BCSA celebrates 75th birthday

PONDERAY — The Bonner County Sportsmen’s Association is celebrating its 75th year of preserving and expanding hunting and fishing traditions in the Panhandle.

A wild game and potluck dinner to commemorate the milestone is set for Saturday at the Wiley Widgeon restaurant in the Elk’s Lodge. The event includes a silent auction featuring a bison hunt in South Dakota and other items.

Attendees will also get look inside the club’s eventful and colorful history.

Association member Oz Osborn pored over minutes from every one of the club’s business meetings to compile comprehensive but modest 27-page booklets highlighting the group’s contributions to the community, in addition to hunters, anglers and wildlife.

The snippets cover everything from World War II rationing efforts to the cost of gas in 1967 and the group’s countless conservation initiatives.

Other highlights include the introduction of elk in Bonner County at Trestle Creek in 1936 and the establishment of Lake Pend Oreille’s famed Kamloops rainbow trout in the 1940s. The slang term for a certain type of pheasant, meanwhile, would cause a tenderfoot to spit up their herbal tea.

Osborn was drawn to the project by an interest in the club’s history and an appreciation for the group’s efforts over the years.

“Going through these minutes was a humbling experience,” he said.

Osborn said Saturday’s dinner also has roots in the association’s history. Hunters who bagged a moose on coveted hunt trips to Canada could only keep half the meat.

“They were obliged to give the other half of the meet to the club. Then a dinner would be held,” he said.

n Reservations for the 6 p.m. dinner are still available but limited. For more information, contact Oz Osborn at 263-7560.