1957, 02 January: N. P. Liquidates Big Subsidiary

St. Paul, Minn. (UP) — Northern Pacific Railway announced today it is liquidating the Northwestern Improvement Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary which has operated railroad-owned coal land in Washington and Montana.

Complete liquidation may require up to three years, NP president Robert S. MacFarlane said. The subsidiary had a net book value of $10,876,000 in property, plant and equipment and investments in affiliated companies approximating seven million dollars on Nov. 30, 1956, MacFarlane said.

The functions of the subsidiary will be taken over by the parent company.

Ice Crews Hard At Work Ice crews working at Nigger Lake west of Whitefish have harvested approximately one-half of the quota of ice for the Great Northern Railway this year. Ice cut operations, under contract to Peter Van Aken and Glen Brown, are under way at Nigger Lake because Whitefish Lake, usual site for the ice harvest, failed to freeze deep enough by harvest time. Van Aken and Brown hope to have the job completed in about 10 days. The harvest started Jan. 22. The ice is cut and loaded on trucks at Nigger Lake and trucked to the huge Great Northern ice houses for storage. February 3, 1957.

 

1957, 03 January: Railroads May Get Break

For the last few years we have been hearing much about the way business is diversifying. Many firms have spread a big tent over dozens of more or less unrelated enterprises.

There are lots of reasons for the trend, but among the best are that it allows companies to divide their risks so that if one line slips another more successful activity may offset any loss and keep the firms humming.

Up to now, railroads have been barred from any combinations. Regulated by government, they have had to struggle along in a tough competitive period without the lift other corporations have had.

Recently, however, rumblings started which suggest that key lawmakers in Congress might take a different view and allow the roads some ventures afield, into airlines, trucking, barge lines and even pipelines.

The evidence from the financial pages indicates that many rail firms could use the shot in the arm and the stability that might follow from such combinations.

Unload Giant Spools Easy does it! Walter rexford, Pacific Power & Light foreman, carefully signals the right move as two heavy-duty power trucks lift 2,000 pounds of new telephone cagle from a boxcar at Kalispell's Great Northern freight depot. Two of the giant "spools" were unloaded by PP&L and transferred to the company's new service center in preparation for installation in the city's northeast section. The new cable addition is part of Pacific's $470,000 telephone service improvement program for the Kalispell area this year.

 

1957, 03 January: M. R. C. Approves G. N. Train Cuts

Helena (UP) — The Montana Railroad Commission announced yesterday it had granted a request of Great Northern Railway to discontinue its "skidoo" train service between Havre and the North Dakota line.

But the commission specified that trains would be required to stop on flag at Wolf Point.

Actually, the trains involved – Nos. 223 and 224 – have not operated between Havre and Williston, N. D., since April 29, 1954, when Great Northern cancelled the service without permission of the state commission, while an application still was pending.

The next day the commission ordered restoration of service but G. N. went to district court at Havre and got a restraining order halting the commission order. This restraining order was dismissed by the Montana Supreme Court.

Great Northern appealed to the U. S. Supreme Court but that body turned down an appeal by stating that there was no "substantial federal question" involved.

The railway said the service given by trains had been replaced by truck and bus service. It also pointed out during a hearing at Glasgow Dec. 6 that revenue from the Skidoo trains declined from $87,519 in 1921 to $11,580 in 1953.

City Gets New Water Tank City of Kalispell has received shipment of the 100,000-gallon water storage tank to be installed in the Highland Part district. The tank was unloaded at the Kalispell rail yards yesterday.

 

1957, 04 January: Improving Mills  

Major improvements are underway at Plum Creek Lumber Co. this month and at Superior Buildings next month.

A new band head saw is being installed in place of the circular saw at Plum Creek and a new and larger gang saw is being placed.

D. C. Dunham, Plum Creek president, commented that the new sawmill setup would result in considerably more of the log becoming lumber. There will be less waste.

Scheduled for next spring at Plum Creek is installation of machinery in the 92 by 112-foot building erected during 1956 to house the new box factory. The box plant is to employ about 35 men, and much of the wood used will be material now burned as scrap.

Major improvement will also take place at another Columbia Falls mill. Paul Dowler, sales manager at Superior Buildings Co., Thursday said that some time in February will see installation start on a new band saw headrig along with a new carriage and set works.

Columbia Falls during 1956 shipped 3,250 freight carloads of lumber over the Great Northern Railway. The four local mills employ about 400 men.

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 04 January: G. N. Progressed In 1956 According To Report By Budd

Three major accomplishments in 1956 made this year one of the most notable in Great Northern Railway history because of their future benefit to the company's operations. These events were:

Abandonment of the railway's 75-mile electrified zone in the Cascade mountains in the State of Washington, and ventilation of the 8-mile Cascade tunnel to permit diesel locomotive operations. This improvement will result in increased transportation efficiency and substantially lower costs of operations.

Completion of Gavin Yard in Minot, N. D., and beginning of operations at this new freight handling facility. One of the nations' most modern electronic railway installation of freight cars and expedition of east-bound and west-bound trains.

Installation in Great Northern's general offices in St. Paul of the gigantic Univac - the first completely electronic computing system on any Western railway. Operation of the electronic "brain" on accounting assignments is scheduled to begin in early 1957.

In the first eleven months of 1956 Great Northern's operating revenues were some 12 millions higher than for the same period in 1955. There also was an increase of more than 15 millions in operating expenses for the January through November period in 1956. Part of the higher operating costs resulted from Winter weather conditions along the railway in the early part of 1956 as compared with unusually mild weather in Great Northern territory in the first quarter of 1955.

A disappointing shortage of materials prevented Great Northern from placing in service 1,000 new steel boxcars in '56, construction of 500 units will be carried over into the 1957 car building program. Additional equipment commitments for 1957 include 34 units of diesel motive power, 750 50-ton boxcars, 200 70-ton gondolas, 300 70-ton hopper cars and 75 miscellaneous cars.

Studies toward possible merger of the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and Spokane, Portland & Seattle railways are progressing. It is much too early to expect conclusive results from these explorations.

Prospects for 1957 now appear good. Of importance in considering results of next year's operations is the effect on the company's revenues of higher freight rates, authorized by the Interstate Commerce Commission on December 17. The rate increase is intended to assist Great Northern and other lines in offsetting substantial advances in wages, effective November 1. Additional wage increases will be effective November 1, 1957 and November 1, 1958.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 06 January: Freight Loadings Show Increase

Helena (UP) — Freight loaded at Montana points during November totaled 42,286 carloads, an increase of 2,533 over the same month in 1955.

The State Railroad Commission reported the biggest increase was in slag and trailing loads. The November total of this type of freight was 13,116 carloads, an increase of 2,107 from a year ago.

Sugar beets recorded the next most significant increase with 4,112 cars loaded in 1956 and 3,171 carloads in 1955.

Loading Lumber Bob Reid of Columbia Falls is one of many contract lumber loaders in Northwest Montana. His income depends upon the amount of lumber he loads during the day. The Plum Creek lumber will be distributed at mid-western points.

 

1957, 11 January: G. N. Offers 24 Hour Service On Freight

Improved freight service from Spokane and Seattle - Portland area is now offered Whitefish merchants by the Great Northern Railway schedule. LCL overnight freight service from Spokane.

Orders placed by local merchants by 3 p. m. our time will be on the "house track" here in the early morning hours ready for delivery, giving less than 24 hour service for orders phoned or wired in.

Hailed by the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce as a means of providing better service to customers of the Whitefish area the new service has the Chamber's whole hearted cooperation. This new service it points out will provide two-day service from both Portland and Seattle for Whitefish merchants.

Explaining the new railroad service to the local merchants, Great Northern representatives L. E. Wagner, General Agent traffic dept., Kalispell and Henry J. Velton, Whitefish agent, have been making calls during the week.

This service they explain is available 6 days a week. The service has been in operation on a trial basis for about a month, before the public announcement.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 11 January: Tadashi Tamura Killed At Essex

Tadashi Tamura, 62, track laborer for the Great Northern Railway was killed in the yards at Essex Monday when he threw himself under a slowly moving east-bound train.

According to Kenneth O. Henry, who was an eye witness to the death, Tamura walked up near the train moving at an estimated five miles an hour, dropped to his knees and dived under the train His body was dragged about 365 feet.

Born in Japan, Tamura was a single man and had been in this country since 1907. He is survived by a brother at Essex and another brother in Tacoma and his mother, Mrs. Kota Tamura in Japan,

Funeral services will be held Friday evening at the Catron Chapel. Following the services the remains will be forwarded to Spokane for cremation. memorial services will be held in Tacoma and later in Japan.

--- Whitefish Pilot

City of Whitefish - 1957 The city of Whitefish, first settled by fur trappers, has grown into one of Northwest Montana's leading municipalities. This view of a Whitefish main street shows many of the modern business houses which serve the residents of the city and surrounding area.

 

1957, 11 January: Carney Hill Passes Tuesday At Age 69

Carney B. Hill, age 69, passed away at the Whitefish Memorial Hospital on January 8, 1957. Mr. Hill resided at 104 5th Street and has been a resident of Flathead County for 47 years. He was employed by the Great Northern Railway as a clerk. He was a member of the Whitefish Lodge No. 64 A.F.&A.M. and the Railways Clerks.

He is survived by his wife, Josephine; one daughter, Mrs. E. R. Martin of Columbus, Ohio; three grandchildren; 1 brother Charles Hill of Miami, Fla.; one sister, Cecelia Groh of Amelia, Ohio.

Funeral services have been set for Saturday afternoon at 2:00 o'clock with the Rev. Paul V. Neel of the Presbyterian Church and the Masonic Lodge in charge of services. Burial will be made in the Whitefish cemetery.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 14 January: Great Northern Protests Taxes

Suit for recovery of taxes in the amount of $58.70 was filed Saturday by the Great Northern Railway against Flathead County and the state board of equalization.

The taxes, first half of the annual tax of $117.40, were paid under protest last November.

Great Northern alleges that the Board of County Commissioners made a levy of G. N. property in the Evergreen Fire District without affording them an opportunity for a hearing on benefits to the plaintiff or the need for the fire district.

The plaintiff further alleges that the property involved consists of railroad tracks and right-of-way and will receive no protection whatever because of the creation of the district.

1957, 24 January: Funeral Rites For Harley A. Swisher

Funeral services for Harley A. Swisher were conducted from the Catron Chapel Saturday afternoon at 2:00 o'clock with the Rev. John F. Reagan of the Methodist church officiating. Musical numbers were rendered by Alfons Olson who was accompanied at the organ by Mrs. T. W. Hiatt. The Masonic Lodge No. 64 also offered a prayer. Hephews who served as pallbearers were Wendell Fredenberg, Orville Fredenberg, Walter Fredenberg, and Duane Fredenberg.

Harley Albert Swisher was born August 3, 1893 at Luray, Kansas the son of Albert and Elizabeth Clark Swisher. He came with his parents to the Flathead Valley in 1900. In 1907 he moved to Whitefish and from that date until 1912 he engaged in various lines of railroad work. In 1916 he entered the train service and was promoted to conductor. He served the railroad for 41 years and nine months of consecutive service. He was united in marriage to Marian Fredenberg at Kalispell in 1916.

Mr. Swisher was a member of the Order of Railway Conductors, Whitefish Masonic Lodge No. 64 AF & AM and the Royal Arch Masons Chapter 31. He passed away at the Whitefish Hospital on January 15 at the age of 64 years.

He is survived by his widow, Marian; one daughter, Lois Swisher of Whitefish; one uncle Delbert Clark of Canby, Oregon; sister-in-law, Mrs. Hans Petersen, Kalispell; two brothers-in-law, Ward Fredenberg of Whitefish; Anson Fredenberg of LaSalle; numerous nephews and nieces; several cousins. H. O. Swisher of Whitefish; Emery Swisher, Nirada; Wilbur of Hot Springs.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 08 February: Railroad Workers Buck For Tax Cut

Washington — Organized railroad workers - 1,100,000 strong - have set out to persuade congress to cut their income taxes despite President Eisenhower's strong opposition.

The drive launched by the 21 railway labor unions is viewed in some congressional quarters as the strongest threat yet raised to the administration's balanced budget.

Some members do not rule out the possibility that the powerful unions can push their tax-cutting plan through congress. Others believe it may be bottled up in the House Ways and Means Committee were a similar proposal was killed by a 13-12 vote last year.

The unions want tax relief for railroad workers as part of a package pension plan. If enacted, it would provide for bigger workers' contributions to the railroad retirement fund to finance a 10 per cent increase in pensions without workers suffering much, if any, loss in take-home pay.

The plan would accomplish this by exempting from income tax all workers' contributions to the retirement fund. This, by itself, probably not cost the treasury much more than $60 million in annual revenue loss.

But Congress would not be likely to approve it without granting the same income tax exemption on contributions of other workers to the social security system.

G. N. Advertisement
September 27, 1957
Whitefish Pilot

 

1957, 12 February: Five Slides Close Road Near Essex

Five new snow slides covered U. S. Highway 2 between Essex and Java last night, the state highway department reported this morning.

The five slides came down at the goat-lick east of Essex and the highway department said tomorrow evening will be the earliest that the five slides can be cleared.

Breakdown of some of the highway department's equipment working on the slides has hampered snow removal crews, the department said.

A heavy wind was reported at Summit this morning. Crews were plowing the highway from Summit west toward the slides, but the wind-blown snow was filling in the road nearly as fast as it was being plowed, the highway department said.

The truck and car that were stranded in the slides last week are still marooned and will not be reached until late tomorrow, according to the engineer for the highway department.

The main east-west route through Marias Pass has been closed since late Friday night.

1957, 12 February: Snowslides Block G. N. Tracks, Delay Trains 11 Hours

Whitefish — Great Northern Railway's Western Star passenger trains, both west and east-bound, met long delays yesterday due to snowslides in the area between Essex and Summit.

The west-bound Western Star was delayed 11 hours and 26 minutes and the east-bound Western Star was delayed an even 8 hours, Otto Fisher, assistant superintendent for G. N. at Whitefish, said today.

Fisher said other than the time delay there was no inconvenience to passengers, since the trains carry adequate supplies of food and there was sufficient heat.

Fisher said trains are now on schedule. As for any piling up of rail traffic, Fisher said no trains are allowed in the area when previous trains are delayed, as was the case yesterday.

Vacation Travelers Use Great Northern Top industry in Whitefish is the Great Northern Railway. Here the Western Star unloads its cargo of passenger and mail in front of the big depot, at the end of Central Avenue. The old-fashioned style building sets just ahead of Big Mountain, a spot many vacationers and skiers head each year.

 

1957, 14 February: Birthday Of Empire Builder To Be Observed

The train that made headlines across the nation in 1947 as America’s first post-war transcontinental streamliner will reach the 10th anniversary of its inaugural run on February 23.

But to resolve a dilemma, the Great Northern Railway will bake three birthday cakes for its famous Empire Builder, which in the past decade has carried more than 2,100,000 passengers east and west between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest terminals of Seattle and Portland.

Actually, three generations of sleek streamliners – representing a total investment of more than 24½ million dollars – have borne the Empire Builder name in the short span of 10 years.

The phenomenal success of the original fleet of five streamliners encouraged Great Northern to order a second completely new fleet, christened, in 1951, the Mid-Century Empire Builder. The 1947 trains meanwhile were renamed the Western Star, providing a second daily streamliner schedule between Chicago and the West Coast.

Development of the immensely popular dome car dictated still another re-equipping of the Empire Builder less than two years ago, in the summer of 1955. At that time the present "Great Dome" Empire Builder emerged, each train carrying three dome coaches and a luxurious length dome lounge. Total cost of the new equipment, providing "penthouse" seating for 147 passengers on each train, exceeded 5½ million dollars.

When the streamlined Empire Builder flashes by its 10th anniversary milestone on February 23, it will have clocked 13,004,870 miles of travel – the equivalent of more than 26 round trips to the moon – over the scenic 2,210-mile northern route between Chicago and Seattle-Portland.

To properly commemorate the occasion, Great Northern will bake not just the symbolic three but several hundred individual birthday cakes. The miniature cakes will be presented that day to all passengers on Empire Builder dining and coffee shop cars.

The Empire Builder name has distinguished Great Northern’s top transcontinental train since 1929, and through the years successive "generations" of Empire Builders have maintained the reputation of being one of the finest trains in the nation. The unusual name honors the memory and achievements of James J. Hill, founder of the Great Northern, known internationally as "the Empire Builder."

1957, 15 February: Snow Slides Plague Railway And Highway

Snow slides in the Essex - Summit area delayed Monday's Western Star passenger trains both east and west-bound.

The west-bound freight was delayed 11 hours and 26 minutes and the east-bound delayed eight hours. Tuesday trains were back on schedule.

Both the railroad and the highway department have been plagued by snow slides closing the roads during the last ten days, with travel by road being closed for several days, or open only for daytime travel.

Five new snow slides covered U. S. No. 2 between Essex and Java Monday night the state Highway Department reports. Previous to these slides located in the goat lick area a total of 12 others occurred on the highway.

Breakdown of some of the highway departments equipment has interfered with opening the road and Tuesday morning a high wind in the Summit area was filling in the road as fast as crews opened it.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 17 February: G. N. Trains Will Pass 10th Year

The train that made headlines across the nation in 1947 as America's first post-war transcontinental streamliner will reach the tenth anniversary of its inaugural run on Feb. 23.

But to resolve a dilemma, the Great Northern Railway will bake three birthday cakes for its famous Empire Builder, which in the past decade has carried more than 2,100,000 passengers east and west between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest terminals of Seattle and Portland.

Actually, three generations of sleek streamliners - representing a total investment of more than 2½ million dollars - have borne the Empire Builder name in the short span of 10 years.

The phenomenal success of the original fleet of five streamliners encouraged Great Northern to order a second completely new fleet, christened in 1951, the "Mid-Century" Empire Builder. The 1947 trains meanwhile were renamed the Western Star, provided a second daily streamliner schedule between Chicago and the West Coast.

Development of the immensely popular dome car dictated still another re-equipping of the Empire Builder less than two years ago, in the summer of 1955. At that time the present "Great Dome" Empire Builder emerged, each train carrying three dome coaches and a luxurious full-length dome lounge. Total cost of the new equipment, providing "penthouse" seating for 147 passengers on each train, exceeded 5½ million dollars.

When the streamlined Empire Builder flashes by its tenth anniversary milestones on Feb. 23, it will have clocked13,004,870 miles of travel - the equivalent of more than 26 round trips to the moon - over the scenic 2,210 mile northern route between Chicago and Seattle - Portland.

To properly commemorate the occasion, Great Northern will bake not just the symbolic three, but several hundred individual birthday cakes. The miniature birthday cakes will be presented that day to all passenger on Empire Builder dining and coffee-shop cars.

The Empire Builder name has distinguished Great Northern's top transcontinental train since 1929, and through the years successive "generations" of Empire Builders have maintained the reputation of being one of the finest trains in the nation. The unusual name honors the name and achievement of James J. Hill, founder of the Great Northern, known internationally as "the Empire Builder."

Great Northern Advertisement
February 17, 1957
Streamlined Empire Builder's Birthday

 

1957, 15 March: Board Sets Rail Worker Wage Hikes

Washington — A Presidential board set up to investigate a year-old railroad wage dispute today recommended wage increase of 26½ cents an hour over the next three years, plus cost-of-living increases.

The employes involved are mostly road brakemen, yard conductors and brakemen, and yardmasters.

