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Each year on the first Wednesday of January, "The Mountaineer" reviews the most interesting and best stories of the last twelve months. We review the most noteworthy stories and maybe even a noteworthy picture or two. It is a good way to get started with our stories of 2017. The 2017 stories are all pretty much mysteries yet but the 2016 stories; well here we go on a fun journey back through the last year in Big Sandy, Montana. One could say that this is 2016 in review, the Good the Bad and the...
By Bruce Auchly FWP Region 4 Information Officer After all the slicing and dicing and studying of wildlife, along comes an animal or two that just won't fit into a category, showing us we really don't know it all. In the last two years, a pair of cow moose radio collared on the Rocky Mountain Front as part of a 10-year population dynamics study has displayed a wanderlust that has confounded Nick DeCesare, research wildlife biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "We've seen local...
As most of Big Sandy knows by now, the famous Mint has changed hands. Or rather it has come back into familiar hands who have owned it before. Lawrence Jappe IV, Shayla Vroman and Marie Jappe were at "The Mountaineer" last week talking about what the Mint is all about. Marie said that she and Larry bought the Mint for the kids. Marie added it was very familiar to the family as her mother and father owned it from 1996 to 2005. And even before that Walt and Judy Sivertsen owned the popular...
(LEWISTOWN, Mont.) – A double rainbow signaled the start of their day and a cloud was placed above them as a covering to soften the Sun's bright beaming. The convoy of Bureau of Land Management equipment and public servants were on a mission to plant sagebrush in Petroleum County, Montana. "Sagebrush is essential for sage-grouse survival. The leaves account for nearly their entire winter diet," said BLM Lewistown Field Office Wildlife Biologist Matthew Comer. "Habitat loss and fragmentation f...
I don't remember a lot of this story but I think I have most of the facts straight. The story came to mind after hearing and writing about the mussels in some of our Montana lakes and reservoirs. Matter of fact this was such a large story that there were several books written about it. Of course I can't find mine now so I will have to tell you a tale that starts out great and ends up very sad and the tale is not over yet. For many years around the time that we celebrate Thanksgiving a...
My Grandfather Stuart featured himself as quite the weather man. He spent his life talking to his friends about what was going to happen in the South Mountain View Community of Havre, Montana regarding weather. The problem is that he was usually wrong. However one time he did correctly predict a terrible blizzard. From that day on he was known as Blizzard Stuart. The only weather tidbit I ever got from my father was that he said when there are sun dogs around the sun, it was going to be very...
In another section of this week’s “Mountaineer” Vicki Sylvan has a thank you to the community for all the good things they have done for her while she has been the Big Sandy Library. Somehow, that is not the way it should go. It is us of her community that should be thanking her for all the good she has done in letting people know what books are in the library, which are good, which are bad and which are downright ugly and at all times recommending very good books of all types to a book hungry public. It was about the time that Vicki took...
From a November press release written by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists, there is an invasive mussel larvae in some lakes and rivers in Montana. It is with sort of a jaundiced eye that one looks at that press release because even the name of the body of water is wrong. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks calls it Tiber Reservoir but most everyone on the High-Line knows it to be Lake Elwell. Judge Elwell is probably turning over in his grave that his name is not used on his beautiful...
One of the most intriguing of all Christmas cookies are the sort of scary gingerbread men and women. When I went to school at Devlin school in Havre, someone always made gingerbread men and we hung them on our school tree. I was always taught by my friends to always eat the head off the gingerbread man first so it would not eat you! Many people make gingerbread men for Easter, Christmas, Halloween and for birthdays too. How about a look back to how this good tasting but sort of unpleasant...
The Big Sandy Christmas Stroll once again brought out the faithful shoppers who are looking to buy or win the unique, homemade gifts. The fundraising committee for the new library was pleased to have 8 baskets of various goodies donated for our raffle, plus a beautiful, queen-sized block quilt made by Judy (Bissell) Hawkins (Class of ’66) who now lives in Ohio. Wendy Kleinsasser was the lucky winner of this lovely quilt. The other raffle winners were as follows: Andrea Schlinger- Mr. & Mrs. Dafty Bunny, donated by Allison Taylor, Demra B...
3-7-16 The Pinochle Tournament held Sunday, December 4th had just twelve players enjoying an afternoon of fun. Three more came down for a while and played a round or two each – thank you Shawn! 1st went to Maggie Cline with her 6070 earning her $20; 2nd went to Nora Grubb with 5940 earning her $15; 3rd Jessica Sietsema won $10 for her 6920; 4th Shawn Webster got $5 for his 5610; and 5th Charlene Moravec with 5440 for $5. Last place honors went to Martha Pleninger for which she got her $5 entry fee back. High round score for the afternoon w...
HELENA, Mont. – The Montana Mussel Response team today announced immediate temporary emergency restrictions on the launch or removal of all boats, docks, and other structures for Tiber and Canyon Ferry reservoirs. Matt Wolcott, Incident Commander for the State’s Mussel Incident Response Team, said the restrictions are necessary to prevent the potential spread of invasive aquatic mussels from the two reservoirs to other uncontaminated water bodies in Montana and elsewhere. The restrictions were approved this afternoon by the directors of the Mon...
The Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) announced today that in the last three months there have been 12 norovirus outbreaks in Montana that have sickened more than 250 people. This is three times the number of outbreaks usually reported during this time of year. Norovirus, a very contagious virus that can affect anyone, is the most common cause of gastroenteritis in Montana and the US. Outbreaks have occurred in the counties of Cascade, Flathead, Rosebud, Sanders, Valley and Yellowstone. “Most of these outbreaks occurred i...
Every year those trusty Big Sandy Chamber of Commerce people go out and about and make plans for the best Christmas Stroll ever! It is their largest and maybe only fund raiser of the year but they certainly do not do it for the purpose of making money. They do it because they love their home town and they want the Christmas Stroll to be the best ever and a time for fun for everyone. This year they had a new item. Actually they had many new items but this one struck me. The three downtown bars co...
Wilma (Krumsick) Welty has been making nativity sets as her contribution to the St, Margaret Mary's Parish Catholic Women (PCW) annual Christmas Raffle for more than 25 years. No one, including Wilma, can recall for sure just exactly when it all began. Many Big Sandy area families have been the lucky winners of these beautiful creations over those many years. It is believed that Joanne Kibbbee may have won the first one. For several years Wilma has also made and donated a Native American style...
10 Golden Triangle Cropping Seminar Montana State University Extension will host the annual Cropping Seminar series January 9 – 12, 2017, in Fort Benton, Chester, Shelby, Cut Bank, Fairfield, Conrad, Stanford, and Great Falls. Topics will include pest identification, habits of profitable farmers, cereal variety trial updates from the local research centers, and control of ground squirrels, gophers and moles in crop settings. Dr. Mary Burrows, MSU Extension Plant Pathologist, will present, “Pest Identification: The cornerstone of int...
As the cold weather hits us, it brings with it concerns of safety. Hypothermia and frostbite are definitely something you want to avoid but there are also other concerns that come with the cold such as loss of coordination and impairment of judgment that may lead to accidents or other types of injuries. Wind and moisture have a huge impact on our body’s ability to regulate temperature. Also, the physical attributes of individuals determine their susceptibility to hypothermia. Generally, older people are at greater risk than young people, t...
It seems of late like there are a lot of people retiring from the Big Sandy community or changing jobs. With every change someone goes home and lives a completely different life style and someone takes over a position and brings new ideas to the workplace. That was all happening in spades when Linda Rutledge retired from the Senior Citizen's Center and Karma Hale took her place. It was the young taking over for the not so young when Karma had her first day in the Senior Citizen's Center on Novem...
The Big Sandy Christmas Stroll is this next Saturday, December 3 and never has there been more to do during the day in and around Big Sandy. • There is the Craft Show in the Memorial Hall. It lasts all day and it is a full house. What a perfect place that is to get a homemade Christmas present or some goodies for Christmas sharing. • How about the hay rides? They start at 1pm at Firemen's Park • At "The Mountaineer" there will be a school winter art show and western artist Tony Collins will...
Tony Collins will be displaying his Western Arts of Montana at "The Mountaineer" during this Saturday's Christmas Stroll. What that means to the farm and ranch community is that in our midst for that day will be an expert on all things branding. From making branding irons (did you know that most all branding irons are made of stainless steel now?} to branding irons for the range and for the kitchen to brand steaks, Tony Collins lives it all every day. He is a wood working expert as well, making...
When the Big Sandy School District decided to get a lot of Chromebooks for students in junior high and high school, 90 were issued to students. How about a few more numbers. There are 177 kids in K through 12 in the Big Sandy Schools. Once Bob Nelson and others knew they wanted to invest in Chromebooks, there have been 154 of them bought in the last three years. Before any were bought and issued, Bob Nelson did a lot of work and study as to which devices would be the best for students in the...
When this "Mountaineer" reporter first heard about job shadowing he thought it must be about Lamont Cranston and "The Shadow". Little did he know that it was really about going to see what a job entails so that the student might want to go into that line of work. Juniors and Seniors at Big Sandy High School have gone to Great Falls and followed people around for a day to see if they might be interested in a job like the one they were shadowing. But not until this year has Shersteen Cline's...
Last week, MSU Extension Chouteau, Toole and Big Horn counties held a Meat Preservation Class with ten people in attendance at the Big Sandy Community Church of God. Everyone was able to assemble their own jars of salmon and chicken legs using the raw pack method. They then placed their jars in pressure canners and completed the steps to get the processing started. Due to the length of time required to process, the jars were removed and allowed to cool for the participants to pick up at a later time. Samples were tasted and enjoyed by the...
The weekend of Nov. 11-13, 2016, Big Sandy High School students Dakota Terry and Grace Finke traveled to Missoula to attend the University of Montana’s High School All-Star Ensembles. They were two out of 212 students from a five state area: WA, OR, ID, WY, and Montana. These students were all nominated and chosen on their merit in band. Four ensembles practiced and performed the entire weekend from 8:45 am to 8:45 pm. On Saturday night they were guests of the UM’s own concert band and orchestra concerts. Sunday morning, they did their fir...