We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
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This is the season when travelers make elaborate plans to visit special places. To get to that desired "destination point" may require making reservations well ahead of the planned visit. Additional travel plans may be needed. Sometimes special gear or clothing has to be acquired. But sometimes travelers just blunder on to a special place and have an "aha" moment, asking themselves "why have I never visited here before?" It was during one of those latter inadvertent stumbles when my wife and I...
Alert readers will be aware that tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo-the May 5th annual celebration of Hispanic culture and its role in the U.S. The holiday is based on an event in Mexico but not widely celebrated there. Interestingly, the holiday was first celebrated in the U.S. in 1863 by Hispanic immigrants who wanted to highlight the effects of a war being waged against Mexico by the French army. There are many misunderstandings about the origins of the Cinco de Mayo celebration and its significance....
More than 25 locals came to learn about streaming at the recent class in Chinook conducted by Triangle Communications. Streaming is an electronic delivery method that allows consumers to access digital entertainment using a variety of electronic devices. The course content helped attendees understand how streaming works, demonstrated devices that can be used for streaming and introduced various streaming services available. Chinook Senior Center Director Karyn Higgins said the program was very...
Alert readers may recall a story I did in 2017 about Roy Case's evolving Western Cedar Birdhouse business/hobby. Using scrap ends of cedar boards left over from another project he began building "duplex-style" birdhouses. That was version 1.0, to use the current style of naming evolving high tech products (Roy's birdhouses are kind of high tech). Then came version 2.0, a single occupant birdhouse that went beyond the traditional birdhouse with Roy's own unique additions-outdoor toilets,...
Well, first let me apologize for a big "whoops." Over time writing about St. Urho I somehow morphed in to an incorrect spelling of the made-up name of the patron saint of the Finnish vineyard workers. The correct spelling, as no alert reader ever noted, is Urho which means "brave" in Finnish. Despite that personal misspelling in print, I enjoyed the first local celebration of St. Urho's Day and thought the lunch and surrounding visiting went very well. I first wrote about St. Urho in 2020. St....
Are you interested in learning how to drop your satellite or cable TV but still be able to watch the local news? Triangle Communications, in cooperation with the Chinook Senior Center, will be hosting a FREE “How to Stream” class on Tuesday, April 5th from 1PM-3PM in the Blaine County Library’s meeting room in Chinook. Materials and equipment for the class will be provided. Attendees will learn how streaming works, devices you can use to stream online content as well as the different streaming services available. Triangle employees will be av...
The "five congregations from three towns" recently celebrated a joint service for Ash Wednesday. Over the years some of the congregations have gathered to celebrate together. This is the first Easter season assembling of the new group made up of three denominations from Chinook, Harlem and Havre. The success of their first joint Christmas Eve service this past December encouraged the group to bring the congregations together for the start of Lent and other services leading to this year's Easter...
Readers may not be familiar with St. Uhro's Day celebrations on March 16...that's right, one day before St. Patrick's Day. St. Uhro is the patron saint of vineyard workers in Finland. Uhro, serving as a rural priest many years ago, is credited with banishing the grasshoppers that threatened the grape crop (and resulting wine). Sources say the holiday has not been celebrated here in Blaine County, at least as far as any old-timers can recall, and there are no references to the holiday in...
First graders at Meadowlark Elementary in Chinook were pretty excited when Lion Richard Cronk walked in with a box of miniature American flags. They knew the drill, he was going to talk about the American flag, then give them each one of the miniature American flags. Several of the first graders had older siblings who had come home with a flag in prior years. Lion Cronk asked the kids to stand and pledge allegiance to the flag. It was pretty clear this was not their first time saying the...
Five local churches studying new ways to share resources and ministries are hosting several joint events during this year's Lenten season and Holy Week. The churches include the Havre Presbyterian Church, the Harlem Yoked Parish (a combined Presbyterian and Methodist congregation) and Chinook's United Methodist, American Lutheran and Presbyterian churches. Representatives of these churches are exploring new ways they can cooperate in their outreach. Discerning new paths for small churches Late...
Alert readers will recall a story I wrote last December for the "Journal" about a dog/house sitting adventure. The story recounted how my wife Sherry and I spent five weeks, rent free, in a very upscale Airbnb in a suburb of Seattle near our daughter and her family. That venture into 'serial pet sitting' turned out to be rather costly. Here's the previously untold part of the story. Emergency room costs quickly added up We took two days to drive to Woodinville, Washington. It's about 800 miles...
Darwin Zellmer, of Harlem, recently shared a letter from William McKinney, Col. USAF (Ret). McKinney, and his wife, Jill, visited the Airmen's Memorial in Harlem last fall on the way from their home in Florida to Glacier Park. Part of the trip was to fulfill a promise the retired colonel made to his wife to let her see and experience the memorial to the 13 Air Force crew members who died in an air crash north of Harlem. McKinney was the squadron commander of 11 of the 13 crewmembers killed when...