In its report to the President, the board said it hoped that the parties involved — 175 class 1 railroads and about 160,000 members of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen — "will not view our recommendations in terms of victory or defeat, but rather as a basic approach in a just result."

The board also urged the parties to heed Mr. Eisenhower's appeal that labor and industry co-operate to halt the inflationary wge-price spiral. It said this can be done by bringing the dispute "to an early and friendly termination on the basis we have recommended."

The recommendation would provide an increase of 12½ cents an hour retroactive to Nov. 1, 1956; seven cents Nov. 1, 1957, and seven cents Nov. 1, 1958.

1957, 15 March: I. C. C. Considers Freight Hearing

Greta Falls — The interstate commerce commission Friday in Greta Falls ended hearings on the petition of the Montana Western Railway to reduce grain freight rates by four and one-half cents a bushel.

The I. C. C. took the case under advisement and will announce a decision at a later date, William Sweeney Jr., I. C. C. examiner who conducted the hearings, said.

The Great Northern Railway and 30 other lines oppoed the proposed reduction.

Officials of the small Pondera county line said they were petitioning for the reduction so as to "operate as a successful railroad and compete with other nearby rail lines."

1957, 27 March: Car Loadings For February

Helena — Freight car loadings at Montana Points decreased 750 during February to 32,003, from 32,753 a year ago, the Montana Railroad Commission reported today. The M. R. C. reported loadings of 14,795 of ore, compared with 13,507 during February, 1956, an increase of 1,288.

The Wm. Crooks Remembered A good many years ago, and no one seems to remember when, what or why, the Great Northern in connection with some railway observance ran Old No. 1 with early day coach equipment out over the line. This picture was taken at the G. N. station here (old station) by Mrs. Pearl Morrow. She cannot recall the time or the event.

 

1957, 08 April: G. N. Conductor Remains Critical

Great Falls (UP) — H. K. McVey, 61, Great Falls, a Great Northern Railway conductor, was reported in critical condition in a hospital here today.

McVey was one of three persons injured when one freight train smashed into the rear of another three miles south of Conrad Friday night. He was taken to the Deaconness Hospital in Great Falls from St. Mary's Hospital in Conrad yesterday.

Two other railroad men were killed in the smashup – brakeman Leo J. Fertterer, 35, and Merle A. MacKenzie, 38, both of Great Falls.

1957, 15 April: G. N. Official Tells Development Need

Exchange of ideas, an educational program and forceful presentation of area advantages are most essential requirement's in development of community potential, R. E. Backstrom, Great Northern Railway industrial development representative, told Kalispell Chamber of Commerce directors and committee members at a joint session today. Meeting with the directors were members of the Industrial Development Committee with Larry O'Neil, chairman.

O'Neil reported to the board that studies are being continued in an effort to develop and exploit lumber resources and potential in the Flathead. Contemplated is a trip to the Potlatch Industries plant at Lewistown, Idaho, to study production methods, he said.

The board authorized secretary Clark Mason to attend sessions of the annual meeting of the Montana Chamber of Commerce at Helena Saturday.

Next breakfast meeting of the board will be in Smitty's XXX as a joint meeting with Evergreen Businessmen's Association.

Crews Resurface Street City street crews today were busy resurfacing sections of the street near Depot Park, where it enters Main Street. The street makes the turn around Depot Park to connect Railroad Street with Main. Resurfacing was at the double entrance to Main Street. Great Northern's Kalispell depot in the background.

 

1957, 28 April: Somers Born Of Minnesota Man's Idea

by Selby Norheim

Somers, at the head of Flathead Lake, was born of an idea originated in Minnesota in 1900 and many of the town's original inhabitants were from the State of Minnesota.

John O'Brien of Stillwater, Minn., was convinced by his friend, James J. Hill, that the area at the head of Flathead Lake had terrific possibilities for a lumberman of O'Brien's stature.

After considering several millsites in the area, O'Brien purchased part of the Tom McGovern ranch for $10,000. McGovern had homesteaded 500 acres at the head of the lake in the 1880s.

Prepare Plans: With the millsite selected, plans were made for shipping machinery and equipment and building the sawmill and tie plant.

Soon employment offices in Stillwater were displaying placards reading: "Men wanted to work in the woods and a sawmill in western Montana. Good Wages. Only $12.50 fare on the Great Northern Railway."

Soon Stillwater was buzzing with comments. "Endless timber out there, they say. Minnesota's is petering out, I hear." ... "Not safe for a man to take his family. Them Indians..." "I hear that lake is as big as Lake of the Woods." "Think I might take a chance..."

And so they came and soon the O'Brien Lumber Co. was flourishing.

It was the year 1900 when the Great Northern Railway arranged for incorporation of the John O'Brien Lumber Co.

On Sept. 28, 1900, the company was incorporated and on Nov. 8 the lumber company entered a contract with the Great Northern Railway Company which was signed by both presidents, John O'Brien and James J. Hill, who was known as the "Empire Builder." Hill was believed to be a silent partner in the venture.

The contract called for erection of a sawmill at the head of Flathead Lake with an annual production of 40,000,000 feet of lumber.

Great Northern also agreed to furnish 600,000 trees each sawing season for 20 years.

To accommodate the new mill, a spur track was built from Kalispell and the last spike in the 10-mile branch line was driven Christmas Eve, 1900.

The plant commenced operation on Aug. 12, 1901, and during the year a boarding house and a number of small dwellings were constructed. An application was filed that year requesting that a postoffice be established.

George O. Somers, assistant to the vice president in charge of traffic for the Great Northern, was in the area watching out for G. N. interests. O'Brien, seeking a name for the town, borrowed his friend's name.

On Oct. 21, 1901, a postoffice was established at Somers, Montana. Mail was dumped in a large basket and persons expecting a letter sorted through the mail until finding it or left empty-handed.

Before Somers was named, however, there were enough children to warrant building a school and in late 1900 the "Red School House" was constructed approximately two miles from the mill. The school is still standing, a reminder of bygone days.

With the mill in full operation, 1901 was a boom year and the demand for laborers was increasing.

First Hotel: The McGovern ranch house was converted into the first hotel and eating house and in 1901 another hotel was built to accommodate many of the early-day workers. The company store was constructed by the Great Northern that year.

The postoffice was located in the store and John Sawyer served as store manager and postmaster. Miss Alma Fisher is present postmistress.

The Norwegian hall, still being used, was also built in 1901 and was used as the second school house for the growing town.

For reasons unknown to the residents, a 10-foot fence was constructed by the lumber company around the entire town. Anyone desiring to enter the town had to enter on of three gates by a certain hour.

Watchmen toured the town during the night and opened the gates in the morning.

Oldest living early resident today is Angus "Cap" MacDonell, who was living in the area before the McGovern land was purchased. "Cap" is 93.

For years "Cap" was in charge of the Somers Lumber Company fleet of boats which included the Guthrie, named for a G. N. official; the Willis, or "Little Willie," named for the son of John O'Brien; and the Tom Carter, first of them all. Others were the Kootenai and the Cotter.

In 1928 MacDonell skippered the 65-foot Paul Bunyan, which was one of the best-known boats on the lake.

Ruby MacDonell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Angus MacDonell, who reside at Juniper Bay south of Somers, was the first girl born in the town. She was born in 1902.

Probably the most famous landmark in the Flathead, the O'Brien house, was constructed on a hill in Somers in 1903. The huge house has two floors below the surface and three floors above.

The O'Brien house was operated as a hotel by John Gorton from 1911 to 1915 when it became the office of the Somers Lumber Company. The hotel was known as "Mountain Inn."

The huge house is now the residence of Mr. and Mrs. E. N. McDevitt who have made it their home since 1945. McDevitt is a former general manager of the Somers Lumber Company. He replaced Webb Ballord in 1912.

Another building still standing which was built in 1903 is the drug store, now unoccupied. The drug store was constructed by a man named Bates who sold out to Dr. Wiley. The store was operated by a brother, Hal Wiley. Most recent operator of the drug store, now closed, was Herbert Hosfeld.

People's Mercantile: George Wilson opened the first general store on the east side of Somers in 1900. Later the store was purchased by the Flathead Commercial Co. and operated under the name of Normann and Smith Co.

Harry Horn and Paul Smith of Bigfork were the founders of Flathead Commercial Co.

On April 1, 1933, Everit Sliter purchased H. B. Normann's interest and the name of the store was changed to People's Mercantile. The store continued as a partnership for several years until Sliter bought out Charlie "Dad" Smith and Horn in 1937.

Location of the store was moved to the present site in 1949 when the Somers Lumber Company closed the sawmill and sold the commissary to Sliter. Since that time the store has been operated as a general store along with retail building materials which were added in 1945.

State Bank of Somers: Somers first had a bank in 1902 when a private organization was set up by John O'Brien, Fred A. Hacker and Robert Austin. Site of the first bank remains the same today.

The bank was later called the Bank of Somers and the name remained the same until July 1, 1911, when the State Bank of Somers was incorporated.

Original officers were W. N. Noffsinger, president; John Collins, vice president, and George W. Noffsinger, cashier. Other stockholders were Sam E. Johns and Amos Mitchell.

Present president of the bank is Allan Milne who arrived from Scotland and later became a bookkeeper of the bank on May 1, 1924. He became assistant cashier in 1940, cashier and vice president in 1950, president in 1951.

Mrs. Milne, is now cashier of the bank and Don Hacker, son of Fred Hacker, an original investor, is also a director.

Deposits of the bank have grown from $196,760.57 in December of 1928 to $1,207,260.55 in December of 1956.

The Somers bank was the only bank in the State of Montana to be robbed in 1956. On May 8, 1956, at 11:30 a. m. the bank was held up and robbed of $2,560. The robber was apprehended 15 minutes later.

One of the most exciting occurrences of bygone days and best remembered was the robbery of the O'Brien Lumber Co. payroll on March 15, 1906.

Approximately $7,000 was taken from the company paymaster, John W. Peterson, at a point less than one mile north of Somers where the road leaves prairie and enters the foothills.

The money was never recovered.

At that time, Somers "boasted" 12 saloons and several poolhalls.

O'Brien sold his interest to James J. Hill and Great Northern that year and on Nov. 11, 1907, the name was changed to Somers Lumber Company.

Company Merges: The lumber company was merged into the Glacier Park Hotel Co. on Jan. 1, 1941, and on May 27, 1943, the articles of incorporation were amended to drop the word "Hotel" from the firm's name.

Despite efforts to the contrary, the Glacier Park Co. tie plant at Somers is still referred to as the Somers Lumber Company.

O'Brien left Somers in 1906 and a man named Poole was sent out from St. Paul to take over operation of the plant. According to oldtimers, Poole didn't know the business and the employes became discontented with his methods of operation.

In 1907 work was paralyzed as the employes went on strike for two full months. Shortly after the strike started, representatives of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) moved in and took over control of the striking employes.

The "I Won't Work" bunch, also called "Wobblies" lasted in the town for almost two years.

Work resumed at the sawmill in 1908 and those who had not left for greener pastures during the interim were happy to hear the whistle blow.

Employment increased and reached a high of approximately 375 men at the mill and another 100 in the woods.

More houses were built and new and colorful street names appeared, such as Breezy Point, Slab Alley, Sunnyside, Swede Hill, Seven Row, Pickleville and Summit Avenue.

Parades and celebrations such as Fourth of July attracted people from all over the valley, Summer concerts were given by a talented band directed by mark Kvande as people gathered around the bandstand near the Catholic Church.

Steamer excursions were popular and hundreds cruised Flathead Lake aboard the Klondike, the Montana and the Eva B.

A special train from Kalispell brought people to the Great Northern depot located at the end of the track on a dock extending into the lake.

First Dairy: Peterson's operated the first dairy from 1904 to 1907. George Kirk operated a milk wagon and dairy from 1907 to 1911 and then from 1911 to 1918, Corneliuson's operated a dairy and milk wagon.

Best remembered by residents of Somers today is the milk route operated by Roy Hissong from 1923 to 1947. Children ran alongside the gentle white horse puling the wagon and hitched a short ride on the slow-moving vehicle.

The only serious fire loss at the Somers Lumber Company occurred in August, 1911. Business was slack at the time and the mil was operating a day shift only.

At 3 a. m., the fire was discovered which had evidently started in a sorting shed. A north wind prevailed and the sawmill, sorting shed and adjacent dry kiln were completely destroyed.

The loss amounted to $61,078.21 of which $56,992.80 was recovered through insurance and $1,322.28 through the sale of scrap.

Rebuilding began at once and the mill resumed operation May 28, 1912.

The Odd Fellow Hall became the City Hall and residents used the hall for concerts and practice sessions. Also, a pavilion was built on Tank Hill, but was later torn down.

Harve Ulrich opened the first garage in Somers in 1916. It was a combination garage and saddle shop. Roy Daley purchased the garage in 1924 and has since operated it in the original location.

The Glacier Park Co. tie plant was rebuilt in 1926 and 1927 and the new lumber company office in 1929 and 1930.

Early Doctor: Somers was fortunate enough to acquire the services of Dr. Chamber in the early thirties and for several years the doctor and his wife served the community.

Beginning in 1935 business began to improve and new homes began to appear. When World War II started, production of lumber went into full swing.

Listed among the war dead from the Somers area were William Zeeck, Fred Bangeman, Orval Holand, Edward Unwin, Jack Graven, Thomas Craven, Wiley Groswell, Fred Elsass, Charles Fisher, Harold Hissong, Leo Johnson, Jack McWilliams, Hary Pierson and Leland Peterson.

Last logs were sawed at the Somers Lumber Company on Nov. 26, 1948, and the remaining lumber was sold during 1949. McDevitt, plant manager, retired on Aug. 31, 1949.

Most of the townsite of Somers was advertised for sale and on march 4, 1950, a deal was completed whereby Alex Shulman purchased the area for $80,000.

Included in the sale were 120 dwellings, as well as other large buildings.

Reason for the shutdown of the mill in November of 1948 was announced formally as "lack of logs" and "inaccessibility" of timber.

The result was disastrous for the lumbering community and many people moved away to seek jobs in other lumber mills of the valley.

After the purchase by Shulman, the townsite was plotted and many of the company houses were sold to occupants.

Almost a ghost town, the community continued to survive although growth was non-existent.

On Jan. 15, 1952, fire leveled the two-story school house which had served the community since 1910, both as a high school and grade school.

The fire was reported about 10 p. m. by Kenneth Funk and equipment was summoned from Kalispell and Bigfork. Efforts to extinguish the fire were in vain as the flames swept through the frame structure.

Some gymnasium equipment, band instruments and a refrigerator were saved and most of the gym building which adjoined the school proper.

Most residents considered the fire a blessing since the oil-soaked floors constituted such a dangerous fire hazard.

The fire was believed caused by a leak in an oil line of the furnace.

Principal Jim Mountjoy moved the school into the Somers Lumber Company office building, which later became known as the Cash Inn, and six days after the fire, the pupils were again attending classes.

The school district realized $63,645 from fire insurance and $5,000 for salvaged items. When bids for a new school were let in August, 1953, the school district had $109,500, plus bonding capacity with which to build an adequate school.

$200,000 School: The youngsters of the area now attend an eight-year elementary school valued at $200,000.

The school was ready for occupancy in May, 1954, one week before graduation ceremonies were scheduled.

Growth began again in Somers in April, 1951, when the DeVoe Lumber Co. commenced operations. Employment at the plant ranges between 20 and 60 men.

Latest addition to the lumber company is a plywood vaneer plant which began operating last June.

Situated at the head of Flathead Lake, one of the West's most beautiful vacation areas, Somers is destined to become a popular destination for tourists and a desirable residential area for Kalispell commuters.

PHOTO HERE (4 images)

--- Daily Inter Lake: 1957 Progress Edition

G. N. Advertisement
August 20, 1957
Hungry Horse News

 

1957, 28 April: Trappers Help Form First Settlement At Whitefish

Earliest roads lead to Falls.

Before 1880, the north end of Flathead Valley was dense wilderness and the lake, today called Whitefish Lake, was practically unknown. The lake, isolated by the heavy forest, teemed with a species of fish, the whitefish, that later gave the lake and town their names.

Soon, a few settlers started filtering into the area, coming on horseback from Kalispell and Columbia Falls. There were loggers, trappers, miners and homesteaders. Many people came as vacationers because the area was a hunting and fishing paradise. Most of them came from Columbia Falls because that town was the loggers' headquarters.

Trappers sold their catches to Kalispell dealers and through the relationship a new community, Whitefish Lake, was formed.

More Settlers: More and more settlers moved into the virgin territory. Trees were felled, cabins built and roads slashed through the forest.

The main road from the infant community led to Columbia Falls. It followed the Meridian line past the present stock yards, circled the hill at the well-known Rice place, angled across the old Hamlin place, crossed Haskell Creek and Second Creek and continued into Columbia Falls. This route was traveled often because groceries were transported from the Falls.

Because Lakeside was the original community site, the mouth of the river at the south end of Whitefish Lake was forded to another road to Kalispell. This road followed the west side of the river. Wagon trails were the only other roads in the community.

The small community started developing faster after a man named Morton came to the territory in 1883. He homesteaded at the mouth of the river for two years then asked his son, Neal Morton, in Michigan, to move out.

The young Morton, along with his cousins, the Baker brothers, moved here at the same time. The Bakers were woodsmen and logging contractors. They homesteaded at various points around the lake and vicinity. Their home ranch was south toward Kalispell near the Henry Good ranch. In 1889, they established a sawmill on Cow Creek near where the stockyards now stand.

They, among many others, were members of the young community that established the "Ramsey Townsite" and were ready for business when rumors of the railroad coming started circulating.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ramsey operated the first hotel known in the community. It was a two-story building and patronized vacationers from Kalispell and Columbia Falls and later railroad employes and contractors. The hotel, Lake View Hotel, was at the foot of the lake in the Ramsey Addition.

First Grocery: Jack and Ward Skyles owned the first grocery store which also served as a post office. Groceries for the store were moved in from Columbia Falls by dray and buggy. Mail was brought in by stage every two days.

The logging business boomed as thousands of timbers were sent down the river to Somers. More houses sprang up. Stumps gave the settlement a "raw" look, but "Whitefish Lake community" expanded as rumors about the railroad turned to fact.

In July 1901, two crews of railroad surveyors headquartered at Stryker. Other crews set up at points east. Land was surveyed and hundreds of workers cleared brush, cleared right-of-ways and built roads for freighting. Horse drawn slip scrapers were used to level the soil for the track bed.

Along with the railroad, camps for contractors and their crews sprang up along the line. One large camp was Tamarack, where western workers picked up their mail. Dr. A. T. Lees established a hospital there.

As the railroad progressed, more wilderness was cleared, more people came in and more cabins were built. The cabins were log and had roofs of tamarack shakes and dirt.

A railroad branch line was routed to Columbia Falls so vital materials could be quickly be transported for construction of the railroad.

In July 1903, a band of men working with the Baker brothers logged off the new townsite of Whitefish. The land was plotted by Fred R. Grinnell, president of the Whitefish Townsite Company and Charles Babcock, Great Northern land commissioner.

Lots Sold Fast: The Dodge Hotel, the first in the new townsite, started operation. It was located where the Pastime is today.

Jack and Ward Skyles moved their store from the Ramsey Addition to where the Knott Mercantile stands now.

C. A. Wright and Co. opened the Whitefish Hotel. The Baker mill on Cow Creek was abandoned and a larger one was built at the foot of Whitefish Lake.

