Bonner County History - Aug. 6, 2024

Brought to you by the

Bonner County Historical

Society and Museum

611 S. Ella Ave., Sandpoint, Idaho, 83864

208-263-2344

50 Years Ago

Sandpoint News-Bulletin

Aug. 6, 1974 – NEW NEWS MANAGEMENT

Laurin E. Pietsch, Publisher of the Sandpoint News-Bulletin, announces the sale of his majority ownership in the newspaper to a new publishing corporation, Selkirk Press, Inc., of Sandpoint, headed by his son, Gary L. Pietsch. Pietsch has been in the newspaper business in Sandpoint since founding his newspaper in September, 1924 as a mimeographed daily in partnership with J.L. Stack. As publisher of the News-Bulletin, Pietsch won the coveted Master Editor-Publisher Award presented by the Idaho Press Association in 1969. In turning over active management of the newspaper to his son, Pietsch will assume the title of Publisher Emeritus for the paper which under his leadership has grown to be Idaho’s largest weekly newspaper. Gary, 39, a 1952 Sandpoint High School graduate, holds a BA degree in Journalism from the University of Idaho. His senior year, he was editor of the Idaho Argonaut, the bi-weekly campus newspaper. 

•••

SANDPOINT FFA LAD TO NATIONAL MEET

SHS junior Tom Woodland, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Woodland, Shingle Mill Rd., and secretary of the SHS Future Farmers of America, will attend the American Institute of Co-operatives seminar Aug. 6-9 in Manhattan, Kansas. He qualified for the trip by winning a co-operatives judging contest in Moscow. On Tuesday Jack Murray, local Co-op boss, gave Tom a check to help defray the costs of his journey.

75 Years Ago

Sandpoint News-Bulletin

Aug. 6, 1949 – ALBENI GIVEN SETBACK

Hopes for early construction of Albeni Falls dam on the Pend Oreille river near Priest River have dimmed considerably. Funds for the dam were in the omnibus appropriation bill which the house rules committee refused to send to the floor last week. 

•••

LUCKY BABIES WIN SILVER DOLLARS

Two “silver dollar” babies were born Aug. 1 at the Bonner general hospital. Mrs. Ethel Hall, assistant cook at the hospital, had promised a silver dollar to a baby born on her birthday, Aug. 1. Most obligingly, a son arrived for Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Buck and a daughter for Mr. and Mrs. Archie Baker, all of Sandpoint. A double birthday gift for Mrs. Hall, who presented each baby with a silver dollar. 

•••

FARRAGUT COLLEGE WON’T REOPEN

Formal action by the board of directors of Farragut College & Technical Institute last Friday caused the institution to close its doors permanently. The college had an enrollment of 1200 during the 1946-47 term. This figure dropped to less than 1000 during the 1947-48 term and was about 500 during the term ended this spring. Closing the college has brought into sharp focus the financial condition of some veterans who have been going to school there as well as some who quit their jobs and moved their families to Farragut in anticipation of the opening of the school this fall. A committee of faculty members has pooled funds to assist the more urgent cases.

For more information, visit the museum online at bonnercountyhistory.org.