We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
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Rod Benson, who grew up in Harlem, was the third presenter in the Blaine County Museum's 2023/24 Off-Season Speaker Series. Benson was a high school science teacher in Helena for 37 years and retired in the spring of 2019. December of that year he began teaching science and coaching archery at Hays-Lodge Pole High School. He said he will be "re-retiring" this spring. The Off-Season Speakers Series is co-hosted by the Blaine County Museum and the Chinook Senior Center. Benson presented on the...
I would guess if you are reading this story you, like me, are already thinking about and wishing for the coming of spring. While the last couple of weeks of acceptable winter temperatures have been a nice break from winter, February 2 and the spotlight on whether Punxsutawney Phil will see his shadow, is a time many of us start asking, "How much more winter weather will there be?" and "How soon can we expect spring?" I'm one of those folks who look at all sorts of predictors for the coming of...
Jack Brandon, a retired middle school teacher from Havre, is now using his teaching skills at the Chinook Senior Center to help seniors learn to paint. For the past few weeks Brandon has been offering a watercolor painting class. The class is open to all, regardless of experience level in painting. Currently the classes are focusing on learning watercolor painting. Brandon says eventually he would like to help seniors learn additional techniques that could be used in other types of painting. It...
Most of my adult life I have looked forward to February 2, Ground Hog Day. Thinking about whether the ground hog will see its shadow (not in Montana since we have no ground hogs) takes me back to my childhood. As kids, on Ground Hog Day, there would be excited speculation on the school playgrounds in southern Illinois whether we would soon be done with winter or if the miserable, wet cold would drag on for six more weeks. In our childish minds the coming of warm weather was dependent on whether...
Samantha (Sam) French, Director of the Blaine County Museum, recently described a plan to begin collecting oral histories in Blaine County. French, who came to the director's position about five years ago, said, "It's been my goal to do an oral history collection since I arrived at the museum. My hope is the folks who volunteer to do interviews will have contacts throughout the county." If all goes well she hopes to have a major part of the interviews completed by the start of summer. She noted...
Three years ago a nationwide study found that about 23 percent of Americans do some kind of volunteer work. That equates to 60+ million of your fellow Americans. Those numbers may have shocked alert readers but the sad truth is the number of Americans willing to volunteer is on a steady decline. While the reasons for the decline are many and varied, the bottom line is this...many organizations still need volunteers in order to fulfill their mission and many need those volunteers now. You don't...
The Chinook Lions Club held its monthly meeting last Tuesday in the community room of the Grande Villa. President Jay Eslick presided. Despite the frigid weather and a brewing snow storm, 15 of the 27 regular members of the club were present. The Club heard updates on a number of projects and approved funding for several existing programs. Members learned that for the first time in many years the number of members with less than 10 years of membership are now a majority of the 27 current...
Austin Haney, most recently a summer Interpretive Ranger at the Bear Paw Battlefield, has been selected as a presenter for the Humanities Montana program. Haney recently joined about fifty presenters with Montana Conversations. Montana Conversations provides workshops and conversations on topics such as "current affairs, untold histories, native cultures, literature and more." Each year Montana Conversations provides presenters in communities across the state. I spoke with Austin at the Blaine...
Late December, 2023, Jim Doyle was sworn in as the new Blaine County Justice of the Peace. He replaced outgoing Judge Perry Miller who resigned due to health issues. No stranger to the Justice Court office, Doyle was most recently the Justice Court Administrator. He has been with the Justice Court for nearly twenty-seven years. Doyle was selected and approved as the new judge from applicants who applied to fill the vacancy. His selection was made and approved by the Blaine County Commissioners....
Edith Bilger, who lived most of her adult life in western Blaine County, became a Montana Centenarian on December 20, 2023. It's an "exclusive club" of folks who have lived 100 years or more. Family members from far and near and friends from all over the area joined Edith at the Chinook Senior Center to celebrate her 100th birthday. Last October she was listed among the centenarians honored at the Montana Governor's 54th Conference on Aging. She joined fellow Blaine Countian Virginia Olson who...
Judge Perry Miller is resigning as Justice of the Peace for Blaine County effective December 31 of 2023. It's a post he's held for 29 years. He will also resign his positions as City Judge for both Harlem (13 years) and Chinook (20 years). Miller suffered a stroke last summer and despite health improvements he said, "My eyes won't properly convert what I'm reading so I have double vision. I also tire more easily." Miller added, "After last Thanksgiving I decided I needed to retire. It was not...
Alert readers may recall I often lament the annoyances of spending extended time in the Seattle area when my wife and I take on our dog-sitting duties each fall. The daily hassles of living amongst four million other people wear me down. I enjoy our time with family, but our extended stays can be difficult at times. The upside of being in a big city is having access to cultural and educational experiences that are rarely available in small towns or rural areas. During our current five week stay...
Blaine County Library's Homeschool Hour students recently had their last session for 2023. Providing programs aimed at homeschool students, Homeschool Hour meets 1-2pm on Wednesdays. Per Assistant Librarian Emily Scofield who oversees the program, any student, kindergarten through high school, is welcome to attend. The recent program had a big turnout with 29 students plus adults bringing the total attendees to 41. Austin Haney, Interpretive Ranger last summer and fall at the Bear Paw...