Hardware Store: J. H. McCabe and Corbett erected a hardware store. Charles Matthews opened a grocery store.

Building continued through the mild winter of 1903-1904. The town doubled and redoubled in size and population.

R. W. Main from Columbia Falls erected a mercantile company and handled general merchandise. Casper Aspaas owned the Valley House, a dining room and kitchen. The Bank of Whitefish, a private concern, was located at the present site of Quick Shoe Store. The Whitefish Pharmacy was just south of the Bank of Central Avenue. The Whitefish Market was operated by J. A. McCartney. Next door was the Owl Café, owned by Joe Reed.

Fitzgerald and Hopp operated the Whitefish Restaurant on Central Avenue. Dr. F. M. Patterson, physician and surgeon, made his office in the Whitefish Pharmacy. Although there were few women, a millinery shop was erected and operated by Mrs. L. G. Comstock. She dealt in men's tailor - made suits. Fred Forbes, owned the Tent Barber Shop.

The Whitefish Pilot, oldest business firm in town that still operates under its original name, told the story of the young town in its first issue, Jan. 23, 1904. It said:

"Although the newest town in Montana, Whitefish is by no means the smallest, or the least talked about. On the contrary, it has assumed a size that is causing astonishment among those who travel much and take much note of the march of events."

Attracts Notice: "Although it has been advertised little, Whitefish is attracting notice all along the line. Attention is being drawn to the place for two reasons - the announcement by the Great Northern Railway Company that it is to be the chief railroad town in Montana on this line, second, its location in the heart of rich, but as yet undeveloped section of Flathead County.

"Since establishment of a tri-weekly train service, the town has taken a new start, and strange faces are more numerous than ever before. The railroad company sends out a special train from Kalispell every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, return the same days. While travel to the new town by the two stage lines has by no means been abandoned, the bulk of the travel is by train.

"Mail matter now comes and goes by stage via the Columbia Falls route and will continue so until trains east and west are run over the road now under construction from Columbia Falls to Jennings. As it is well understood in railroad circles, this new route is to be part of the main line of the Great Northern.

"The mild, open winter has been a great help to the railroad contractors and they have kept large forces of men at work. In the vicinity, this work has been particularly active. All along Whitefish Lake the work is progressing night and day. Every camp is employing all the hands available, and they all present lively scenes.

"As much of the work is of a blasting nature, the heavy cannonading suggests active operations along the military lines. While the regular contractors are busy with their operations, the railroad company is active in preparing divisional facilities in Whitefish.

"An immense area of ground was cleared last fall for trackage purposes and incidental privileges and all this space is to be utilized. A force of men has been engaged in clearing ground for a big roundhouse and work on this building will commence shortly."

The system for educating youngsters of the settlers expanded in proportion to the community.

According to a story in the first issue of the Pilot, "Those come with children to settle in Whitefish will find educational facilities equal to those of a much older community. The necessity of a public school was recognized by the Whitefish citizens a time ago and plans were at once put into operation to secure school accommodations and funds to conduct the same.

"The public school was opened in the church on the hill near the lake with Miss I. M. Light of Spokane as teacher. There was a good attendance the first day and now the school is in good running order. There are public funds at hand and it is understood to keep the school open for at least three months. At the expiration of that time, it is possible plans will be devised to continue the good work.

"The school trustees are W. S. Dode, John E. Sykes and R. L. Olliver. Charles Bayha is clerk."

The first school building in Whitefish was at Miles Avenue and Railway Street on the bank of the Whitefish River. It was about 200 yards from the Great Northern roundhouse. After some time and with the growth of school population, a river bank as a school location was scorned.

In 1911, a committee was appointed to look up a suitable building site for a new school. The old location was not safe, they felt, because too many children had to be retrieved from the river. To solve the problem, Central High School was built on the present site of Whitefish Central School. The lower floor of the building was ready for use in 1912. The central part was not used until 1914.

Four Year High School: It was here that Harry L. Hayden introduced the four-year high school despite considerable protest from students. The first graduation found only one graduate. Doreas Ferguson. The second year there were three, Lucine Jones, Jesse Monk and Mary Ellen Hennessey.

Today, graduating classes of Whitefish High School have exceeded 60 members.

History of school development as related by oldtimers indicated that the wooden schoolhouse on the river opened its doors in the fall of 1904 with E. M. Hutchinson. He served until 1905.

B. F. Maiden was elected principal Dec. 30, 1905 at $100 a month. In 1908, J. W. Whent was elected principal. During the summer he resigned and B. F. Gibson became principal. H. L. Gloyd was elected principal a short time later when Gibson left.

In 1911, Harry L. Hayden was made principal. With the exception of one year at Polson, Jayden was principal until A. E. Hinderman took over the job.

In those first years, teachers were paid wages varying from $75 to $85 per month. Their classes were chosen for them and pay was according to the grade taught and responsibilities. They were under contract to attend no card parties, dances or any other functions that might tend to take their mind from their duties. At any time and with no warning, they could be replaced.

Until 1906, when the ninth grade was added, there had been only eight grades in the Whitefish school. By 1910, the eleventh grade had been added.

A few years later, school children were becoming numerous on Lakeside and many parents felt that it was dangerous for their children to cross and re-cross the G. N. tracks on their way to and from school. As a result the Lakeside school was built and it opened its doors in the winter of 1912-1913. Today, few remains indicate where Lakeside children once went to school.

Although the winter of 1903-1904 was unusually mild for Montana, the good weather halted. In mid March one of the worst blizzards in the history of Whitefish swept through the valley, causing all work to shut down.

When spring came, the huge snow drifts, aided by pelting rains, filled the draws and roads with water. Familiar faces disappeared as people couldn't accustom themselves to the way of life. New faces took their places and business houses changed hands rapidly.

There was no water in the town except that hauled from the lake. Kerosene lamps took the place of modern day electricity. The streets were rutted, muddy wagon roads and sidewalks were nil.

But prospects were good and through the spring and summer the building boom continued, Rails for the G. N.'s "iron horse" were laid more rapidly and the G. N. icehouse was completed. Roundhouse, shops and other buildings for the division point were erected. The railroad tunnel was completed in October, 1904, and through trains began running from east to west.

Whitefish's 950 residents cheered and shouted. Whitefish was "on the main line."

On March 10, 1905, Whitefish residents petitioned the Board of Flathead County Commissioners concerning incorporation. And on April 11, residents voted for incorporation, 153 to 64.

First Mayor: Then the commissioners called for Whitefish to elect a mayor and council. On May 27, 1905, A. E. Long became the first mayor of Whitefish. His council included E. L. Geddes and A. E. Carle in the First Ward, James Little and C. A. Wright in the Second Ward and J. H. McCabe and J. A. Robinson in Ward Three. R. L. Olliver was appointed clerk pro tem.

At the town council's second meeting, Aug. 5, 1905, Mayor Long announced the first appointment to "city office in town government." They were R. L. Olliver, town clerk; Joseph Reed, town treasurer and police magistrate and J. C. O'Brien, town marshal and street commissioner.

With the coming of the railroad, came saloons. The mushroomed into existence overnight and the town was rough, wild and wide open. J. C. "Crooked Christ" O'Brien was appointed to keep order, but his efforts failed to loose the town from the grip of liquor and wildness.

O'Brien was followed by Bill Murphy and although he, like his predecessor, worked for the good of the town, his results were no better.

When the streets and sidewalks of Whitefish were first laid out, the numerous draws presented a major problem. They creased the area everywhere. As the buildings were already standing, the problem of building streets was a major one.

Many of the deep draws were crossed by high foot bridges and in the spring were filled with water. Children often lined the bridges attempting to catch fish.

Dozens of smaller draws posed problems and each had to be filled before streets or sidewalks could be constructed. They were filled with debris and every conceivable thing that would take up space.

During Whitefish's infancy the water system was unique. A large horse-drawn water tank was hauled to the lake daily, filled with water and then taken from house to house. Water sold for 25 cents a barrel.

This system was kept until 1908 when a pumping plant was installed at the lake. Water was pumped into a large tank called a standpipe which stood on a hill on Lakeside. From there, water was piped into town.

This system was used until 1919 when W. K. Trippet installed the little reservoir in Haskell Creek basin and used the gravity method.

In 1926, the big reservoir was installed, 25 miles of flow, and distribution lines laid out.

Retracing a few years, in 1905-06 Carl Green established a lighting system that was operated by an engine from the Somers Lumber Co. mill.

In 1907, the Flathead Valley and Water Power Co. took over the plant. In 1909 it was turned over to the Northern Idaho and Montana Power Co. The power company building was erected in 1911 and the first telephones were installed between 1907 and 1908. The NIMP company changed its name to the Mountain States Power Co. in 1917.

And the town continued to expand and improve.

In 1904, churches started springing up. There is some argument as to whether the Presbyterian or Methodist church was first.

The beautiful view of the lake was the attraction for many picnickers and swimmers and resulted in the establishment of the first city park. park site has never changed.

The first swimming beach was in front of the present Don Robertson home. The first public bath houses were there.

First Large Boat: In 1906, the first large boat was launched on Whitefish Lake. This was called the "Butte" and was shipped in from Indiana. It was larger than the "Ranger," the most recent Whitefish lake excursion boat.

The McKeen addition provided the first cement sidewalk in town, but it was too narrow and eventually was replaced.

The first dairy was operated by Charles Malcom and was located on the present Joe Voerman ranch.

The first movie theater opened in the Cale building (Torbert's today). It was operated by Mr. Sissel.

In 1911, cement sidewalks began replacing board walks in the business district. The residential districts had board walks and well-packed cinder paths until about 1912 and 1913. Dirt streets were sprinkled daily during dry weather by water from huge horse-drawn water tanks.

During the years, the city government has been housed in three different places. First it was near the Samson Block on Second Street, later in a frame building where the parking lot is now, east of Sally's Cafe, and finally in 1913 the present city hall was constructed. Today the city hall is undergoing a complete $144,000 remodeling and expansion job because it is too small.

Concerning city government, incidentally, from the start of Whitefish a city ordinance has prohibited the operation of bars and saloons south of the north side of Second Street.

Since those early, formative years, Whitefish has expanded in all directions, until today approximately 5,000 persons take advantage of its facilities.

The city boasts one of the finest golf courses in the state, a golf course that had its start before the depression, then was completed by the federal government after the slump. Today, local golf directors have already taken steps to someday expand the course to 18 holes. It would then be one of three in the state.

In 1947, Whitefish got a shot in the arm with the establishment of the year around vacation and recreation resort on Big Mountain. Records show that winter use of Big Mountain has grown from 6,600 in 1947-48 to 26,700 skiers and 7,450 spectators last year. Total number of summer users has risen from 6,600 in 1947-48 to 53,400 last year. First year gross of the resort was less than $15,000 and rose to $78,467.82 last year.

Big Mountain today is ranked as one of the top ski resorts in the country. it hosted the 1949 and 1951 National Downhill, Slalom and Combined Championship ski races and the 1955 Junior Nationals.

Expansion Plan: Big Mountain was used for skiing as early as 1936. In 1937-38 members of the Whitefish Lake Ski Club built cabins, ski slopes and trails in the old Hell Roaring Creek area.

Today, Big Mountain is about to shoot with a $1,500,000 expansion program that would include installation of the country's first gondola tramway.

Blossoming from a "raw wide-open town" in the early 1900's, Whitefish has become a "mecca for vacationists," according to the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce. Whitefish has progressed in making itself a recreation and vacation center and in that field offers boating, swimming, golfing, fishing, hiking, skiing, hunting, cabins, archery and tennis in 1957.

NOTE: Dec. 9, 2010 - Since Mr. Morton and the Bakers settled a bit south of Ramsey, I don't know where this writer gets Lakeside as the first settlement unless it is reference to some trappers there. Another debatable "fact" was whether or not Skyles had a U.S. P. O at Ramsey or if he just picked up mail when he went to Columbia Falls for supplies and then distributed it when people came in for groceries.
MMTH - Local Historian

--- Daily Inter Lake: 1957 Progress Edition

Early Whitefish Railway District In this pre-World War I era view of the Whitefish Railway District, with Lion Mountain in the background, the Lindell Hotel stands in the center. Two buildings in the foreground have Western-style false fronts. Much of the timber has been cleared leaving lots filled with stumps in places. Small shotgun-style houses were homes to railroad and timber workers. A sawmill operates in the background.

 

1957, 01 May: Great Northern Reports Top Year

An all-time record net income was produced by Great Northern in 1956 from the highest operating revenue in the railway's history, the company's management has reported to shareholders.

Owner's are advised in Great Northern's 68th annual report that gross operating revenues of $280.5 million in 1956 were more than $12 million higher than in 1953, the previous record year, and net income of $32¼ million was slightly above that of 1955. Great Northern's net income last year was equivalent to $5.32 per share as compared with $5.27 in 1955, and for the first time in the railway's history fixed charges were covered over five times.

The report also conveys a favorable forecast for 1957 by John M. Budd, Great Northern president.

"The 1957 outlook appears promising," said Budd. "With a prospective increase in iron ore tonnage, and a larger volume of stored grain in country elevators on line at the beginning of the year, there is every indication of a substantial volume of traffic to be moved."

Although Great Northern handled 4½ million tons less iron ore over its docks in 1956 than in the preceding year, despite declines in petroleum and automotive traffic, freight movement over the railway, as measured by revenue tons carried one mile, was 2 percent above 1955. Grain transport last year was heaviest on record - nearly 286 million bushels - while there was substantial improvement of lumber, iron and steel articles, aluminum and agricultural traffic from the Columbia basin in north central Washington.

The average revenue for net ton mile handled by Great Northern in 1956 was 1.29 cents as compared with 1.25 cents in 1955. The highest average on record was 1.292 cents in 1952.

Civilian travel over Great Northern increased somewhat last year, but total passenger revenues declined, principally because of reduced movement of military personnel. Revenues from passenger service 1956 exceeded $10½ million as compared to nearly $11 million for each of the preceding two years. Reflecting a 5 percent increase in fares on western lines, effective May 1, 1956, Great Northern's average revenue per passenger mile last year was 2.32 cents, as against 2.15 and 2.21 cents in 1955 and 1954 respectively.

Operating expenses last year approximated $209½ million as compared with nearly $194½ million in 1955.

The increase resulted from severe weather conditions in the early part of the year, higher materials cost, a substantial advance in wages, expansion of health and welfare benefits to employees and dependants, and a somewhat higher expenditure for maintenance of way than in 1955.

Industrial development in Great Northern territory continued last year with 206 new industries established along the railway. The additional industries include grain storage facilities, fertilizer, cold storage, lumber and concrete-mixing plants, and potato-washing and storage concerns. Open pit copper mining operations were begun in Butte, Mont., and major improvements to copper refining and manufacturing plants in Great Falls, Mont., got under way in 1956.

Major improvements to Great Northern fixed property last year included inauguration of operations in Gavin Yard in Minot, N.D., new electronic freight classification yard; installation of a ventilating system in the eight-mile Cascade tunnel in Western Washington, and abandonment of electrified operation on a 75-mile segment of the main line in this area; installation in the company's general offices, in St. Paul, of the first large Univac computing system by any western line, and several betterments to track and train operation facilities.

1957, 03 May: Prindiville Accepts Position With G. N. In Seattle Office

Casey Prindiville, who has been administrator for Battery A of the Montana National Guard here for the past six years, has accepted an appointive position in the office of T. A. Jerrow, General Manager of Lines West, of the Great Northern Railway.

Prindiville, who assumes his new duties in Seattle on May 16, plans to leave Whitefish May 13. Mrs. Prindiville and their two sons will remain until after school is out.

Before becoming National Guard administrator in 1954 Prindiville had worked as secretary to the railway's superintended here from 1941 - 1950, serving under I. E. Manion, J. M. Budd, C. O. Hooker, M. C. LaBertew and W. R. Minton, before entering private business.

Prindiville has been active in the baseball program having served as baseball commissioner for several years. He has served on the city council for three terms and has been president of the council during the last term.

--- Whitefish Pilot

G. N. Advertisement
September 27, 1957
Hungry Horse News

 

1957, 05 May: Prindiville To Take Job With Great Northern

Casey Prindiville, administrator for the Whitefish unit of the Montana National Guard and president of the Whitefish City Council, has accepted a position in the Seattle office of T. A. Jerrow, Great Northern general manager of lines west.

Prindiville has been administrator for Battery A for the past six years. Before that he was private secretary to the Great Northern division superintendent in Whitefish, serving under five Kalispell division superintendents.

He has served on the City Council for three terms. Prindiville, active in the youth baseball program, is baseball commissioner.

Prindiville and his family plan to move to Seattle about May 15.

1957, 09 May: Great Northern Wants To Cut Some Service

Sidney — Great Northern Railway says it will attempt to discontinue certain passenger train schedules in northeastern Montana and western North Dakota and substitute bus service for some of them.

Officials said the proposal would be submitted to the Montana Railroad and the North Dakota Public Service commissions for approval. The railway wants to cease operation of its single unit diesel electric passenger train on the branch route from Williston, N. D., through Sidney to Lambert and Richey in Montana and from Sidney through Fairview to Watford City, N. D.

1957, 13 May: G. N. Lists 4,500 State Employes

Butte, Mont., — J. M. Budd, president of the Great Northern Railway, told a breakfast gathering here Saturday that at present the Great Northern has 4,500 employes in Montana.

Budd, visiting Butte on a cross-country inspection tour, said that the railroad's annual payroll in Montana is more than $23,000,000. He stated that the railroad expends each year more than six million dollars in the state for supplies, equipment and material.

"The railroad's tax bill in Montana annually in $3,250,000," he said.

He said that the railroad's prime objective is good service and that they are proud of their Montana employes' part in providing services to the shippers and traveling public in the state.

1957, 24 May: Praises Railway Employes' Courtesy  

Dear Editor:

Having just read your Bystander comments about the poor abused man from Portland, who couldn't buy a cup of coffee before leaving the train, I feel I must speak up.

There are rules and regulations. I suggest that the man carry a thermos.

A few weeks ago I rode Great Northern, a trip to Seattle and return and made the remark to my family on return that I had never seen the G. N. employes, one and all, more courteous, accommodating and helpful. (Writer requests name not to be published).

Editor Note: A solution to the particular problem of wanting a morning cup of coffee on the streamliner from Portland and Seattle to the Flathead, is carry your own thermos bottle.

We are also glad to reprint the Columbia Falls ladies comments about Great Northern employes being courteous, accommodating and helpful. That is important to the railroad's survival, and the railroad is important to the Flathead.

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 24 May: G. N. Railway Seeks Permit

Helena — The State Board of Railroad Commissioners has assigned June 17 at Scobey to hear an application by the Great Northern Railway Company for a certificate of public convenience and necessity.

The firm applied for the certificate to authorize transportation of commercial goods in eastern Montana around Scobey, Culbertson and Plentywood.

1957, 31 May: Announce Changes In G. N. Schedule  

Revisions in the operating schedules of Great Northern Railway's Empire Builder, Western Star and fast mail will go into effect Sunday.

Both the west-bound and east-bound Western Star trains will arrive in Columbia Falls at 2:30 p. m. West-bound mail train will arrive at 10:20 a. m. and the east-bound mail train at 4:15 p. m.

Summer schedule for the Empire Builder has been changed slightly. West-bound Empire Builder will arrive in Whitefish at 5:55 p. m. and leave at 6. The east-bound train will arrive at 6:25 a. m. and leave at 6:30.

