Beardmore Mill keeping crews busy
20 Years Ago — 2001
Runaway teen rescued
A 15-year-old Blanchard area runaway was plucked from her precarious perch under the Oldtown Bridge after spending nearly four hours in the superstructure. She was persuaded to come down by a Bonner County sheriff’s sergeant. The rescue prompted the closure of the bridge for about three hours. She was sitting on the south side of the superstructure, where she sat down 50 feet above the river, where the water was only five-to-ten-feet deep.
30 Years Ago — 1991
Cottonwood village to rise
Under the watchful eye of the Priest River Fire Department, Phil and Texanna Keyser had the old Priest River Motel on Highway 2 destroyed by fire July 13. Razing the building cleared the Keysers’ land for a new development, Cottonwood Village.
40 Years Ago — 1981
Misses big one
Patrick “Two Mouth Aussie” Killeen of Priest Lake has been fishing long and hard to equal or better Bill Schultz’s 19-pound record Mackinaw for 1981. He hooked one a short time ago, and as he started to reel in his whopper, he knew he had broken Bill’s record. After more than 15 minutes of extra careful reeling, Pat saw the fish flash in deep water. His dream was shattered when the “record fish,” a squawfish, tangled in a tree root and 50-60 feet of line, was boated.
50 Years Ago — 1971
Dry kiln consumed
Smoke blanketed the downtown area of Priest River as the dry kiln of Merritt Brothers sawmill was consumed by flames. The blaze destroyed 200,000 feet of lumber.
60 Years Ago — 1961
Firemen win water fight
The Priest River Fire Department won the Firemen’s water fight from the Sandpoint Fire Department at the Loggers Celebration and captured the Priest River 3-year traveling trophy for the second time. The Priest River Department also won the Sandpoint trophy at the July 4 celebration at Sandpoint.
70 Years Ago — 1951
Blue Lake Grange organized
The Blue Lake Grange is now fully organized and boasts 19 members. Anyone interested in joining the (primarily farming) organization should get in touch with the Worthy Master Leslie Harold or the secretary, Mrs. Orvill Holley. A portion of each meeting is usually given over to entertainment, which can be a real pleasure to the farm family which is isolated much of the time.
80 Years Ago — 1941
17 mattresses made
Henry Leader, in charge of the mattress-making project at the Peninsula Schoolhouse, reported that 17 mattresses had been made to date. However, there has been a delay because of the shortage of cotton.
90 Years Ago — 1931
Forest fires hit area
Sweeping over the county, through an estimated area of nearly 50,000 acres, forest fires destroyed thousands of dollars' worth of property and temporarily made a hundred or more people homeless during the first part of this month.
100 Years Ago — 1921
Mill is busy
While other mills are shutting down, curtailing their production or working small crews, the Beardmore mill here is working two full shifts, about 77 men, and plan to continue full blast until at least January 1. They expect to start shipping match stock about August 10.