This year's Blaine County Fur Fest Coyote Hunt was sponsored for the first time by the Blaine County Fair Foundation. The event was held the first weekend of December and was deemed a huge success. Fair Board/Foundation member Shandel Fouts, who was very involved in the planning, promotion and carrying out of the event, reported "It was the first time the Fair Foundation sponsored the hunt and it was a huge success." One hundred fifty-nine hunters, organized in to fifty teams, participated....
A new holiday tree ornament honoring the memory of the airmen killed in a crash over Harlem more than 30 years ago is now available for the upcoming Christmas season. Eva English, owner of Eva's Laser Engraving Etc. teamed up with leaders of the Harlem Airmen Memorial Committee to design an ornament that could be shared with visitors to the Memorial and others who want to support the upkeep of the two sites honoring the fallen airmen. The two sites, one in Harlem and one north of town near the...
Alert "Journal" readers may recall the story that ran in August about the visit by 16 former airmen who came to visit the Harlem Airmen's Memorial. The group, all Air Force veterans and mostly from the west coast, had some connections to the 13 crewmen who died during a refueling practice run high over Harlem that resulted in a crash of two of the four planes in the exercise. The crash occurred on November 30, 1992. The 16 came to visit the memorial in Harlem and another up nearer the actual...
Total Number of Teams: 20 Open Class 28 Calling Class 2 Kids Teams 50 Teams Total Total Number of Hunters: 89 Calling Class 66 Open Class 4 Kids 159 hunters total Total Number of animals turned in: 38 Rabbits 23 Raccoons 31 Porcupines 308 Coyotes 400 Animals total Prize Money Paid out Just over $18,000 between the class winners, side pots, & Calcutta Kids: Sponsored by Gruszie Family Show Pigs, Kevin Young, & Kevin Elias. Skoyen Kids (Piper & Maverick Skoyen) & Team Bob (Denton Eggleston &...
A stop at a suburban Seattle parking lot reminded me of the large number of crows in the Pacific Northwest. In the parking lot I could hear the familiar “caws” of foraging crows. Ten years ago, when my wife and I lived in Arlington, Washington (north of Seattle) every morning from my desk I could look out our second story window and see a small flock (called a “murder of crows”) working their way along the street, picking up bits of dropped food, forcing their way in to garbage bins set out for...
Two things prompted me to write this story First was my recalling one year ago when I got taken for $400 on an "imposter scam" involving my buying gift cards for a friend's supposed dying cousin. Second stimulus was a news release from the regional FBI office in Salt Lake City describing an uptick in "Phantom Hacker attacks" (where a scammer poses as an unknown government or financial institution worker trying to prevent a hack or scam) that tend to focus on senior citizens. These two types of...
For folks around Chinook the first weekend in October has come to mean: “Fall is here, time to gather pumpkins for Halloween at Finley’s Pumpkin Patch.” Ken Finley (dubbed Grandpa PumpKen by his family) died this past spring but thanks to son Jeff, and Jeff’s extended family, Ken’s legacy of providing pumpkins for locals will continue. Not only do kids still get to wander the patch to find their own pumpkins for carving, they can use the kid-sized sling shots to shoot tennis balls at pumpkin t...
National Volunteer Week is traditionally celebrated the third week in April. It’s a week when the country’s 60 million volunteers who volunteer 4.18 billion hours of service are officially recognized. Senior Center Director Ginger Hansen, who joined the Center only a few months ago, decided to celebrate the Center’s volunteers a bit early this year. She planned and held a special event for the Center’s volunteers in early October. Hansen explained, “Volunteers assure the Center is able to contin...
Last October Gary and Beverly Jensen, traveling companions from Chester on several prior bus tours, called asking if I would help them organize a bus tour. The destination was the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum in northern Kentucky, near Cincinnati. I'd heard of the two attractions and learned the Ark and Museum were based on a 'young earth creation' view of the story found in the Bible. The Jensons contacted Diamond Tours, a travel company that specializes in trips for seniors, and reserved...
Virginia Olson was back in Chinook from Great Falls after attending the annual Montana Governor's Conference on Aging. The event brings health care providers and caregivers together from across the state to discuss issues facing aging populations especially in a sparsely populated state like Montana. Organizers of the conference identified 35 Montanans who were at least one hundred years old and would be honored during the conference. Five of those invited, including Virginia Olson from Blaine...
Mark Vitaris, Canadian author and location photographer, spoke to about twenty-five people last week at the kickoff program of the Blaine County Museum's "Off-season Speaker Series." Museum Director Sam French said she was pleased with the turnout noting it "exceeded my expectations." She added, "Mark's presentation definitely resonated with folks who attended." The event was held at the Chinook Senior Center. Vitaris spent five years visiting, photographing and researching the borderlands along...
The first in a series of diverse presenters and topics will kick-off on Thursday, October 5 at 7pm. Museum Director Sam French said the off-season series begins when the museum's focus can shift from hosting out-of-staters and tourists during the summer to offering more programming and exhibits geared to locals. This particular program will be offered at the Chinook Senior Center (at 324 Pennsylvania). First off-season speaker lives in Canada Mark Vitaris earned a B.A. in Communications, from...