The Western Star will stop daily at Glacier Park and Belton (West Glacier), June 15 to September 10, inclusive. The east-bound train will make a 15 minute stop at Glacier Park Station during this period.

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 01 June: G. N. Operating Schedule Changes Are Announced

Changes in Great Northern's Empire Builder, Western Star and Fast Mail operating schedules starting June 9 have been announced from St. Paul.

Starting June 9 the Western Star and Fast Mail between Williston and Spokane will not be consolidated as they have been operating since last fall, and at present.

Western Star, trains Nos. 3 and 4, will continue to operate via Great Falls as at present, Fast Mail trains, Nos. 27 and 28, will operate of the Hi-Line via Chester.

East-bound Empire Builder, No. 32, will arrive at Havre at 11:50 a. m. and will leave Havre at 12:01 p. m., and west-bound Empire Builder No. 31, will arrive at 12:15 p. m. and depart at 12:25 p. m. both slightly earlier than at present.

Western Star east-bound, No. 4, will arrive at 12:30 a. m. and will leave Havre at 12:45 a. m. and the west-bound Western Star will arrive at Havre at 3:50 a. m., departing at 4:10 a. m.

West-bound Fast Mail, No. 27 will arrive at Havre at 3:00 a. m. and depart at 3:20 a. m. East-bound Fast Mail, No. 28, will arrive at Havre at 11:50 p. m. and depart at 12:55 a. m.

Firemen And Enginemen Officers Whitefish and state officers of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen conducted sessions of the state meeting Saturday at Whitefish. Left to right, front row, are Dave Morrow, Whitefish Lodge president; R. L. Baker, vice president of the BLFE; R. J. DeLaria, general chairman; G. C. Feda, secretary; R. L. Nelson, vice president; T. S. nelson, secretary; and back row, Ozmum Schmechel of Whitefish, legislative representative; C. H. Linn of Whitefish, local chairman for the meeting; L. Brow, financial secretary, and D. Boley, vice chairman. The Ladies Society was also meeting. Delegates were present from 13 Montana and Canadian cities.

 

1957, 02 June: Whitefish BLFE Society Host To Railroad Meeting

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen and Ladies' Society of Whitefish will jointly host the Montana State meeting June 8.

Representatives from three railroad in Montana the Northern Pacific, Milwaukee and the Great Northern, will be resent from 13 towns. The include Havre, Great Falls, Glasgow, Livingston, Missoula, Deer Lodge, Anaconda, Three Forks, Lima, Forsyth, Glendive, Miles City and Whitefish. Representatives are also expected from three Canadian cities, Calgary, Medicine Hat and Lethbridge.

A full day meeting is scheduled beginning at 9 a. m. Luncheon will be served at noon in the Presbyterian Church parlor and the banquet with entertainment and dancing will be at the Moose Home.

Charles Linn is chairman of the state meeting, the second annual for the B. of L. F. and E. The first was last year in Great Falls. Officers of the Whitefish lodge are Dave Morrow, president; LeRoy Brown, secretary - treasurer; Tom Nelson, recording secretary and Ozmun Schmechel, Legislative representative.

Highlighting the meetins of the Ladies' Society will be the official visit of Mrs. Lillian Kemp of Tacoma, Wash., grand vice-president of the society.

The meeting will also mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Whitefish Ladies' Society, having organized April 17, 1907, with 12 charter members. One charter member, Mrs. Grace Connor, has had continuous membership.

Officers of the host society are Mrs. Emmett Howke, president; Mrs. LeRoy Brown, vice president; Mrs. Charles Linn, secretary and Mrs. Harry Arndt, treasurer.

A bus has been chartered to take the visiting men on a tour of the Anaconda Aluminum plant and Hungry Horse Dam.

Canadian Railroaders Canadian members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen met for their state-wide session Saturday in Whitefish. Canadian members and visitors at the meeting included, left to right, front row, G. Young, E. Price, L. Price and B. Richards; back row, G. Chugg and F. Roadhouse.

 

1957, 05 June: Plentywood Is Selected For G. N. Train Hearing

Helena — A Great Northern Railway Co. request to replace Williston, N. D. to Scobey passenger trains with bus service will be heard at Plentywood June 27, instead of at Scobey.

The Montana Railroad Commission announced the change Tuesday. The railroad requested permission, to discontinue trains Nos. 289 and 290 operating between the two cities.

--- Billings Gazette

1957, 05 June: Hearing on Train Cancellation Set

A Great Northern Railway Co. request to replace Williston, N. D. - Scobey passenger trains with bus service will be heard at Plentywood June 27, instead of at Scobey.

The Montana railroad commission announced the change. The railroad has requested permission to discontinue trains Nos. 289 and 290 operating between the two cities.

--- Independent Record

1957, 05 June: G. N. Hearing Set For Plentywood

Helena — The Montana Railroad Commission has changed the place for hearing the application of Great Northern Railway for discontinuance of passenger service between Williston, N. D., and Scobey.

The hearing will be held in Plentywood rather than Scobey at the request of persons living in the Williston – Scobey area.

The commission kept the date originally set – June 27.

1957, 05 June: G. N. Ships Rail Ties To Somers Yard

More than 10,000 ties, in 21 Great Northern cars, were shipped last month to Somers for treatment before being used by the G. N. as replacement ties along their tracks.

Harrison O'Brien is the loader, and John Swing and Robert Purdy are the men who drive the C irons into the ends of the ties after they are stacked in the yard.

Mills supplying ties at present to the Great Northern Railway are those belonging to Glen Keitner, Holder Brothers, Sam Dobie, Charles Workamn and Sons, Claude Madden, T. V. Finch, Robbin Clarke, Sid Workman, Harles Bergette, Clarence Butts and David Butts. From Flagstone, British Columbia, ties are also purchased from Warren Lancaster, Albert McGuire and Roy Sinclair mills.

1957, 07 June: G. N. Revises Train And Bus Schedule

Revisions in the operating schedules of Great Northern Railway's Empire Builder, Western Star and Fast Mail, effective on Sunday June 9, will result in changed arrival and departure times at numerous points along the line.

Adjustments in the schedule of the west-bound Empire Builder will be made at all stations between Wolf Point and Spokane. In each instance arrival and departure time will be a few minutes earlier than at present. The schedule of the east-bound Empire Builder will be similarly affected between Wenatchee and Fargo.

The Western Star will operate on a summer schedule between Chicago and Seattle beginning June 9 and will not be consolidated with the Fast Mail between Williston and Spokane, as at present.

Train No. 27 will arrive in Whitefish at 10:35 a. m., leaving at 10:50 a. m.; Train No. 3 will arrive at 2:40 p. m., leaving at 2:50 p. m.; and train No. 31 will arrive at 5:55 p. m., and leave at 6:00 p. m.

Eastbound train changes are train No. 28 will arrive here at 3:50 p. m., leaving at 4:00 p. m.; train No. 4 will arrive at 2:00 p. m., and leave at 2:15 p. m.; No. 32 will arrive at 6:25 a. m., and leave at 6:30 a. m.

Under the revised bus schedule the bus will leave Kalispell at 5:40 a. m., 9:50 a. m., 1:15 p. m., 3:25 p. m. and 5:05 p. m., arriving at Whitefish at 6:10 a. m., 10:20 a. m., 1:45 p. m., 3:50 p. m., and 5:35 p. m.

The south-bound bus will leave Whitefish at 6:30 a. m., 10:50 a. m., 2:50 p. m., 4:00 p. m. and 6:00 p. m. It will arrive in Kalispell at 7:00 a. m., 11:20 a. m., 3:15 p. m., 4:30 p. m., and 6:30 p. m.

1957, 11 June: Machine Age Comes To Woods

From May 1936

Twenty years ago the log drives would have been on at this season. Crews had been working in the woods all winter, logs had been hauled down to the river banks by teams, and when the rise came the decks were broken, the logs rolled in to the stream and for two months the river crews were busy.

Now the machine age has come to the woods, the same as everywhere else. The drives are a thing of the past. Caterpillars do the work of teams in the woods, and the logs are hauled to the mills by trucks or logging railroads.

Mechanized logging is well illustrated by the American Timber Co., operating under contract for the Somers Lumber Company in the Dayton basin, which was visited by a party of Kalispell businessmen yesterday. There they found "cats" working on hillsides so steep it seemed impossible for a machine to negotiate them, and twisting and turning between trees and stumps in an incredible manner. And the loads they bring down would take a team half a day to perform the same work.

Each "cat" brings down about a dozen logs, and these are in lengths from 24 to 42 feet. At the landing they are loaded onto cars by a jammer, and two trainloads a day are being hauled to Flathead Lake at Dayton and towed to the mill at Somers. Yesterday, a trainload of nine cars was gotten out in the morning and 10 cars in the afternoon. At present they are getting out from 150,000 to 160,000 feet per day, but this will be increased to 200,000 feet when a new camp is opened.

The American Company, Hans Larson, manager, says has been operating at Dayton for three years, and will get out approximately 50,000,000 feet of logs. This year they will get out 20,000,000 feet and will complete their present contract by about Oct. 1

Those who visited the camp yesterday were L. B. Allen, A. R. Johnson, T. C. Hand, C. A. Hummer, Archie Patterson, H. C. Keith, George Chaffee, H. C. Karow, J. M. Garey, R. O. Waller, Hans Wallchli, J. P. Bruckhauser, C. O. Larson, Ray Robbin, and L. D. Spafford.

1957, 11 June: Great Northern Announces Train Changes

Whitefish Mont., — The Great Northern Railway announced some revisions in the operating schedules of the Empire Builder, Western Star and fast mail trains effective Sunday which will result in the changed arrival and departure times at numerous points along the line.

Adjustments in the schedule of the west-bound Empire Builder will be made at all stations between Wolf Point and Spokane. In each instance, according to the announcement, arrival and departure time will be a few minutes earlier than at present. The schedule of the east-bound Empire Builder will be similarly affected between Wenatchee, Wash., and Fargo, N. D.

The Western Star will operate on a summer schedule between Chicago and Seattle beginning Sunday and will not be consolidated with the fast mail between Williston and Spokane, as at present.

The new schedule is as follows:

West-Bound: No. 27 Fast Mail, arrive Whitefish 10:35 a. m., depart 10:50 a. m.; No. 3 Western Star, arrive Whitefish 2:40 p. m., depart 2:50 p. m.; No. 31 Empire Builder, arrive Whitefish 5:55 p. m., depart 6:00 p. m.

East-Bound: No. 28 Fast Mail, arrive Whitefish 3:50 p. m., depart 4:00 p. m.; No. 4 Western Star, arrive Whitefish 2:00 p. m., depart 2:15 p. m.; No. 32 Empire Builder arrive Whitefish 6:25 a. m., depart 6:30 a. m.

The following is the revised bus schedule:

North-Bound: Bus leaves Kalispell 5:40 a. m., 9:50 a. m., 1:15 p. m., 3:25 p. m. and 5:05 p. m.; arrives Whitefish 6:10 a. m., 10:20 a. m., 1:45 p. m., 3:50 p. m. and 5:35 p. m.

South-Bound: Bus leaves Whitefish 6:30 a. m., 10:50 a. m., 2:50 p. m., 4:00 p. m. and 6:00 p. m.; arrives Kalispell 7:00 a. m., 11:30 a. m., 3:15 p. m., 4:30 p. m. and 6:30 p. m.

Great Northern Advertisment
June 11, 1957
Motor Freight Division

 

1957, 13 June: Whitefish Office Force To Be Expanded

Proposed plans for expansion of the Great Northern Railway Company's western district accounting offices in Whitefish were told by D. W. Porter, supervisor of the district office, at the Monday luncheon of the Whitefish Rotary Club.

A year ago last February, accounting offices for the district were moved to Whitefish. Included in the work was timekeeping work for the operating crafts, namely, the trainmen, enginemen and the yardmen. By this move the office force was built up by 11 timekeepers and key punch operators, making a total of 39.

"Now we propose," the speaker said, "to expand the offices to include other accounting handling and time keeping for the non-operating crafts in the district. In doing so, the books and personnel for one division at a time will be moved in."

The Cascade division, with headquarters in Seattle, will be first, effective July 1. To perform that portion of the work 14 employees will either be transferred from the Seattle office or be hired locally. On a recent trip to Seattle, the district supervisor said that he learned that only three in the Seattle office would make the move. This will necessitate a local employment of 11 clerks.

The same procedure will hold true for the other divisions: the Klamath division with headquarters at Klamath Falls, Ore., effective possibly Sept. 1 or Oct. 1, with an addition to the force of two positions, and the Butte division with headquarters at Great Falls, effective possibly Nov. 1, with an expected transfer or local addition of 14 employes.

This proposed expansion will increase the office personnel to 69 with the possibility of bringing to Whitefish 20 families before the end of the year.

"The net program," Porter concluded, "has been followed closely and I have no doubt but what it will materialize as planned."

A visiting Rotarian present at the meeting was Jack Pallo, Alhambra, Calif.

President Roger Haines presided. Plans for a get together of members for that evening at the home of the president were made.

The luncheon was served by the Presbyterian Women's Society in the church parlor. Next meeting will be Monday at Reeves.

1957, 13 June: Rexford Gets New Train Schedule

Mrs. Clara Hurst announced the new schedule for the mail trains which began Sunday.

No. 27 arrives at 12:43 p. m. and carries only parcel post and papers; No. 3 arrives at 4:05 p. m. and carries letters; No. 4 arrives at 12:43 p. m. and carries letters; and No. 28 arrives at 2:15 p. m. and carries parcel post. The first two trains are east-bound and the other two are west-bound.

Mail or parcel post for any of the trains should be in the post office half an hour before train time in order to make the mail pouch.

Mrs. Hurst is attending the postmasters convention this week at Dillon. In her absence, Mrs. Joe Bernhard is taking care of the post office. During this week the lobby of the post office will open at 8 a. m. and close at 6 p. m.

1957, 13 June: G. N. Outlines Expansion Plans For Whitefish

Proposed plans for expansion of the Great Northern Railway Company's western district accounting offices in Whitefish were told by D. W. Porter, supervisor of the district office, at the Monday luncheon of the Whitefish Rotary Club.

A year ago last February, accounting offices for the district were moved to Whitefish. Included in the work was timekeeping work for the operating crafts, namely, the trainmen, enginemen and the yardmen. By this move the office force was built up by 11 timekeepers and key punch operators, making a total of 39.

"Now we propose," the speaker said, "to expand the offices to include other accounting handling and time keeping for the non-operating crafts in the district. In doing so, the books and personnel for one division at a time will be moved in."

The Cascade division, with headquarters in Seattle, will be first, effective July 1. To perform that portion of the work 14 employees will either be transferred from the Seattle office or be hired locally. On a recent trip to Seattle, the district supervisor said that he learned that only three in the Seattle office would make the move. This will necessitate a local employment of 11 clerks.

The same procedure will hold true for the other divisions: the Klamath division with headquarters at Klamath Falls, Ore., effective possibly Sept. 1 or Oct. 1, with an addition to the force of two positions, and the Butte division with headquarters at Great Falls, effective possibly Nov. 1, with an expected transfer or local addition of 14 employees.

This proposed expansion will increase the office personnel to 69 with the possibility of bringing to Whitefish 20 families before the end of the year.

"The net program," Porter concluded, "has been followed closely and I have no doubt but what it will materialize as planned."

1957, 14 June: G. N. Plans More Office Moves To Whitefish

Fourteen additional positions from Seattle will be moved to the Whitefish mechanized accounting office of the Great Northern Railway, Don Porter, supervisor of the district accounting office, told members of the Rotary Club Monday. In the revision of the system accounting offices, effective July 1 this will leave nine remaining in the Cascade division office at Seattle.

Only three of the Seattle employees plan to transfer to the Whitefish office, which means, Porter told his audience, that there will be 11 openings to local persons who can qualify. Those moving to Whitefish from Seattle are Miss Marie Faldberg, Mrs. Marie Beranek and Miss Leta Peters.

Local applications are now being screened for the unfilled positions, which will be opened to other offices if local applicants do not qualify. Most of the positions in Seattle are held by married women, who are unable to transfer with the position due to family responsibilities.

Porter told the group that about Sept. 1 there would be similar work transferred from the Klamath division office at Klamath Falls, Oregon, moving two position to Whitefish. About Nov. 1 transfer of similar positions from the Butte Division office in Great Falls is planned which will bring 14 additional jobs from that office. Employees holding the positions will be given the opportunity to transfer with the jobs.

At present there are 39 employees in the accounting office, which will be increased to 69 after the expected transfers are completed by the end of the year.

Preceding Porter's talk, Leo Fisher gave a three minute talk to the group on the classification of member ship in Rotary according to the constitution and bylaws. Jack Pallo of Alhambra, Calif., was a visiting Rotarian at the meeting.

1957, 21 June: G. N. Vetville Group Meeting Friday In Columbia Falls  

Eleventh annual meeting of the Vetville for Vets Association, most of them retired and older Great Northern Railroad employes who own property near Columbia Falls will be held at Columbia Falls city hall Friday, June 28, at 7:30 p. m.

The railroad employes purchased a 72 acre tract immediately northwest of Columbia Falls in 1946, and subdivided the land into sites for homes and summer cabins.

Directors of the association are Fred Mann, president; R. G. Ferguson, vice president; E. M. Boyles, secretary - treasurer; Chris Lund and Henry Johnson.

Terms of Mann and Ferguson expire.

Mann and Ferguson are retired railroad engineers from Glasgow, and Boyles is a retired conductor from Minot. Lund and Johnson are contractors and carpenters.

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 21 June: G. N. Freight Train Derails At Libby

An east-bound Great Northern freight train derailed 15 cars on two trains when it crashed into the side of a west-bound freight near here Wednesday.

Railway officials said the 96-car east-bound freight had pulled onto the Libby siding to permit the west-bound train to pass on the main line.

A rail broke under the east-bound train, sending it crashing into the side of the other. Seven empty cars on the west-bound and three empty cars and five loaded cars on the second train crashed off the tracks.

No one was injured.

1957, 27 June: Great Northern Adds Personnel

Arriving soon in Whitefish to assume clerical, stenographic and accounting duties in the Great Northern district mechanized office, will be Marie Faldberg, Agnes Sorenson, Marie Biranek, Mary Palmer and Lita Peters.

The additional personnel are part of an expansion program of the Whitefish office that began two years ago, according to D. W. Porter, supervisor at Whitefish.

Nine more positions for office personnel remain to be filled. Three will be open first to personnel of this division who wish to transfer to Whitefish.

1957, 28 June: Plum Creek Opening Box Plant  

Boost for the Flathead economy is announcement that Plum Creek Lumber Company will start operations at its new box plant in July.

D. C. Dunham, Plum Creek president, expects the box plant will employ about 30 men with production underway in about 10 days.

This will bring total Plum Creek payroll in Columbia Falls to about 200 men. It is the largest mill operation in the Flathead. The payroll approximates $70,000 a month.

Install Machinery: This week saw installation of machinery in the new 92 by 112-foot box plant building continuing. Largest piece is the horizontal twin band box resaw. Therer are also two sets of ripsaws, a nailer, gang rip saw, box matcher and box band squeezer.

Superintendent at the box plant is Henry Lamoreaux. He started manufacturing boxes in 1918 back in Wisconsin, and went to Bemidji, Minn., in 1923. In1942, Lamoreaux became associated with the D. C. Dunham Lumber Co. at Bemidji which operates a box plant that has employed 86 men.