Three church congregations from Chinook held a joint Christmas Eve service this past week. The evening service was held at the American Lutheran Church in Chinook and joined with the local Presbyterian and Methodist churches. American Lutheran and Chinook Presbyterian churches are currently without pastors. Rev. Jack Mattingly, pastor of the Chinook Methodist Church, led the worship and was assisted in serving communion by Rev. Sherry Edwards, retired and former pastor of the Presbyterian...
My wife, Sherry, and I are completing our fifth week as dog sitters in an upscale suburb of Seattle. How we ended up taking on this unusual task is a story itself. And what we learned about the enormity of the pet sitting sector is, well, a bit amazing. Here's how we ended up in Woodinville, Washington dog/house sitting and some of what we learned about the economics of pet sitting. Pet sitting's an economic sector estimated to be worth $2.6 billion per year worldwide and growing. From Airbnb...
During a stay in Miles city my wife and I visited some of the local tourist attractions. I was especially impressed with the Range Riders Museum. Described as "a celebration of eastern Montana history" the collection includes exhibits of local branding irons to an iron lung. Though the amount of material to view is a bit overwhelming one exhibit, especially, stood out for me: the collection of "It Happened in Montana" panel drawings by artist James Masterson The particular set of drawings on dis...
Crossing Indiana Street near the grocery store a few nights ago I looked south and saw emergency flashing lights. From where I was it looked like a fire truck and firemen running toward the tire shop at the end of the block. Curiosity got the best of me and I headed toward the lights and activity. Turns out Chinook firemen, in full gear and wearing SCBA packs (like scuba gear for firefighters), were moving in and out of the north side door of Chinook Lube Tire and Sporting Goods. Smoke was...
Tami Mitchell, Blaine County's Clerk of District Court, hosted a meeting of other District Court Clerks from around District 6-a geographic area that includes district courts from here east to the North Dakota state line. Mitchell said she was excited to host the group because "we usually meet at Glasgow, or some other place more in the center of the district." She wanted to make the get together special for the visiting clerks. Tami and her husband Dennis secretly planned to pick the ladies up...
Two of five highway improvements are now completed The Lohman East and West project on US 2 is complete per the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) and Schellinger Construction. The project ran basically over ten miles from the Hill/Blaine County line to the west city limits of Chinook. Most construction work was concluded several weeks ago with painting crews finishing the final roadway striping last week. Initial dirt work on the $27 million project began two years ago in the late...
It took about 40 years and two sets of current descendants to make the wish of a "homestead baby" come true. Joe Havlovick's grandfather, Anton, and Joe's father, Paul, homesteaded on two contiguous 320 acre tracts "north of Dodson" on the Big Flat in 1917. Anton Havlovick's great grandchildren believe the two homesteaders were drawn to America by the prospect of "free land" touted in the newspaper ads they likely saw back home in Czechoslovakia. Like many prairie homesteaders, Anton and Paul fa...
About 60 locals gathered last week at the Chinook Eagles for a surprise "thank you" party for Jana McPherson-Hauer resigned recently as head of the Blaine County Health Department. Betty Billmeyer, Betty's daughter Stephanie Billmeyer Silva and others organized the event to, as Betty put it, "Give the community an opportunity to thank Jana for the great job she did as the county's public health nurse." Jana joined the health department in September, 2014. Jana's husband, Jayson, and Stephanie...
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 places we passed through and others we had visited but not for nearly a quarter century. Here are a few observations about places we revisited and things we saw that caught our interest. Trends we saw heading east The further east and south we got the more traffic and congestion we encountered. I'd...
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 spans in the state, both our children were born there and I, honestly, had a strong hankering for some southern cooking. Our friend had warned, "Georgia is not the state you left 20 years ago." Though that was true, we were able to enjoy some culinary treats that are still part of the state's culture....
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 were injured 20 years ago in the terrorist attacks around the nation. Chinook Fire Chief Kraig Hansen explained how the local event became a reality. Chief Hansen said, "I saw on social media that several groups of first responders around the country were organizing low-key memorials for the 9/11...
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 patch during the growing season and was impressed with some of the 'lunkers' I could see down in the vines. But an orange wooden contraption had been erected at the south end of the patch and I was curious to learn what it was. Ken was happy to talk about this most recent addition to his patch. He ex...
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 installing concrete pads under the low-profile headstones provided to eligible veterans by the Veterans Administration (VA). Mick Thompson, Cemetery Board Chairman, said about 170 pads were made onsite and installed at the Kuper Cemetery and eight at the Alice Nash Cemetery. The project was directed...
