per pound.
Rain came down in buckets Monday to end a long, hot dry spell going back to June 24 except for just two light rains in mid-July and a trace of moisture on Sept. 6. The Monday down-pour measured .31 of an inch. It was a welcome sight for most people particularly Forest Service personnel and firefighters who had battled forest fires for a month.
Seen and Heard….Don Kerby nodding agreement in a conversation with Monk Faber at the fair stock auction, thus making an unplanned animal purchase as the nod was taken as a bid…..
Kaniksu national forest officials report that the huge Trapper Peak and Sundance mountain forest fires were controlled last Sunday and North Idaho lands previously restricted to public access have been reopened. Trapper Peak fire, northwest of Bonners Ferry, consumed 16, 600 acres as it raged out of control for 31 days. The Sundance fire covered an area of more than 55,000 acres.
15 Year
The ongoing friction between the Sheriff’s Office and the Boundary County Commissioners which has been brewing for months turned up a notch as the Boundary County deputies staged a one-day demonstration in front of the courthouse on last Thursday. Claiming the commissioners have failed to address the current manpower shortage at the Sheriff’s Office, several deputies spent the morning walking a picket line while handing out fliers and fact sheets supporting their claim of an unsafe working environment.
The second degree murder charges two weeks ago against a Boundary County man were dismissed without prejudice last Thursday. Magistrate Benjamin Simpson ruled the evidence presented at the preliminary hearing for Leland Arthur Ridgley, 48, did not support either the murder charge or manslaughter.
Two Bonner County men found out the hard way just how costly poaching can be. In March, Richard and Paul Seibers of Samuels were charged by Fish & Game officers with taking a calf-moose during closed season. Moose poaching is a felony in Idaho. Officers had received a tip in January that the pair had killed a moose and were attempting to sell or trade some of the meat. The men pleaded guilty to the charges in Bonner County on July 7 and were sentenced Aug. 29 by Judge James Michaud to up to four years in the State Penitentiary. In addition, Michaud fined the men $1,500 and revoked their hunting and fishing privileges for 10 years. According to Fish & Game officials, this is the toughest sentence handed down for moose poaching in the Panhandle region to date.