Market for the new Flathead produced product will be mostly in the steel and other heavy industry.

Some of the wood used in box manufacturing is material otherwise burned as scrap. The new box plant will bring the Flathead man hours of employment in manufacturing from trim and waste presently burned. Good sections of boards that as a whole are culls are utilized.

However the Flathead mill for a number of years has been supplying materials for box manufacturing. The box lumber was shipped to the Dunham box plant at Bemidji. With a box plant here in the Flathead, outlook is for better utilization of the resource. Most of the lumber used in making box shooks is spruce and cottonwood. Markets are generally in the Midwest and east.

Located Here In 1945: Plum Creek mill located in Columbia Falls in 1945 and turned out its first lumber in 1946. The name comes from Plum Creek near Bemidji in northern Minnesota. In 1946 Plum Creek had 24 employes in Columbia Falls. In 1947 this figure increased to 53. Last summer there were 135 men working, and today there are 175 employed at the mill which operates through the winter.

Improvements underway at the mill include a contract with Grinnell Company of the Pacific for installation of a complete sprinkling system for fire protection. Being laid this week was eight inch cast iron mains for the system. Most of the network of black steel pipe with heat activated sprinkler fixtures has been installed.

Monday evening will see Plum Creek put on a night shift at the sawmill employing about 20 men.

Plum Creek Staff: Plum Creek administrative staff includes D. C. Dunham, president; Lawrence Rude, general manager; Fred Winegar, sawmill superintendent; Walter Piper, planer superintendent; Henry Lamoreaux, box plant superintendent; Kenneth Weyrauch, yard foreman; Paul O'Connor, office manager; Kenneth Knapton, shipping foreman; James Grouchupf, assistant sales manager; Al Luce, day shift planer foreman; Glenn Pearce, night shift planer foreman, and John Himmesoete, night shift sawmill foreman.

PHOTO HERE

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 28 June: G. N. Vetville Group Meeting Friday  

A number of long time Great Northern Railway employes are expected in Columbia Falls Friday for the eleventh annual meeting of the Vetville for Vets Association. Business session will be held at Columbia Falls city hall Friday at 7:30 p. m.

Two directors are to be elected since terms of Fred Mann, who is president of the association, and R. G. Ferguson, vice president, expire. Other directors are E. M. Boyles, secretary - treasurer, Chris Lund and Henry Johnson. All now live adjacent to Columbia Falls at Vetville.

The association was organized in 1946 and purchased 72 acres from Dudley W. Greene and Bernard S. Tracey, immediately north and west of Plum Creek Lumber Company. The land was divided into 150 by 150 foot tracts and sold to Great Northern employes, most of them then nearing retirement.

Secretary since Vetville's start has been E. M. Boyles, retired conductor from Minot, who now lives here. He reports that the past year has seen Henry Johnson complete his new home; Andrew Gunderson finish a basement, and C. D. Knauss of Glasgow, buy a 16 by 32-foot house from Henry Johnson on to his lot.

E. O. Hatler, L. E. Waldrip, both of Havre; W. O. Schmidt and C. H. Slaughter, both of Minot, and C. D. Walden, Great Falls, have all improved their lots during the past year through bulldozing.

New Vetville policy permits sale of lots to persons who are not Great Northern employes.

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 02 July: G. N. Railway Appeals Court Ruling

The Great Northern Railway Company today appealed from a district court decision which awarded Nathaniel H. Bracy of Butte $27,500 damages in a personal injury action.

Bracy charged he was injured July 25, 1953, while working in the Hillyard yards of the Great Northern at Spokane. He charged negligence on the part of employes of the company.

A district court jury on Nov. 10, 1956, granted Bracy damages of $27,500. He had asked $85,000.

1957, 05 July: Mann Re-elected Vetville President  

All officers of Vetville for Vets Association were re-elected at the 11th annual meeting held Friday in Columbia Falls.

The are Fred Mann, president; R. G. Ferguson, vice president; and E. M. Boyles, secretary, treasurer.

Other members of the board of directors are Chris Lund and Henry Johnson.

Although members of the association are scattered throughout several of the northwestern states, all the board members are residents of the Vetville area.

Herman Benzien and H. J. Mustell were visitors at the meeting.

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 08 July: G. N. Railway Crew Spots Man's Body

Libby, Mont., — The body of a man about 45 years old was found not far from the Great Northern Railway's Balcour station, 30 miles east of Libby, Wednesday.

Lincoln County Sheriff Ray Frost said the only identification found on the man was a book in which the name, Francis Kincaid, had been written.

The sheriff said a signal maintainer had noticed the apparently ill man Monday and inquired if he needed help. The man answered that he was all right, the G. N. employee told the sheriff.

The man's body was spotted by a passing train crew. Sheriff Frost said. The body was brought to the Gompf Funeral Home in Libby.

1957, 14 July: Assurance Given On Mail Service

Washington — A Post Office official has assured Sen. Mike Mansfield (D-Mont) that mail service won't suffer in replacing trains with bus-truck service.

The Great Northern Railway seeks to discontinue closed pouch service between Williston, N. D., and Richey, Mont.

F. J. Goshey, regional director of the Post Office at, Minneapolis, said the bus-truck service would be comparable with or superior to that train service now provided on the branch line.

The railroad also proposed similar bus-truck service for its Williston-Scobey run.

--- Billings Gazette

1957, 14 July: Assurance Given On Mail Service

Washington — A Post Office official has assured Sen. Mike Mansfield (D-Mont) that mail service won't suffer in replacing trains with bus-truck service. The Great Northern Railway seeks to discontinue closed pouch service between Williston, N. D., and Richey, Mont.

F. J. Goshey, regional director of the Post Office at, Minneapolis, said the bus-truck service would be comparable with or superior to that train service now provided on the branch line.

The railroad also proposed similar bus-truck service for its Williston - Scobey run.

--- Havre Daily News

1957, 19 July: Cherry Crop Starts Way To Market  

Packing bing cherries started Wednesday at the Kalispell warehouse of Flathead Lake Cherry Growers Association.

There were 100 girls and women at work packing cherries Thursday, and the crew is to increase to about 300 Monday.

From 100 to 125 refrigerator carloads of cherries — most of them will be Lamberts - are to leave the Flathead during the next three weeks. There are about 1,200 lugs containing 14 pounds each in the average car, or about 18,000 pounds shipping weight in each car. Markets are from California to New York.

Nat Boyd, sales manager, commented that Flathead's sweet cherry crop is the last major cherry production in the nation to ripen, and as a result is a mid-summer specialty.

Last year was a poor year. This is a 100 to 125 carload year through Kalispell, with a lesser amount shipped by way of Polson.

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 19 July: George Good Passes Suddenly In Troy Friday

Funeral services for George A. Good were conducted Tuesday afternoon from the Catron chapel with the Rev. Paul V. Neel of the Presbyterian Church officiating. During the services Alfons Olson sang two selected hymns with Mrs. T. W. Hiatt as organist. Following Rev. Neel the Loyal Order of Moose held ritualistic services. Burial followed in the Whitefish cemetery where Battery A of the 639th Field Artillery held military graveside rites. Pallbearers were H. L. Beatty, Marlo Lence, Paul Kutzman, Charles Nelson, Jr., Edward I. Childress and Manon Strong.

George A. Good was born September 112, 1919 in Whitefish to Lee H. and Lizzie Good. He completed his schooling in the Whitefish public schools, and on January 18, 1942 enlisted in the Air Force. Mr. Good served with the 385th Bomb Co. and the 550th Bombing Sq. He served overseas in the Air Offensive in Europe as a tail gunner, and was shot down over Germany. Mr. Good was a prisoner of War for some time in the well known Stalag Prison Camp No. 17. On September 26, 1945 he was honorably discharged from the services and returned to Whitefish where he was employed by the Great Northern Railway as a brakeman. Mr. Good had received his promotion to conductor, but was working as a Brakeman when he passed away soon after completing a trip into Troy, July 12, at the age of 37 years.

On September 2, 1953 he was married to his wife, Katherine, at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Besides his widow he is survived by five children, Nathaniel, James A., Virginia Mae, Lizzie M., and Kay Annette all at home; his mother, Mrs. Lee Good of Whitefish; and three brothers, James Murray, Howard Good of Whitefish, and Ernest Good of Bothel, Washington.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 19 July: Gateway Pioneer G. C. Anderson Died Saturday

Grover Cleveland Anderson, age 65, passed away in the Whitefish Memorial Hospital Saturday afternoon. Mr. Anderson was a native of Rib Lake, Was., and with his parents; James and Jenny Anderson came to the Tobacco Plains area in 1896. They settled at the 69 Ranch which was the community that later moved to Eureka after the building of the railroad. He worked with his parents who operated a blacksmith shop and a lodging house for the men who freighted between Kalispell and Fort Steel, B. C. when the Great Northern built the railroad from Jennings to the coal fields in B. C. Later the family moved to Hayden, about five miles north of Rexford, where they built and operated a hotel and blacksmith shop until moving to Gateway, on the Canadian border where they engaged in the same business, and Mr. Anderson had made his home there since.

During World War One he served overseas in France with the Army.

Mr. Anderson was a single man and is survived by one sister, Zela McKnight of Spokane; one niece, Mrs. J. L. Jones of Whitefish, and one nephew, Ted Thompson of Spokane.

Mr. Anderson was a charter member of the American Legion Post of Eureka, and also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Funeral services for Mr. Anderson were held Wednesday afternoon from the Gompf Funeral Home at Eureka with burial in the Eureka Cemetery with military grave side rites.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 26 July: Cherry Harvest Now Underway

The annual sweet cherry harvest on the east shore of Flathead Lake started late last week and is now in full swing. Indications are that this will be a record or near record crop, unless weather interferes. Heavy rains followed by hot sun, is always a danger. Quite a number of present and former Whitefish residents are included among the cherry growers.

Preliminary estimates place this year's crop at about two million pounds or enough to fill 100 standard box cars. Some of the crop is shipped through Polson, but the major part through Kalispell, where about 400 persons, mostly women, are engaged in the packing process at the warehouse. Some will be moved by truck to markets but the greater part will be in carload shipments to Midwest and Eastern markets where the Flathead grown cherries command premium prices.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 28 July: Great Northern 'Hot Boxes' Cause Rexford Area Fires

Several small fires have been started by "hot boxes" on Great Northern Railway freight trains and one man-made fire began near Ray DeShazer's farm.

Late Thursday afternoon a fire was reported near the Pigeon Bridge, along the railroad track. Wayne Robbe came into the Forest Service office at the time so he immediately took the pump and went to the scene of the fire. He was able to get it out before it had spread far by pumping water from the Tobacco River.

On Wednesday three other fires were reported along the railroad tack from Jerry Marvel's farm along the Kootenai River to Sutton Creek. As the one Thursday, they were started by hot boxes throwing sparks into the extremely dry grass and brush along the right-of-way.

They were brought under control by Forest Service crews, but not before they had burned about half an acre in each of the three locations. Most of the burning was on Great Northern property, but at Sutton Creek it jumped over in one place. Before it had time to spread into the timber the fire-fighters put it out.

A careless fisherman must have caused the fire to start along the path leading from DeShazer's farm to a favorite fishing spot on the Kootenai River Wednesday. Luckily it was spotted before it had spread into their fields. As dry as everything is right now it could have spread up to the house.

Gus Verdal, forest ranger, again asks that people be extra careful for the rest of the summer to see that their matches and cigarettes are out, as well as any campfires they may build. The fire hazard is especially high this year and it is only with the cooperation of everyone that a bad fire in our forests can be avoided. His thanks go to all who have helped by fighting fires, as well as by being careful.

1957, 02 August: Move Eighth Home To Vetville Area  

Vetville — Mr. and Mrs. C. D. Knauss, Glasgow, have returned home after spending three days as guests at the Henry Johnson home in Vetville. Improvement of their lot and house in the area brought them to Columbia Falls. The house they moved on their lot makes the eighth home on the Vetville plot.

Mr. and Mrs. Lyle Dressell and family, Williston, N. Dak., and Mr. and Mrs. Herman Freese, Minot, were recent visitors at the Boyles home in Vetville. The Dressell family was enroute to the west coast and Mr. and Mrs. Freese have been vacationing at their cottage at Woods Bay near Bigfork.

Visitors at the Fred Mann home in Vetville last week were Mr. and Mrs. John Maas, sister, and brother from Whitefish; Mr. and Mrs. Severt Lund, and Mr. Hagen. Mr. Hagen is from Devils Lake, N. Dak., and the Lunds live in Whitefish.

Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Watson and family, Mrs. Edna Raymond, Glasgow, Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Cotton and family, Glasgow, were on a fishing trip in the Flathead.

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 02 August: Tells Story Of Talbotts In Columbia Falls  

No one man is more associated with early day Columbia Falls history than the late James A. Talbott.

We are pleased here at the Hungry Horse News to have received a gracious and informative letter from Mr. Talbott's daughter, Mrs. May T. Linden, who now lives in Long Beach.

We had written Mrs. Linden asking if she wouldn't provide us with authentic information on the Talbotts in Columbia Falls. Here is her letter, and also a story of the family:

Dear Mr. Ruder:

Congratulation on the recent honors which have come to you and the News.

Enclosed you will find a brief resume of the life of the Talbotts in Columbia Falls; if there is more that you wish, or specific questions that you wish to ask, I shall be happy to cooperate as far as my memory serves me. I appreciate your interest in my family and the honor you have paid us already.

Enclosed, also are two pictures of the family home. I avoid the name "Shellrock" which was coined by a promoter and never used with affection by the family. The newspaper print is from the Daily Missoulian at the time of the fire: the other is the only really good, clear picture that I have. Perhaps you can use one or the other. I shall appreciate return the latter picture when it has served its purpose.

When my first sister was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery - Jose, in March, 1904 - my mother purchased the cemetery to correct its run-down condition. She erected a fence to keep the cattle, repaired the gate and had the place mowed and kept up during her lifetime. Before her death she deeded the cemetery property to the City of Columbia Falls. My entire family, including my maternal grandparents, are buried there. For this reason I cannot see why the city cannot assume responsibility for its care. I would like to see the name changed or to find it come under a general cemetery "federation."

Thank you again for your interest and be assured of my wish to cooperate with your really lively editorial interest. You do have a good paper, the next best thing to a visit home and the Park.

Sincerely yours,
May T. Linden

A Brief Resume Of The Talbotts In Columbia Falls: My father, James A. Talbott, came to Montana in 1863 from Nevada, settling in Virginia City. He moved to Helena and then to Butte where he pioneered in mining enterprises. He married Jose Ramsdell in Deer Lodge, July 9, 1875. Seven children were born to them, only four girls - May, Maud, Jose and Clarisa - reaching maturity. Jose and Clarisa died in their early 20's in Columbia Falls where they are buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.

In the early [18]90's Mr. Talbott and a group Helena investors became interested in Columbia Falls as a possible division point for the Great Northern railroad. The Gaylord Hotel was built about 1892 by this group and its Columbia Falls Townsite Company. With Andrew J. Davis, president of the First National Bank of Butte, Mr. Talbott started the Bank of Columbia Falls about this same time. The family began spending its summers there because of the climate and beautiful scenery. In 1898 Mrs. Talbott bought the property where the family home was built. Construction began in April 1899 and the family moved in in the bitter cold of February 1900.

Mr. Fred Whiteside of Kalispell, an early political figure, was architect and contractor for the three-story, fourteen room house. The bricks were made by the Byrne brothers at their ranch west of town where they had a clay bank.

Although the family was hospitable and had many friends throughout the state and nation who often visited, the fabulous parties told about are pure fiction. My mother died in October 1909; my father died in August 1923 in Spokane.

Maud Talbott married Dr. J. A. Lamb of Kalispell, she died in 1931. They had no children. I, May, married Thomas E. Linden, June 9, 1909. Two sons, James A. and Thomas E., lived to manhood. James died in 1943, Mr. Linden in 1946; both are buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. Thomas and I survive.

PHOTO HERE

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 02 August: Logging Active Up North Fork  

Seven logging operations are underway up the Flathead's North Fork this summer, according to Mel Yuhas, Glacier View District Ranger of Flathead National Forest.

Wickham and Warner, Columbia Falls, are building road, logging and hauling from the 2,000,000 board foot Frozen Lake sale to Forest Products, Kalispell. This is a 70 mile haul from the Canadian line with the logs presently going to Superior Buildings, Columbia Falls.

Two trucks are presently hauling with road construction underway and logging just starting.

Coming south, the next Flathead National Forest sale is 2,000,000 board feet on Yakinikak Creek to Roy Bauer, hauling to Plum Creek Lumber Company, Columbia Falls. Two trucks are hauling.

Plum Creek also has the Whale and Shorty Creeks sale of 35,000,000 board feet with about 8,000,000 left to cut, with eight trucks hauling.

Koenig Brothers, Kalispell, are building road in the Mathias Creek 3,000,000 board foot sale up Coal Creek.

Superior Buildings has the 4,500,000 board feet Kletomus Creek sale, headwaters of Coal Creek. Roads are being completed. There are 3,000,000 board feet of logs decked ready for hauling to start. Will Warner is logging contractor.

Rocky Mountain Lumber Company, Columbia Falls, has the 7,000,000 board feet Skockoleel Creek sale up Big Creek. Russell Warner has the logging contract.

Plum Creek is building road into Kimmerly Creek, tributary of Canyon, to further tap the old 28,000,000 Canyon Creek sale. There is about 12,000,000 board feet left to cut.

Yuhas estimates logging, road building and hauling operations by the lumber industry presently sees about 75 men working up the North Fork.

Flathead National Forest has 60 men up the North Fork this summer. About 30 of these men are local residents, and 20 forestry and engineering students.

There was a spotty huckleberry crop, and trout fishing is getting better.

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 02 August: Lost Boys Found At Lupfer Station

A search for two lost boys Thursday evening brought out more than 100 volunteers, combing the woods and the railway right-of-way for Archie Decker, 9, and Tom Rutherford, 13.

Missed about 4 p. m. the two lads were found, with the Decker boy's dog, about 10:30 p. m. at Lupfer, walking the track, unharmed, but tired and hungry.

Sons of Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Decker and Mr. and Mrs. Lyle Rutherford, they had left early in the afternoon for a ride on their bicycles. When they did not return and their bikes were found at a railway crossing early in the evening a search was organized.

Theorizing that they might have climbed into a freight car, railroad workers were alerted and the yards and trains checked. The right-of-way was covered by Adrian Buckland and R. B. Frank on a motor car and about 10 p. m. a report came from the Evans place that two boys and a dog had been seen about 5:30 p. m. headed west.

Two search cars left for the Lupfer area, one with Dr. Hedine, LeRoy Broughton and Virgil Michels going beyond Lupfer and the other with James LaPlante and Ozmund Schmechel, searching the area and locating the boys.

Aiding in the search were members of the Jaycees, and Saddle club, Flathead Rescue Ass'n., the Sheriff's Posse, employees of the G. N. Railway and a number of volunteers.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 06 August: To Sell Famed Power Plant At Chelan

Seattle — The historic Tumwater Canyon hydroelectric plant near Leavenworth, which formerly provided power for electrified Great Northern trains through the Cascades, is being offered for sale as salvage, the Chelan County Public Utility District said Monday.

