This Week in History - Aug. 18, 2022

100 Years Ago

What is declared to be the biggest mining deal ever consummated in this section was closed in Spokane this week when the Cynide Mining Company of Bonners Ferry sold their entire holdings of 1,600 acres on the Yaak River in northwestern Montana to the Yaak Mining and Power Co.

E.N. Fong, who conducted the Idaho Café here for the past year, this week sold out to Charlie N. Poon, who will conduct the place in the future.

Among the improvements at the fairgrounds this year is a 30-foot addition to the main building. Larger and better stock sheds may also be built and it is planned to improve the race track. For the County Fair, a $1,000 touring car will be purchased by the Fair Association, and all who purchase dance tickets will have a chance to win it.

50 Years Ago

Lloyd Hughes called first and said it must be a “comet,” Joe Figgins does not get excited often — but he was excited when he said it must have been a flying saucer. And so it went, last Thursday afternoon, as a mystery flying object passed over Boundary County about 1:20 p.m. The newspaper phone rang off the hook, literally, all afternoon.

Names have been received this week of the 15 students in Valley View Grade School last spring that passed the difficult “President’s Physical Fitness Program." Those passing include: Julie Ehrmantrout, Jan Kroger, Carrie Poulton, Beth Ann Brinkerhoff, Teri Fitch, Jodene Schnuerle, Jana Watts, Kevin Schnuerle, Ken Moline and Tim Mercer.

For nine long years, Oleta Swanstrom has faithfully brought the mail to the residents of this community of Naples, through sometimes miserable conditions of roads and weather. Oleta and her young son, Don, came to Naples from Sandpoint in 1946.

15 Years Ago

The Bonners Ferry City Council meeting on Aug. 7, dealt with a variety of items including discussion on the proposed clock tower and usage of the new Bonners Ferry Visitors Center.

In an official announcement on Tuesday, the U.S. Forest Service reported that the Dirt Oven fire, located eight miles up Smith Creek Drainage, is 95 percent contained.

Last Saturday afternoon, as firefighters responded to the Bane Creek fire, each was thanking the anonymous motorist who, while traveling along Highway 95, reported seeing the smoke.

— Submitted by the Boundary County Museum