The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

I wrote recently about southern cooking based on a recent road trip to Georgia. The road trip was 4,000+ miles through 15 states and eight days of driving. My wife and I had never visited some of the...

My wife, Sherry, and I just returned from a driving trip to Georgia. The trip was to visit a very dear friend from years back and also, well, about nostalgia. We lived for 20 years over two time...

The sound of emergency sirens sounded in Chinook last Saturday on September 11. Local first responders participated in the commemorative parade to honor first responders and civilians who died or...

I visited recently with Ken Finley out at his garden and pumpkin patch adjacent to the Chinook Water Treatment Plant just off Cleveland Road on the south edge of town. I'd walked through the pumpkin p...

A project to stabilize headstones of veterans buried in Kuper Cemetery (northwest of Chinook) and Alice Nash Cemetery (south Blaine County) will soon be completed. The project involved making and...

"Journal" readers may have seen the earthmoving equipment working along the north side of the Blaine County Wildlife Museum. That activity is part of the site preparation for a new addition to the...

Correspondent's note: Alert readers may recall a story I wrote in 2016 about food booths at the Blaine County Fair. I researched and wrote the story after I worked my first time ever in a fair booth....

Three Havre-based officers with the Customs and Border Patrol CBP) recently visited with children at Blaine County Library's summer program for kids. The officers did two presentations to educate...

Motorists coming in to Chinook from the west on US 2 can enjoy a brief "no construction zone" between these two signs on the west edge of town. They are signs of the times as road repairs carried on...

In the late spring I was walking along Stephens Road that borders the Kuper Memorial Cemetery northwest of Chinook. I noticed some construction equipment and workers around the water tower located on...

Alert readers may be familiar with the phrase "Will it play in Peoria?" The "will it play" expression dates to the 1920's-30's when vaudeville producers gauged the potential success of a new show by...

A friend in Havre recently gave me a book noting, "I think you might enjoy reading this." The book was written by Tim Gilge. Locals may recall the Gilge family, Kent and Lois and their five children,...

In early May Blaine County Road and Bridge Supervisor Mark Burkhartsmeyer invited me to ride with him down to the Missouri River to watch the spring launch that would begin what might be the 100th sea...

Indian Health Service's (IHS) national director, and other regional IHS officials, visited Fort Belknap Indian Community last week. IHS Acting Director Elizabeth Fowler described her visit as a...

In 2014 the US Environmental Protection Agency asked the staff at the Chinook Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) if they would help the regulatory agency develop a case study to be shared with other...

The Blaine County Museum's board of directors wants to create a logo for the Chinook-based museum. Asked why the museum needs a logo Director/Curator Samantha French explained, "A well designed logo...

The Chinook Senior Center "reopened" last Thursday, March 11. State health mandates forced the Center to close several months ago over concerns of spreading COVID-19 to seniors, a group considered...

Over the past several months I've read several commentaries about how the COVID-19 pandemic (covid) affected businesses nationally. Recreational vehicle sales were up as folks sought ways to vacation...

A new, unintentional hazard for local golfers has been added to the Chinook Golf Course northwest of town. A wind event north of Chinook in early February equated to a Category I Hurricane with 75...

Alert readers may recall a story in the January 27 issue of the "Journal" about Walter J. Brown. Brown, a cowboy for Miller Brothers from the late 1940's through the 1950's, was also a cook on the...

A Chinook northside resident recently called and asked, "Have you heard about the moose who is wintering up here in our neighborhood?" I had not. She said, "If you come up right now you can get a...

Two local churches continued a long standing tradition of a combined Ash Wednesday service. Ash Wednesday 2021 was celebrated between the Chinook United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church...

Chinook Lions Club President Richard Cronk and member Ben Hall recently visited the Meadowlark Elementary first-grade class of teacher Tammy Edwards to talk about the American flag and give each...

The Blaine County Health Department and One Health Sweet (formerly Sweet Medical Center) hosted a clinic last Thursday and Friday to administer vaccinations for COVID-19 to people in Phase 1B of Monta...

A year-long series of directives, rules and, in some cases shutdowns and cessation of public activities, resulted from the need to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Most all of us have been affected...