The plant was built by the Great Northern in 1908. It was operated for the railroad by the Puget Sound Power & Light Co. from 1927 until last year when its penstock was damaged by a slide. The plant was then abandoned because the railroad shifted to diesel operations. The PUD acquired the plant for its associated water rights, required for a proposed 180,000 kilowatt Wenatchee River development. The PUD said the 25 cycle plant cannot be fitted into the PUD system and is being offered for sale.

--- Union Bulletin

1957, 12 August: Rasmussen Gets New G. N. Position

Appointment of Charles M. Rasmussen of Seattle as general manager of Great Northern lines west of Bainvile, Mont., was announced today in the railway's headquarters in St. Paul. The appointment is effective Oct. 1.

Rasmussen, who has been assistant general manager in Seattle since early 1955, will succeed Thomas A. Jerrow, recently elected vice president of operations. Jerrow takes over that post on Oct. 1 from Ira G. Pool of St. Paul, who is retiring.

A native of Morris, Minn., Rasmussen began, work for Grat Northern in 1924 as a section laborer during his high school years. He subsequently advanced to supervisory positions in the company's track maintenance department, and in 1944 became a trainmaster on G. N.'s Butte division.

Rasmussen also was a trainmaster in Glasgow, Mont., Spokane and in Kelly Lake, Minn., and in May 1951 was appointed superintendent of the railway's Klamath division with headquarters in Klamath Falls, Ore. He moved to Great Falls, Mont., in 1952 as superintendent of the Butte division, and left that post to become assistant general manager in Seattle.

1957, 16 August: G. N. Asks To Abandon Branch Line To Kila

A request to abandon the rail service from Kalispell to Kila has been filed by the Great Northern Railway with the Interstate Commerce Commission. The railway contends that the 10 mile line west of Kalispell is an unprofitable operation.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 20 August: Early Trains Terrified Passengers

It was exactly 126 years ago this August that a hulking, smoking iron beast roared through the country side between Albany and Schenectady, New York, causing almost as much excitement as an invasion from Mars would today.

The monster, coughing clouds of smoke and sparks, was the first steam locomotive to draw a passenger train in the United States. It scared passengers, crew, spectators and horses in the fields along the way. But it made the trip.

This first passenger locomotive, the De Witt Clinton, was a ponderous affair of iron, or so it appeared to the people who saw it for the first time. Actually, it was less than 12 feet long - about the length of a modern automobile, in fact. It huffed and puffed along on only four wheels, and weighed less than three tons.

The engineer and fireman stood in the open, balancing gingerly on a narrow platform. And when the steam pressure began to get low, they had to stop the train and "wood up" from cords of firewood stacked at intervals along the right-of-way.

The passengers rode in two ordinary stagecoach bodies, slung on special frames with flanged wheels to keep them on the tracks. They were thrilled, but scared.

And they had a right to be. They were at the mercy of fiery pine embers from the smokestack, and from the track itself.

Those first 15 miles of primitive track between the two cities were made of stout wooden rails anchored to granite blocks and topped by long iron straps.

Occasionally, the pressure on the metal bands would snap their bindings. And when this happened the iron straps curled up under the coach floors and ripped them to pieces. It was at times like this that the screaming passengers would leap for their lives.

Spectators who lined the roadway for the first trip of the DeWitt Clinton on August 9, 1831, raced away in fear from the shower of sparks that belched from the laboring locomotive.

Scores of small fires were ignited along the route. Teams of horses for miles around were terrorized.

But the train covered the 15 miles in 45 minutes. And that was good enough to put the railroads in business.

The task of spanning the continent by rail began when President Lincoln signed the first Pacific Railway Bill, July 1, 1862. The job was entrusted to two corporations. The Union Pacific was to build westward from Council Bluffs, Iowa, The Central Pacific was to build eastward from Sacramento, California.

Between that date and the morning of May 10, 1869, when the driving of the Golden Spoke symbolized the spanning of the continent by rail, many dangers and hardships were encountered. Laborers pushed through miles of unwatered wilderness, the haunts of savage tribes, and all the other dangers which confronted them.

It was a stirring saga, the tale of how the first railroad was built across this country.

Railroads played a great part in the linking together of the two extremes of our nation as one. They eventually brought prosperity and wealth to the two coasts.

The locomotive pictured below is the Roswell Beebe. It was named for the president of the Cairo and Fulton Railway, a short line built in 1872, which later became part of the Missouri Pacific Railway.

The Roswell Beebe was a great improvement over the DeWitt Clinton. It was several feet longer, had eight wheels instead of four, and many innovations.

These included an oil-burning spotlight in front of its smokestack. But the Beebe itself burned wood like the Clinton.

This photograph was made at the McKay Iron and Locomotive Works in Newark, New Jersey, just before the Roswell Beebe was shipped to Arkansas.

The new locomotive pulled the first passenger train which was run on the Cairo and Fulton line, on Thursday, February 1, 1872, from Argenta to Little Red River and return.

"Railroading," as it was called, was the big industry of the times in those days. Many towns and cities owe their existence to the railroads.

Most roads paid monthly salaries to their employes. Some ran special "pay trains" which delivered checks to the men.

The coming of one of these trains was considered of such special importance that newspapers used to record their arrivals. Then, so as to show no partiality, the same papers made mention of the fact that pay checks of other lines had "arrived by mail."

There is no doubt about the important part railroads played in helping to make our country gtreat. --- By M. S. Shelton

The Roswell Beebe Is One Of Our Early Locomotives

 

1957, 23 August: Willard Says Rate Increase Too Low

Helena — Montana shippers will pay only an average of 3.9 per cent additional interstate freight when increases authorized by the interstate commerce commission become effective August 26, John Willard, public relations director of the Montana Railroad Association said.

Willard termed the increases "disappointing," adding "they fall far short of meeting the needs of the railroad for increased revenue in the light of the inflationary experience of this nation."

Willard explained that while the west was given a maximum 12 per cent interstate increase, compared with 14 percent for the east, diminished percentages on farm items and holdowns on other major commodities reduced the allowed increases. Besides, he said the increases include interim rate boosts which have been paid by shippers since Dec. 28, 1956.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 23 August: Glenn Garland Funeral Services Held Wednesday

Funeral services for Glenn Garland were conducted from the Catron Chapel Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 o'clock with the Rev. John F. Reagan of the Methodist Church officiating. Musical numbers were sung by John McKee who was accompanied at the organ by Mrs. Betty Spears. Military honors at the graveside were in charge of the Whitefish National Guard and the VFW Post 276. Friends who served as pallbearers were John E. Alton, Tonkel L. Tonkelson, Odin P. Berger, Einar K. Kringlen, Fred A. Gyrion, Jr., and Bill Yeats. Burial was made in the Whitefish cemetery.

Glenn Harold Garland was born June 19, 1921 at Malta, Montana, the son of Harold and Ethel Garland. He spent his childhood on a ranch 20 miles north of Malta and attended the Kropp grade school and later the Malta High School.

In 1936 he moved with his parents to Whitefish. In 1940 he started to work for the Great Northern in the track department. He worked for the railroad until he joined the United States Marines in the fall of 1942. he served in the South Pacific and the Aleutian Islands until he received his discharge in 1946.

Upon his return to Whitefish he resumed his work as a Machine Operator on the Great Northern Railroad.

He was married in Cut Bank to his wife Betty of Kalispell. He passed away at their home 8½ miles west of Whitefish. Saturday August 17th at the age of 36 years.

He is survived by his wife, Betty; one daughter, Charla Deene; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Garland of Whitefish; one brother William of Whitefish; two sisters, Mrs. Helen Yeats of Whitefish and Mrs. Jean Schreiber of Santa Ana, California and other relatives.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 30 August: Elvis Excites Fans In Short Stopover

By Tom O'Hanlon

Elvis Presley stopped for a few minutes in Whitefish last night and "the call of the wild" was heard for blocks.

But it was those on the other side of the cage that were giving the call. Presley, whose eccentric singing style has brought him to a unique position in American entertainment, came to the door of his railroad car to wave to the fans a few moments before his train, the Empire Builder, left.

He wisely did not step into the crowd to sign autographs.

A crowd, estimated at 800 composed mostly of teenage girls with a liberal sprinkling of jealous boy friends, small children, and curious mothers and townspeople jammed the station platform long before the train pulled in at about 6 p. m.

Pony tails and Italian cuts, skirts, sweaters, starched dresses and Bermuda shorts - the clothes were varied, but the girl's excitement was the same. Presley, a handsome young Mississippian, seemed to be used to mob scenes. He stayed on the steps of the railroad car and the only personal contact made was by a few high-jumping girls who managed to touch his hand. This apparently was enough to satisfy them and excite their friend's admiration and envy.

Whatever Presley has, it certainly seems to be in big demand by the bobbie sox brigade.

--- Daily Inter Lake

Elvis The Pelvis Looks Out At Whitefish Elvis Presley fans were "All Shook Up" yesterday when he appeared in a white sport coat (no pink carnation) as his train, long as a "Hound Dog," stopped briefly in Whitefish. Fans yelled "Love Me Tender," but couldn't tell if he was wearing "Blue Suede Shoes" since he didn't leave the train. He was on the way to Spokane for a special show.

 

1957, 30 August: Hanson Has Idea On Old Engine

Erwin Hanson says the old engine and stub train pictured in last week's Pilot, was a part of the display here in the early twenties (just what year uncertain) when the Great Northern installed the "Oriental Limited." He says he is certain of everything except the exact date, as he witnessed the event. To indicate that he is very likely correct another picture taken at the same time shows a sign 'Oriental Limited' on the last coach which is shown in the picture.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 13 September: Winter Sports Inc. Hosts Top G. N. Officials And Passenger Agents

Winter Sports Inc. was host Monday morning to more than 80 Great Northern top officials and passenger representatives of 35 major cities in the United States and Canada, concluding a three-day passenger sales conference which began Saturday at Many Glacier Hotel.

All facilities of the resort as a year-round vacation headquarters were thrown open to the railway representatives, who inspected the area, saw a slide program of winter vacation land, rode the chair lift, and were luncheon guests of the chalet under the direction of manager Ed Schenck. Other guests of the luncheon were the Flathead County Commissioners, Henry Irwin, Harley Huston and Oscar Wendt.

 

 

With the passenger agents at the conference were G. N. officials Percy G. Ho, St. Paul, G. N. passenger traffic manager who directed the conference, G. N. president John M. Budd; C. E. Finley, traffic vice president; Charles W. Moore, executive assistant, public relations - advertising; Thomas A. Jerrow, vice president in charge of operations; J. W. Kirby, general superintendent of dining cars; and W. T. Sloan, director of specialized services.

Attending the Big Mountain tour were Jerrow, Holmes, and Finley. The visit to the Whitefish resort was the climax of the railway's conference planned to aid the passenger agents in serving the public in vacation planning. The Great Northern leadership is developing a program for increasing train travel to Glacier National Park and similar scenic and recreational areas along the Great Northern for the 1958 tourist season.

The principal reason for holding the conference in Glacier Park officials said is to enable the railway's travel salesmen opportunity to inspect improvements to the hotels and lodges. Through its subsidiary, the Glacier Park Co. the railway has invested more than $750,000 this year in new and improved hotel and motel facilities in the Park and similar expenditures are planned for the next two years.

 

 

As part of the program on Big Mountain to acquaint the railway passenger agents with the vacation facilities in the Whitefish area, copies of the new folded on accommodations available in Whitefish were distributed.

The folder, entitled "Vacations Unlimited," has nine interior views of the hotel and motel accommodations here and four outdoor shots of both summer and winter vacation activities. The agents were told that there are facilities to house 450 vacationers in the available accommodations on the mountain and in the downtown area. Distribution of 4,000 copies of the folder is planned through various travel outlets and travel shows. The Resort and Motel owners association of Whitefish sponsored the publication.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 06 September: Jerrow Named G. N. Operations Chief  

Thomas A. Jerrow, general manager of Great Northern's western lines since February, 1952, headquartering in Seattle, was announced as one of the two new vice presidents of the railroad this week by John M. Budd, Great Northern president.

Jerrow succeeds Ira G. Pool as vice president of operations. Mr. Pool is retiring.

Other new vice president is Anthony Kane, St. Paul, the Great Northern's general solicitor since 1950, succeeding Edwin C. Matthias, who is retiring effective October 1.

Jerrow is a native of Kila, where his father, the late J. M. Jerrow, was a section foreman for the Great Northern. The younger Jerrow started working for the railroad in 1924, and before World War II was trainmaster in Sioux City, Iowa, Willmar and St. Cloud, Minn. and Spokane.

During the war, Jerrow was a captain in the Army Transportation Corps, and then in 1945 became a division superintendent in Klamath Falls, Ore. Two years later he headed the railroad's Dakota division at Grand Forks, and then was appointed general manager for lines east, with headquarters in Duluth, in May, 1951. In February, 1952 he moved to Seattle for the same job on the company's western lines.

Jerrow was in Columbia Falls in 1953 for dedication of the new Great Northern depot.

Anthony Kane, who becomes the railroad's new vice president and general counsel, is a native of Minnesota, who received his early education in Tacoma, and was graduated from the University of Washington. He then became a lawyer in Seattle, before becoming associated with the Great Northern's law department in 1937. During the war he was in the judge advocate general's office in Washington, D. C., and left military service in 1946 as a lieutenant colonel. He came to St. Paul as assistant general counsel for the G. N.

Mr. Pool who is retiring as vice president in charge of operations started his railroad service as a 16 year old shop helper with the Soo Line in Minneapolis. After several years with other industries, he returned to railroading in 1920 as a G. N. locomotive designer in St. Paul. He became general manager of lines east in 1949 and vice president of operations in 1951.

An Ohioan, Mr. Matthias grew up in Spokane. He was graduated from Leland Stanford University, and started as a law clerk for the G. N. in Spokane. Later he engaged in private practice, but returned to the railway as an attorney in Seattle, and in 1945 became a vice president and general counsel in St. Paul.

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 06 September: To Hold G. N. Travel Meeting  

East Glacier Park — Development of plans for increasing train travel to Glacier National Park and similar scenic and recreational areas along Great Northern for the 1958 tourist season will bring 75 of the railway's top officials and passenger representatives in 35 cities in the United States and Canada here this weekend. Friday through Monday.

A three-day passenger sales conference will get under way Saturday morning in Many Glacier Hotel, and will be concluded Monday at a luncheon in the Big Mountain ski lodge near Whitefish. Groups of Great Northern officers and passenger men are scheduled to arrive in East Glacier Park Friday on the east-bound and west-bound Western Star streamliners.

The meeting will be under direction of Percy G. Holmes of St. Paul, Great Northern's passenger traffic manager. In addition to Holmes, other speakers will include John M. Budd, G. N. president; C. E. Finley, traffic vice president; Charles W. Moore, executive assistant, public relations - advertising; Thomas A. Jerrow, the new vice president in charge of operations; J. W. Kirby, general superintendent of dining cars; and W. T. Sloan, director of specialized services.

Principal reason for staging the conference in Glacier, said Holmes, is to afford the railway's travel salesmen opportunity to inspect improvements to visitor facilities in the park. Through its subsidiary, the Glacier Park Company, Great Northern has invested more than $750,000 this year in new and improved hotel and motel facilities in Glacier, and comparable expenditures are anticipated for 1958 and 1959.

The improvement program is under direction of Donald Knutson of Minneapolis, president of the Knutson Hotel Corporation, which is managing the Great Northern's properties in Glacier. Knutson will speak at the conference on plans for additional improvements to facilities and services.

The G. N. delegation will be guests of Winter Sports Inc., of Whitefish on Monday. The group will ride the ski tow at the Big Mountain resort. Ed Schenck, president of the organization will speak at the luncheon in the lodge.

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 16 September: Shipments Down

Helena (UP) — The Montana Railroad Commission said that 37,806 carloads of freight were loaded at Montana points during June, a decrease of 1,398 from the previous June.

Ore was the top commodity shipped with a total of 17,734 carloads.

1957, 20 September: Schenck And Kurtz To Meet With G. N. Officials In St. Paul

Big Mountain resort manager Ed Schenck and Norman Kurtz, chairman of Vacation Central, the Hotel, Motel and Resort Owners Association Sunday for St. Paul to confer with officials of the Great Northern Railway relative to a promotion plan under consideration by the railway, featuring Big Mountain facilities.

If the proposed advertising and promotion program of the Great Northern, for the resort is approved considerable expansion of the year-round vacation facilities of the resort will go forward, Schenck indicated.

The conference of Schenck and Kurtz with Great Northern advertising and promotion officials was tentatively arranged Sept. 9, when Winter Sports, Inc. was host to more than 80 of the railway's top officials and passenger representatives throughout this country and Canada.

Schenck and Kurtz will confer on the expansion possibilities of the Big Mountain Resort with Percy G. Holmes, G. N. passenger traffic manager and Charles W. Moore, executive assistant, public relations - advertising.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 22 September: To Discontinue Trains

Glasgow — Great Northern Railway mail trains 27 and 28 which operate between Minot, N. D., and Seattle will be discontinued Sunday [Sept. 28], B. M. O1sen, the G. N.'s Glasgow agent, said. The mail trains will be consolidated with the present Western Star trains, he said.

--- Montana Standard

1957, 23 September: Fast Mail Consolidated To Western Star

Glasgow — Great Northern Railway mail trains 27 and 28 which operate between Minot, N.D., and Seattle were discontinued Sunday, B. M. Olsen, the G. N.'s Glasgow agent, said. The mail trains will be consolidated with the present Western Star train, he said.

--- Billings Gazette

1957, 23 September: Discontinue Trains

Glasgow — Great Northern Railway mail trains 27 and 28 which operate between Minot, N.D., and Seattle were discontinued Sunday, B. M. Olsen, the GN's Glasgow agent, said. The mail trains will be consolidated with the present Western Star trains, he said.

--- Billings Gazette

1957, 23 September: Winter Schedule Of Two G. N. Trains Announced

Great Northern Railway's Western Star and Fast Mail will begin operating on their winter schedule effective Sunday, September 29, when the two trains will be consolidated between Minot and Settle. They have been operated separately between St. Paul and Spokane since June 9.

On the new schedule the west-bound Western Star will arrive in Havre at 3:30 a. m. and leave at 3:50 a. m. The east-bound train will arrive here at 1:15 a. m. and leave at 1:35 a. m.

The west-bound Western Star will leave Minot at 7:45 p. m., leave Williston at 9:20 p. m., Culbertson at 10:20, Wolf Point at 11:23, Glasgow at 12:30 a. m., Malta at 1:45, Havre at 3:50, Fort Benton at 5:45, Great Falls at 7:15, Shelby at 9:55, Cut Bank at 10:30 and Browning at 11:13.

The east-bound train will leave Browning at 5:59 p. m., Cut Bank at 6:45, Shelby at 7:20, Great Falls at 10:25, Fort Benton at 11:25, Havre at 1:35 a. m., Malta at 3:21, Glasgow at 4:50, Wolf Point at 5:46, Culbertson at 6:59, Williston at 9:15 and Minot at 11:30.

Local trains will be operating between Havre and Shelby. They will be trains No. 27 and 28. The schedule follows:

No. 27 will leave Havre at 4:30 a. m., Kremlin at 5:15, Gildford at 5:40, Hingham at 5:52, Rudyard at 6:04, Inverness at 6:19, Joplin at 6:29, Chester at 6:56, Lothair at 7:21, Dunkirk at 7:59 and arrive at Shelby at 8:15.

