This Week in Bonners Ferry History
100 Years Ago
School starts next Tuesday - Superintendent T.S. Kerr and family arrived Thursday direct from the U. of Mich. at Ann Arbor. He has previously been superintendent at Stanford, Montana and Kingman, Arizona. Prof. Kerr is a graduate of Pennsylvania State Normal. Bids were opened for the various school wagon routes and contracts were awarded to H.L. Borden for the Myrtle Creek route, to S.W. Biggar for the Moravia route and to Jack Wiggington for the Paradise Valley route.
Esther, 4 ½ year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Carl J. Nickolauson of the Cow Creek district drowned in Cow Creek on Sunday. She had been in the field with her father but started walking back to the house. When Mr. Nickolauson arrived home and learned she was not there, he began to search and found the body in a fairly deep pool, about the only pool of the creek in which the child could have drowned. Funeral services are today at the Methodist Church.
Miss Dorothy Spurling, daughter of E.L. Spurling of Brookings, S.D. has been secured by School District #4 to take charge of the domestic science department of the public school for the coming year. Miss Spurling has had considerable experience and comes very highly recommended. She is a graduate of the S. Dakota State College. Mr. E.B. Spurling, the grandfather of Miss Spurling, recently purchased 140 acres of the Fitzpatrick Bros. holdings near Copeland for $8000. This gives him over 400 acres of the best land in the valley. He is building up a herd of purebred Herefords and has gained widespread recognition as a breeder.
50 Years Ago
The largest timber salvage operation in history in the Kaniksu National Forest is progressing at a fast pace as a large force of men to remove 93 million board feet of timber from the site of the huge Trapper Peak Forest fire of a year ago. Some 16,500 acres of timber was destroyed or damaged in the fire that raged out of control for 31 days.
Paul Schlener, missionary to the South American Indians of the Amazon River in Brazil, entertained members of the Bonners Ferry Chamber of Commerce in a most interesting manner at their regular meeting Monday evening. Mr. Schlener, a native of Bonners ferry, has been engaged in the South American Mission for the past 19 years with his brother, John.
The Bonners Ferry softball team was eliminated from the State Tournament held in Idaho Falls last weekend as they lost to the Blackers of Boise, 3-0, after splitting their first two games.
15 Years Ago
The Bonners Ferry Eagles awarded $500 to the Boundary County Community Library for audio materials and large-print books. Half the money was provided by the Virginia Turner Memorial Foundation. “We had to cook a lot breakfast and do a lot of car washes to get this.” Eagles Auxiliary President Sharon Smith said.
Diversity and supporting the county play a major role in the way of life at Ronniger’s Potato Farm. Ronniger has been featured twice in the New Yorker, in Newsweek, and in other national magazines. The Ronnigers have customers “all over the U.S.”
Boundary County Disaster services responded to a gas leak that forced the evacuation of postal employees and law enforcement officers from the Bonners Ferry Post Office late Monday afternoon. City Fire Department Captain Larry Owsley told employees to leave the building immediately.