No. 28 will leave Shelby at 7:30 p. m., Dunkirk at 7:50, Devon at 8:05, Galata at 8:16, Lothair at 8:31, Chester at 8:50, Joplin at 9:24, Inverness at 9:36, Rudyard at 9:48, Hingham at 10, Gildford at 10:11, Kremlin at 10:36 and arrive at Havre at 11:45.

1957, 27 September: Great Northern Western Star

Schedule changes effective Sunday, September 29, 1957.

Beginning Sunday, September 29, 1957., Great Northern's west-bound Western Star will arrive Whitefish at 2:00 p. m., daily; leave Whitefish at 2:10 p. m., 40 minutes earlier than before.

The east-bound Western Star will arrive Whitefish at 3:05 p. m., one hour and 5 minutes later than before; leave at 3:15 p. m., one hour later than before.

Great Northern's Fast Mail trains Nos. 27 and 28, and the Western Star, trains No. 3 and 4, will be consolidated and operated as the Western Star between Minot, N. D. and Seattle, Wash., via Havre, Great Falls, Shelby and Spokane, both west-bound and east-bound.

Stations in Montana between Havre and Shelby via Chester will be served by a diesel - electric motor car on a daily schedule in both directions. These trains will be No. 27 west-bound, No. 28 east-bound.

For detailed information on Great Northern passenger train schedule changes effective September 29, call your local Great Northern agent.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 01 October: Railroads May Lose Out On Passenger Business

New York (UP) — Train passengers are bewitched, bothered and bewildered by recent developments in the railroad industry.

A representative of the bus industry says within 10 years the railroads will be out of the passenger business. A top railroad official hints there may be more fact than fiction in that statement.

Passengers, who have seen fares rise steadily in the postwar period, are puzzled by the remark that railroads can make more money hauling pigs than passengers.

Arthur H. Hill, a top executive of Greyhound Corp., said fistly last week that within 10 years the 185 million people now traveling by train will be riding buses or airplanes.

Robert T. Anderson, general traffic manager of the Santa Fe system, said his railroad is holding its own on the passenger end and has no plans for abandoning this operation.

However, Ernest C. Nickerson, passenger vice president of the New York Central, warned that the railroads may have to give up their passenger business unless the government permits them to make some "realistic" adjustments.

He listed these as elimination of unprofitable trains and services and consolidation of main line trains and services.

The railroads say they lose 700 million dollars a year from passenger operations, which must be deducted from their profitable freight operations. They say this is an unfair tax on their freight customers.

The railroads have a good argument, although they've been slow, sometimes negligent, in telling it to the public. That's one reason why their efforts to win new legislation and other more equitable treatment has been relatively unsuccessful.

Few people realize that in some states railroads must pay taxes on every mile of track, every tie, every station on their line. Each town takes its slice of the tax pie. So do the states and the federal government.

The passenger deficit includes more than losses sustained carrying Joe Smith and his family from one place to another. The bulk of the losses actually are suffered on passenger services and the like – building, operating and maintaining stations, dining car facilities, mail.

Railroads point out that their competitors – the buses and airplanes – are, in a sense, subsidized because they use roads, airways, terminals, airports built and maintained with the taxpayer's money.

In addition, sweeping changes have taken place in the competitive positions of the railroads since the 1920's. In the passenger field, buses, airplanes and more importantly, the private automobile, have bitten deeply into the railroads' share of the over-all transportation business.

The passenger problem is more critical in the East than in some other areas of the country. The heavy concentration of people in the East requires the big commuter railroads to maintain a huge fleet of cars for use just twice a day – to bring commuters into the city in the morning and to take them home at night. The equipment is idle and non-productive the rest of the time.

Since the railroads can only go where there is track, the move to the suburbs and hinterlands has taken people away from the railroads. Now they are turning to buses and cars to go to work.

Within the industry, there are 131 Class I railroads, those grossing one million dollars or more a year. Industry spokesmen, such as Patrick B. McGinnis, president of the Boston & Main Railroad, have stated many times that there are just too many railroads competing against each other for a limited amount of business.

McGinnis said the railroads will have to merge into a handful of giant systems, doing away with duplicate facilities and integrating their operations.

1957, 03 October: George Retires From G. N. Position

Rexford, Mont., — Joe George, employe of the Great Northern Railway for 42 years officially retired Tuesday.

Twenty of those years he has worked on the section in Rexford and was the foreman for a good many years prior to his retirement.

Mr. and Mrs. George left three weeks ago on an extended trip. They had often expressed a desire to travel, and when they left they apparently started out to do just that for they have sent no forwarding address to the post office as yet.

During the past three weeks Jake Erie of Eureka has been the relief foreman in George's place. As of Oct. 1 Dick Bright will be the new section foreman for Rexford.

Bright has worked in Eureka and in Libby, but bid on the opening left when George retired.

1957, 04 October: Change G. N. Train And Mail Schedules  

Effective Sunday, the Great Northern's Western Star and Fast Mail were consolidated between Minot and Seattle. The Flathead instead of having six passenger trains a day now has four. The Western Star and Fast Mail have been operated separately between St. Paul and Spokane since June 9 because of the park season.

The new schedule now finds the west-bound Western Star (No. 3) leaving Columbia Falls at 1:47 p. m., and east-bound Western Star (No. 4) leaving at 3:28 p. m. Post office "make-up" deadline is 45 minutes before train time, commented Postmaster Dudley Greene.

Columbia Falls also has mail service from the Empire Builders which stop in Whitefish. 6 p. m. west-bound, and 6:30 a. m. east-bound departures. Spokane arrival is 11:20 p. m. and Seattle 7:50 a. m. Minneapolis arrival is 6:25 a. m. - 24 hours from the Flathead.

Westbound Western Star (No. 3) leaves Great Falls at 7:15 a. m., and East Glacier Park at 11:36 a. m. (flag stop), Essex, 12:30 .pm; West Glacier, 1:20 (flag); Coram, 1:31 p. m. (flag); Columbia Falls, 1:47 p. m.; Whitefish, 2:10 p. m., and then Libby, 5:01 p. m.; Spokane 8 p. m and Seattle, 5:30 a. m.

Eastbound Western Star (No. 4) leaves Seattle at 10 p. m., Spokane at 7:10 a. m.; Libby, 12:15 p. m.; Whitefish, 3:05 p. m.; Columbia Falls, 3:28 p. m.; Coram, 3:41 p. m. (flag); West Glacier, 3:53 p. m. (flag); Essex, 4:40 p. m.; East Glacier Park, 5:39 p. m. (flag) and Great Falls, 10 p. m. arrival.

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 04 October: G. N. Names Rasmussen To Succeed T. Jerrow

Announcement was made last week of the appointment of Charles M. Rasmussen of Seattle as general manager of the Great Northern lines west of Bainville, Montana effective October 1.

Rasmussen, who has been assistant general manager in Seattle since early in 1955, will succeed Thomas A. Jerrow, recently made vice president of operations. he began work for the railway in 1924 as a section laborer during his high school years.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 10 October: Great Northern Wins Safety Award

Great Northern Railway's outstanding safety record in 1956 will bring the company its fifth American Museum of Safety award in the past 10 years, it was learned here today.

The E. H. Harriman Memorial Certificate of Commendation for Group A railroads in the Western district will be presented to John M. Budd, Great Northern president, at the Harriman award dinner Oct. 16 in New York City.

The Memorial Certificate was awarded previously to the railway in 1947, 1951 and 1954. In 1953 Great Northern was voted the coveted E. H. Harriman Gold Medal Award.

Each year a Gold Medal Award and three certificates of commendation are given to railroads in Group A (operating 15 million or more locomotive miles and performing 100,000 or more passenger miles per year) having the best safety performance in the preceding year.

Official accident records and summaries of the Interstate Commerce Commission are used in determining the awards. Consideration is given to injuries to employes on duty, accidents to travelers and activities by the railway in promoting safety and accident prevention.

In announcing the awards, James G. Lyne, of New York City, chairman of the Harriman Awards Committee and editor of Railway Age, pointed out that the safety record of all railroads in 1956 was one of the best in the industry's history.

The memorial awards were created by the late Mrs. Mary W. Harriman. They have been continued by two sons, Gov. W. Averell Harriman of New York, and E. Roland Harriman, chairman of the American National Red Cross.

Great Northern Railway has received a total of 11 national safety awards since 1947, including those of the American Museum of Safety and the National Safety Council.

1957, 20 October: Railway Group Schedules Dinner

Whitefish — Whitefish Division 57, Order of the Benefit Association of Railway Employes, will stage a potluck supper for members, wives and escorts Monday at 6:30 p. m. in the banquet room of the Odd Fellows Hall.

The special guest will be Otto W. Grossman of the home office in Chicago. A brief business session will be at 8 p. m. Lodge conductor of the Whitefish division is Andrew Henderson and secretary is E. A. Hopkins.

1957, 22 October: Rail Union Defers Plan

Chicago (UP) — The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen has deferred setting up a health and welfare plan and will use a seven-cent hourly raise due Nov. 1 as a wage increase.

Under terms of a three-year contract negotiated with the nation's railroads in 1956, the union could have used the money for wages or for a health and welfare plan.

H. E. Gilbert, international president, said the union's general chairmen decided Saturday to defer the health plan until 1958 to prepare a comprehensive program with the best possible coverage.

The union's 60,000 members will get another seven-cent hourly raise Nov. 1, 1958.

1957, 22 October: G. N. Officer Elected

Richard M. O'Kelly of St. Paul was elected secretary and treasurer of the Great Northern Railway at a meeting of the company's directorate in New York Saturday. He succeeds Frederic L. Paetzold of St. Paul, who will retire on Oct. 31 after 44 years of association with Great Northern.

1957, 24 October: Rail Commission Authorizes Bus Substitutions

The Montana Railroad Commission Thursday authorized the Great Northern Railway Co. to replace its passenger trains between Williston, N. D. and Scobey with buses.

The M. R. C. voted 2-1 to allow the railroad to discontinue intrastate operation of trains 289 and 290. The order affects only the Montana portion of the operation. North Dakota has jurisdiction over the operation in that state. The order becomes effective upon 15 days' notice to the public.

The two trains make daily runs between the two cities, serving Plentywood, Bainville, Medicine Lake and other points along the branch line.

--- Helena Daily Independent

1957, 24 October: G. N. Bus Service Between Williston, Scobey Authorized

Helena, Mont., - The Montana Railroad Commission Thursday authorized the Great Northern Railway Company to replace its passenger trains between Williston, N. D., and Scobey with buses.

The M. R. C. voted 2-1 to allow the railroad to discontinue intrastate operation of trains No. 289 and No. 290.

The order affects only the Montana portion of the operation. North Dakota has jurisdiction over the operation in that state.

The order becomes effective upon 15 days notice to the public. The two trains make daily runs between the two cities, serving Plentywood, Bainville, Medicine Lake and other points along the branch line.

The commission held that public convenience and necessity does not require continued train operation and that bus service will provide "substantially identical" service for the area.

A public hearing was held June 27 at Plentywood. Substitution of the bus service was approved unanimously in a separate order.

The only dissenting vote to discontinuance of train service was cast by M. R. C. Chairman Paul T. Smith.

1957, 24 October: Eureka Cattlemen Keep Busy With Fall Shipments

Cattle buyers and stockmen of this vicinity have been busy the past week with the fall shipments of cattle. Calf shipments have involved 28 owners. Quirk Cattle Co. and Harold Butts furnished most of the yearlings.

Lou Oliver, Kalispell moved 15 carloads of calves to Alliance, Neb. D & D Cattle Co., Havre, moved five carloads of yearlings, two loads to Hubbard, Iowa. Buyers have commented on the improved quality of cattle from this area.

1957, 25 October: M. R. C. Approves G. N. Suspension Of Two Trains

Helena (UP) — The Montana Railroad Commission yesterday authorized Great Northern Railway Company to discontinue intrastate operation of two passenger trains between Williston, N. D., and Scobey.

The commission in a 2 – 1 decision ruled that the Great Northern Railway could replace the two trains with bus service.

Trains make daily runs between Williston and Scobey, serving Plentywood, Bainville, Medicine Lake and other points along the branch line.

The commission said the order affects only the Montana portion of the train operation and noted that North Dakota had jurisdiction over the operation in that state.

The order will become effective within 15 days.

The commission held that public convenience and necessity did not require continued operation of the trains and the bus service will provide substantially the same service for the area.

The public hearing in the case was conducted in Plentywood June 27. The railroad showed it was losing $185 a day and could make a profit of more than $2,500 a year by substituting bus service.

It also showed that passenger traffic on the run had declined to the point where the number of passengers was less than the number of crewmen required to operate the train.

Railroad commissioner Austin B. Middleton and Commissioner Ory J. Armstrong voted for the order. Chairman Paul T. Smith opposed it.

1957, 03 November: Mansfield Asks Probe Of Rail Postal Service

Washington — Sen. Mansfield (D-Mont) Saturday requested a congressional investigation of railway postal service for Miles City and Butte, Mont.

He asked the Senate Post Office committee to look into the Milwaukee Railroad's postal service for the two cities. He said the railroad had discontinued post office service on trains 15 and 16.

"In view of the importance of this matter to the employes who are now assigned to the Miles City and Butte RPO (Railroad post office service)," Mansfield wrote Sen. Johnston (D-SC), committee chairman, "as well as the importance of this service to large portions of the state of Montana, we are respectfully requesting that your committee undertake an investigation of this matter at the earlier opportunity so that if at all possible the Miles City and Butte RPO can once again be scheduled as it was, that these employes can be retained, and that this service which is so vital to so many parts of Montana not be lost."

Mansfield said he was writing on behalf of the entire Montana congressional delegation. The group, he declared, had "used all the means at our disposal and failed in getting the Post Office Dept. to rescind its order" discontinuing RPO service.

The Post Office Dept. contends, according to Mansfield, that although Milwaukee trains will no longer carry a railway post office there will be a general improvement in service in the Butte and Miles City areas. The trains will continue to carry mail and there will be improvements in distribution, the department says.

--- Montana Standard

1957, 08 November: Recalls Early Days Of Columbia Falls  

Some years ago in Columbia Falls, there was a man who was going to kill all the Irish.

Pat Walsh, father of Dick and John, had him arrested, and the would be killer was brought before Judge Tom Carroll.

The trail commenced, and was soon over.

Judge Carroll announced: "guilty."

"I don’t' want to hear his story, you and Pat told me all I want to know."

Mike Berne replied: "Your Honor, a man should be able to tell his story."

There was also the time that Mrs. Dave Grove was brought before Judge Carroll on charges of pasturing geese in a neighbor's yard.

Mrs. Greve had the perfect defense: "Your Honor, anybody has the right to take their produce to market."

The story of the 1890's was that she had hurriedly picked up a stick, and it seemed that she was driving them up the hill to the butcher shop. Sons and a daughter, Mrs. Mae Higson, of this good lady are Columbia Falls residents.

Then we have the story of the "Plugging of Jack Redden."

Mr. and Mrs. Redden lived near the present day Blue Moon in a small cabin. Mr. Redden returned home to find she had gone out with another man.

There was a fight.

Let's let Mike Berne tell us about the "Plugging of Jack Redden" in his own words:

"Anyway Charlie Backman put a hole clear through him. An old soldier stuck his finger in one side, and into the other to keep the wind from coming out. He plugged the holes with cotton batton and sweet oil, and Jack Redden recovered.

Uncle Mickey's early Flathead story continues with Jack beating up his wife. He beat her up, and when she washed up, Jack exclaimed: "Damn, you ain't hurt a bit, and he beat her up again."

"Bronco Liz" was actually what they called Mrs. Redden.

She got mad, Uncle Mickey related, and shot Jack. "There he was holding a clock, and she put a hole clean through that clock without touching his hand."

"The clock kept running too."

Bronco Liz came to a sad end. She married a forest ranger up near Fortine. One day she was walking the track home, and she was run over by a train.

Uncle Mickey told of seeing her husband on the streets of Kalispell crying, and he found out about the tragedy.

"I gave him $50 to bury her," and then set out to get the pallbearers.

Good citizens of Kalispell comment was: "You know, Mike, I can't be a pallbearer for that woman."

Mike replied: "She's dead ain't she, and everyone is entitled to a decent burial."

He got the pallbearers.

Columbia Falls was a rough place during its founding years, and Mike Berne remembers Butte as being "with no law."

He was born in Independence, Iowa, Jan. 23, 1869, son of John and Bridget Berne, recently of Ireland. He followed his brothers to Butte in 1886. Jack Berne had started a brickyard, and his brother, Billy, was already there.

They stayed at Jerry Murphy's Boarding House, and Jerry didn't want any unconscious Chinaman around.

Uncle Mickey recalls: "An Irishman hit the Chinese cook above the ear with a club."

Murphy says: "Get him out of here."

"So the Chinaman was loaded into a wheel barrow and dumped into the gulch unconscious. Some other Chinamen, jabbering plenty, came and took him away."

Uncle Mickey voted first at the age of 17 in Butte. In fact he recalls that he must have voted eight or ten times in that same election.

"The man you worked for, did the voting. You went to the polls; he voted. You got $5 and drank it up."

This brings to mind the old story about elections in Butte. Butte always cast as many ballots for the favored son, as he needed to win. Even dead men helped.

Mike followed his brother, Bill, coming to the Flathead in August, 1890.

Meanwhile Frank Langford, who worked in clerical capacity for the Great Northern in Helena. Uncle Mickey relates, came here having formed the Northern International Improvement Co. Idea was to develop the town that would be the Great Northern division point. The Great Northern didn't appreciate Langford's foresight, and this didn't help the town.

Langford fetched a squaw here, Emma Laframboise. The law provided that an Indian could have 160 acres of land, and that took less time than homesteading. The townsite bought her out, but the name of Emma Laframboise is on every property abstract in the original part of Columbia Falls to this day. Incidentally, she just made here mark, and could not sign her name.

Meanwhile Bill Conlen was homesteading land near the present day Soldiers Home to turn it over to the townsite company.

Uncle Mickey also mentioned that James Kennedy, Columbia Falls' first postmaster, and father of Mrs. W. A. Bose, bought the Kennedy Addition land from Mike Brunner. The Baptist Church is the old Kennedy residence.

A man by the name of Smith lived and homesteaded where the present Standard Station is. A Mr. Brumbaugh homesteaded near where the Conoco Station is, the former site of the R. W. Main home.

Langford soon left Columbia Falls. His company going broke and being taken over by stockholders. He died a poor man in California, but he left his family land in California and that made them money.

Other stockholders in this Columbia Falls townsite company were James A. Talbott, president; A. J. Davis of the First National Bank and J. E. Gaylord of the Gaylord smelter in Butte.

Talbott founded the Bank of Columbia Falls in 1891, and became the town's leading citizen.

In fact, first date we have for Columbia Falls is Feb. 28, 1891 as the completion of the townsite survey.

Mike Berne, just south and east of the present day Hungry Horse News corner, had established a brick yard employing eight men.

He got the clay from the riverbank, and made the brick for St. Richard's Church, the R. W. Main building, now the Canyon Hotel, the old Columbus School erected in 1892.

We chatted with Uncle Mickey and his niece, Mrs. Emma Ladenburg, Sunday afternoon.

He told of the townsite company buying seven coal claims up the Flathead's North Fork near Coal Creek paying $50,000. Pat Walsh was one of the claim holders.

It was Frank Emerson, a trapper, who first spotted the coal vein on the river bank.

Coal was necessary for railroads and valued for industry.

Uncle Mickey commented that Marcus Daly surveyed his Anaconda Pacific Railroad clear to the North Fork. The Milwaukee was coming down the Swan, and the Hungry Horse News has early maps that two depots - Great Northern and Northern Pacific.

We wonder what would have happened had the North Fork coal been a good grade and not 6,000 to 7,000 BTU lignite.

Columbia Falls in its founding years had 21 saloons. Later there was big open air dance floor just below present town hall, but most imposing structure was the Gaylord Hotel, built by the townsite company, named after J. E. Gaylord, which burned down in 1929. This would have been a fine building in 1957.

There was a big fire in about 1904 that destroyed buildings located at the sites of the Columbia Bar and Park Mercantile.

Uncle Mickey never married. There was one time he was supposed to have a date with Miss Valentine. Mrs. Ladenburg laughed: "a hen happened to be setting (on eggs) in the buggy, so he didn't go."

Uncle Mickey remembers the county seat fight between Columbia Falls and Kalispell, and the early day policy: "all roads lead to Rome." Rome was Kalispell.

He recalls the townsite company erecting the first bridge across the Flathead River, and then since the county would not help, farmers came with their teams, and built the bridge approaches. There was an ox roast.

The Berne home in on LaSalle Road in a red brick house he built in 1904. He made the brick in his brick yard.

His homestead was up the North Fork on Home Ranch Bottoms, and his farm two miles west of Columbia Falls is 160 acres, a "pre-emption" that cost $150.

Uncle Mickey remembers the site of Columbia Falls in 1890 as a great area of tall Ponderosa pine with the natural grassy lands that these trees encourage.

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 14 November: New Ice Plant For Railroad Is Proposed

Whitefish, Nov. 14 — The city council of Whitefish held a special meeting last night to take under discussion the plausibility of supplying a huge amount of city water to an ice-making plant to be installed in Whitefish by the Western Fruit Express Company.

T. G. Hopkinson, agent for the company, explained the needs of the possible plant which amounted to approximately 300 gallons per minute during operation and would also eliminate the present system of having to store natural ice which is cut from Whitefish Lake in Monk's Bay every winter.

Discussion brought out the fact that the prime season for the ice-making plant's needs would be at the very time that the city water supply is at its lowest ebb in the warm summer months.

The council took no formal action at this time but the matter will be brought up once again for formal discussion and consideration at a later day.

1957, 15 November: From The Flathead To The U.S.A.  

In living rooms of more than one million American homers each Christmas is a touch of the mountain west - a Christmas tree from Flathead County, Montana.

This section of northwestern Montana including neighboring Lincoln County is considered the largest single supplier of holiday evergreens in the nation.

Kalispell and Eureka share honors of being Christmas tree capitals. Shipments from Kalispell often exceed 200 freight cars with each car containing about 1,000 bales or 5,000 trees.

Shipments range from the two-foot models to 40-foot "graceful ladies of the forest" that brighten town squares or help bring holiday cheer to hospitals and department stores.

There is more utilization of the Douglas fir than formerly. Makign of Christmas wreaths has become a considerable business.

Evergreens from this western Rocky Mountain slope have superior lasting qualities over other trees. The Flathead firs are cut in October and November. All shipments are on their way by Dec. 8.

Trees are harvested from state, federal and private lands. There is some tendency toward actual growing of Christmas trees as a crop by farmers and woodland owners.

Meanwhile, the harvesting, baling, marketing and shipped of Christmas trees creates an estimated 500 jobs in the Flathead.

The Christmas tree harvest sees loggers, farmers, housewives and students at work.

Farmers cut trees from their own land, and haul them in pickups and grain boxes to the yards.

A bale consists of eight, 2-foot trees, six, 3 to 5 footers, four, 6 footers, three, 8 footers, two, 10 footers, and the bigger trees are singles.

Price paid averages $1.75 a bale. In the metropolitan markets trees often retail for $1 a foot. Freight costs are a factor.

In mid-December, the Flathead's annual Christmas tree harvest is over except for the fathers and sons who go out to bring back a tree for the family.

Sometimes we in the Flathead are not proud of what happens. Nature gave our highway and road sides some beautiful well shaped evergreens for all to see and enjoy. Along comes a man or boy with an axe, and he takes that tree for his own. It is a violation, but the man is seldom caught.

There is also the practice of cutting down a great, tall evergreen and taking only its top to be the Christmas tree.

The man who is a hog or would destroy a 30 foot tree for its six foot top doesn't quite fit into the spirit of Christmas.

PHOTO HERE

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 15 November: Former Division Superintendent Dies In St. Paul

C. O. Hooker, 68, former Great Northern division superintendent here died from an apparent heart attack in his office at St. Paul Thursday of last week. He had been general manager of lines east for the Great Northern Railway since March 1, 1952, with headquarters in St. Paul.

At the time of his death he was talking on the telephone with the division superintendent at Minot, when he suddenly collapsed.

He began his career with the Great Northern in 1909 as a brakeman at Minot. Among other positions he held with the company in addition to division superintendent in Whitefish, was division superintendent at Grand Forks, N. D., and at Superior, Wisconsin. he went from Superior to the general manager lines east position.

Survivors include his widow, two sons, Thomas G., a G. N. trainmaster at Williston, N. D., and Dr. Theodore C., of Monterey, California, and a daughter, Joan, a student at Carlton College at Northfield, Minn.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 15 November: Great Northern Appoints Whitman

Appointment of R. N. Whitman to succeed the late C. O. Hooker as general manager of Great Northern Railway's lines East, with Duluth, was announced here today. Mr. Hooker died in St. Paul on Nov. 7.

Whitman, who has been assistant general manager at Duluth since July, 1956, is a veteran of 29 years of railroading, most of it with Great Northern.

born in Jasmin, Saskatchewan, he joined Great Northern in 1928 as an operator on the Kalispell division, in Montana. Coming up through the ranks as a telegrapher and dispatcher, he was appointed trainmaster at Great Falls in 1942.

Whitman was subsequently the railway's rules examiner for Western lines, and in 1947 went to Seattle, Wash., as terminal trainmaster. He became superintendent of the Cascade division at Seattle in 1953, and two years later was given a leave of absence to accept an appointment as general manager of the government-owned Alaska Railroad at Anchorage. He returned to the Great Northern in 1956 as assistant general manager at Duluth.

In his new post, Whitman has operating jurisdiction over all of Great Northern's lines east of Bainville Mont.

1957, 22 November: Funeral Services For John Shea Held Monday

Requiem High Mass was celebrated for John Shea Monday morning at 9:30 from the St. Charles Catholic Church with the Rev. John F. Cronin as celebrant. Following Mass the interment was made in the Conrad Memorial Cemetery at Kalispell. Friends who acted as pallbearers were H. E. Van Allen, John C. Wilson, Jr., W. P. Glenn, Ted Schroeder, John Crawford, and John Crawford, Jr.

John Shea was born May 21, 1887 at Butte, Montana to Patrick and Margaret Shea. While still an infant he came to the Flathead with his parents in the year 1887. They made the journey to the Flathead by train as far as Ravalli then by stagecoach to Polson and from Polson they came by boat up the Flathead lake and Flathead river to Demersville. The family settled five miles north of Kalispell and the children attended the Pine Grove school. In 1926 he came to Whitefish. Mr. Shea started logging and cedar pole business around 1915 and continued until he retired four years ago.

he was united in marriage to Carrie Tonnemaker in June of 1913 at Kalispell, Montana.

He was later re-married to Georgia Knight in 1947.

Mr. Shea is preceded in death by his parents, three brother, and two sisters.

He is survived by his wife, Georgia; one son Vernon of Whitefish; five nieces; six nephews and other relatives.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 28 November: Great Northern Makes Changes

Appointments of three Great Northern Railway officials to higher posts effective Jan. 1, were announced today by John M. Budd, president of the company.

John L. Robson, chief mechanical officer, will fill the newly-created position of assistant vice president, operations.

Succeeding Robson as chief mechanical officer is James H. Heron, now superintendent of motive power.

J. D. Taylor, staff assistant to the vice president, operations, will succeed William B. Irwin, who retires Dec. 31 after serving 21 years as assistant to the vice president.

Born in England and reared in Montana, where he was graduated from Montana State college, Robson joined Great Northern in 1937 following a year's study in transportation subjects at the Yale University Graduate School.

Before he came to St. Paul in 1942 as superintendent of motive power, Robson held various operating and mechanical assignments in Spokane, Wash., Klamath Falls, Ore., Willmar, Minn., and Minot, Fargo and Grand Forks, N. D. He was promoted to general superintendent of motive power in 1949, and in 1953 became chief mechanical officer.

Heron, a native St. Paulite, attended the University of Minnesota, studying mechanical and electrical engineering, and joined Great Northern as a draftsman in 1936. He was subsequently the railway's fuel supervisor at Spokane and shop superintendent in Great Falls, before entering the military railway service in World War II.

On his return to Great Northern in 1945, following his discharge with the rank of lieutenant colonel, Heron was appointed assistant to the general superintendent of motive power at St. Paul. He has been superintendent of motive power since 1949.

Taylor, a civil engineering graduate of the University of Illinois, joined Great Northern in 1940 as office assistant to the vice president, operations, in St. Paul. He previously had been with the Chicago & Illinois Midland Railway, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway, and the Chicago Subway Project.

In 1943, Taylor went to Seattle as assistant to the general manager, lines west. He returned to St. Paul in 1955 as staff assistant to vice president, operations.

Irwin's retirement on Dec. 31 will end a career of nearly 51 years with Great Northern, beginning in March, 1907, when he joined the railway as a draftsman in St. Paul.

He went to Minot, N. D., in 1910 as a draftsman, and later became assistant engineer there. After serving in various other capacities, Irwin was appointed staff assistant to the vice president, operations, in 1929. Promotion to his present position of assistant to the vice president came in 1936.

1957, 29 November: Box Plant Increases Falls Payrolls  

Columbia Falls newest industry, the box plant at Plum Creek Lumber Co. that started operations last July, now provides steady jobs for 29 men.

Each week one and two freight carloads of K. D. box shooks leave Columbia Falls for Midwest and eastern centers. K. D. stands for knocked down, and shooks are the boards that makes the sides, bottoms and tops of boxes.

Markets for Columbia Falls manufactured boxes frequently are the steel plants turning out nuts, bolts and similar products. Other boxes have been shipped west to the apple producers, and there was an order for egg carrying cases for Safeway.

Cottonwood and spruce are used to manufacture boxes, and so is trim and waste from the planer and sawmill. A dollar producing product results from considerable material that formerly was burned as waste.

October production of box shooks amounted to 265,000 board feet.

men at the box plant work a 44 hour week. It was a 50 hour week this summer, and the box plant payroll itself tops $2,500 a week - the new payroll for Columbia Falls.

Box plant operation is housed in a 92 by 1120foot building erected last winter.

Plum Creek Lumber Co. was established in Columbia Falls in 1945.

Presently employed are 215 men, and the October payroll including the new box plant totaled $103,000.

D. C. Dunham is Plum Creek's president with Lawrence Rude, general manager.

Superintendent of the box plant is Henry Lamoreaux. He started manufacturing boxes in 1918 back in Wisconsin, and then went to Bemidji, Minn. in 1923. In 1942, Lamoreaux became associated with the D. C. Dunham Lumber Co. at Bemidji which operated a box plant.

Men who work at the new Plum Creek box plant are as fellows: George Armstrong, Donald Burnham, Lyle Connor, Donald Doane, Duane Herberg, Paul Himmelright, Robert Jackson, Ralph Johnson, Ben Knudson, Erwin Lamoreaux, Ronald Mellem, Robert Melvin, Bernard Pierce, Richard Pierce, Charles Schroth, Frank Schroth, Gordon Snow, Glifford Spring, David Strand, James Taunt, Glen Taylor, Earl Ward, Elmer Ward, Vernon Ward, Frank West, Clifton Williams, Allan Zabel, Leslie Zabel, and Supt. Henry Lamoreaux.

PHOTO HERE

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 29 November: R. N. Whitman General Manager Of Lines East

R. N. Whitman, former Great Northern dispatcher here was appointed to succeed the late C. O. Hooker as general manager of the Railway's lines East, with headquarters in Duluth, Minn., it was announced last week.

Whitman has been assistant manager at Duluth since July, 1956. A native of Saskatchewan, Canada, he has worked for the Great Northern since 1928, when he was hired as an operator on the Kalispell Division. He left the dispatcher's office here when he was appointed trainmaster at Seattle. In 1955 following his appointment as superintendent of the Cascade division in Seattle in 1953, he was given a leave of absence to accept the appointment as general manager of the government - owned Alaska Railroad at Anchorage. In 1956 he returned to the Great Northern as assistant general manager at Duluth.

Whitman now has operating jurisdiction over all of the Great Northern's lines east of Bainville, Montana.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 03 December: County Denies G. N. Tax Protest

The Flathead County Board of Commissioners this morning denied a request by the Great Northern Railway that $292.20 in 1957 Evergreen fire district taxes be cancelled and $146.15 in first half taxes paid under protest be refunded.

Great Northern has in previous years paid the tax under protest.

In a letter to the board, J. C. Kenady, land and tax commissioner for G. N., called the tax unconstitutional, unlawful, and illegal since the statute purporting to authorize the tax is in violation of state and federal constitutions in that it fails to provide a hearing for interested parties.

The board ruled that G. N. had an opportunity to express its views when it met as the board of equalization. The taxable valuation of G. N. property in the district is $23,959. Kenady said the tax is unreasonable and disproportionate and benefits do not equal the tax levied.

1957, 05 December: Railway Groups To Meet Tonight

Whitefish — Business meeting of the Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen and Lady Conductors will be today at 7 p. m. at the Masonic Temple.

The men will meet in the lodge rooms and the auxiliary will meet in the dining room and after the business sessions they will join for a coffee hour with Mrs. Olen Olson and her committee in charge of refreshments.

1957, 06 December: Railway Order Plans Banquet

Retired members of the Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen and their wives will be honored Saturday at a Christmas turkey banquet at the Masonic Temple dining room.

This annual event will be at 6:30 p. m. and is given by the Lady Conductors. Mrs. W. O. Winter is general chairman.

A program of entertainment and games will follow the dinner. All Lady Conductors are asked to bring a wrapped game prize.

All members of the O. R. C. & B. and the Auxiliary are urged to be present.

1957, 11 December: G. N. And N. P. Finish Study Of Proposed Merger

Minneapolis, Minn. (UP) — An operating study of the proposed merger of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railway companies and their subsidiaries has been completed, it was announced Sunday.

Presidents of the two railroad giants said in a joint statement that the study will be submitted to special committees from the boards of directors of the two lines for consideration.

Great Northern President John M. Budd and Northern Pacific head Robert S. MacFarlane said any comment on the study would be "premature" at this time.

The preliminary study was made by William Myer and Company of New Jersey in cooperation with the railroads.

Subsidiaries affected by the proposed merger would be the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the Spokane & Seattle Railways.

1957, 20 December: N. M. Balch Named G. N. Roadmaster  

Newell M. Balch has been named general Roadmaster of Great Northern's western lines succeeding L. J. Gilmore, who is to retire Dec. 31.

Mr. Gilmore will complete a 47-year career with Great Northern. He has been western general Roadmaster since 1943, with headquarters at Spokane.

Balch joined Great Northern in 1936 as a mechanics helper at Whitefish. He transferred to the engineering department in 1942 and the following year entered military service. Following the war he returned to the engineering department and was promoted to assistant division Roadmaster on the Butte division in 1947. He was district Roadmaster at Glasgow in 1948 and became division Roadmaster at Havre in 1950. He was transferred to the same post at Whitefish in 1952. Since 1956 he has been assistant engineer for maintenance of way at St. Paul.

Gilmore served in the Army in World War I, and during the second World War devoted a year to government service. He was division Roadmaster on the Mesabi division in Minnesota before being named general Roadmaster for western lines.

--- Hungry Horse News

1957, 20 December: Funeral Rites Albert Anderson Held Thursday

Funeral services for Albert Anderson were conducted from the Catron Chapel Thursday afternoon at 2:00 o'clock with the Rev. Paul Neel of the Presbyterian church officiating. Musical numbers were furnished by Alfons Olson who was accompanied at the organ by Mrs. T. W. Hiatt. Friends who acted as pallbearers were Elmer Kruse, Melvin Thompson, Charles Hale, James Kohlmeier, Vernon Hedman and Reginald Bush.

The Veterans of foreign Wars Post 276 and the Whitefish National Guard were in charge of Military honors. Burial was made in the Whitefish cemetery.

Albert Anderson was born on January 9, 1901 at Walhalla, N. Dakota, the son of Christian and Emma Anderson. He spent his early years in North Dakota and in 1916 he moved with his parents to Gilford, Montana where they homesteaded. He came to the Whitefish area 16 years ago and was employed by the Great Northern Railway as a carpenter.

Mr. Anderson served his country during World War II and was in campaigns in Africa, Italy, France and on the Western front. He was honorably discharged from the United States Army on July 7, 1945. He was a member of the Eagles Lodge and VFW Post 276.

Mr. Anderson passed away at the Whitefish Memorial Hospital on Saturday, December 14th at the age of 56 years.

He is survived by two brothers, Hans T. of Seattle, Elmer Anderson of Gilford, Montana two sisters, Mrs. Ruby Savage of Arcata, California and Mrs. Maynard Floe of Anacortes, Washington; one niece and two nephews.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 27 December: Newell Balch Gen. Roadmaster G. N. Western Lines

Newell M. Balch has been named general roadmaster of Great Northern's western lines succeeding L. J. Gilmore, who is to retire December 31, 1957.

Mr. Gilmore will complete a 47-year career with Great Northern. He has been western general roadmaster since October of 1943, with headquarters in Spokane.

Mr. Balch joined Great Northern in 1936 as a mechanics helper at Whitefish, Montana. he transferred to the engineering department in 1942 and the following year entered military service. Following the war he returned to the engineering department and was promoted assistant division roadmaster on the Butte division in 1947. He was district roadmaster at Glasgow, Montana in 1948 and became roadmaster at Havre, Montana in 1950. He was transferred to the same post at Whitefish, Montana, in 1952. Since 1956 he has been assistant engineer for maintenance-of-way at St. Paul, Minn.

--- Whitefish Pilot

1957, 27 December: Local Tree Yard Ships 19 R. R. Cars

A total of 19 railroad cars of Christmas trees were shipped from Glen Brown's Big Mountain Christmas Tree yard during the tree-cutting harvest. In addition a semi-trailer truck load was shipped out to Salt Lake City.

Among the cities cars were billed to by Brown were Joplin, Missouri; Oklahoma City, Shreveport, Louisiana and Kansas City and Wichita, Kansas. At Wichita the two largest trees in the city, located at two shopping centers, were 40-foot Douglas Firs shipped by Brown.

During the peak of the tree harvest Brown employs about 50 persons, with nine of them working in the tree yard adjoining the railroad siding. He has been shipping trees from Whitefish for the past 12 years, maintaining the shipment at the present level for the past few years.

Brown points out that although this area has been producing a good volume of trees it could do more if each operator observed better practices of pruning and thinning. "There is a considerable potential in this section that as yet, has not been developed," Brown explained, "But in order to meet the competition of high quality trees from the "plantation trees" of Wisconsin and Minnesota, operators here will have to improve their harvesting methods in order to meet the demand of the market for high quality trees."

--- Whitefish Pilot