Bonner County History - Aug. 25, 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. 25, 1974 – CITY GETS POUND

Sandpoint is finally getting a new dog pound, to be built on Baldy Road near Goobys. The pound will be a metal building, 20x24 ft., built by T-P Building Co., Sandpoint. Dave Roberts, Poundmaster, is pleased. “Now I can do my job the way it should be done,” he said. Work is expected to be finished by August 28.

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PANTS CONTEST BIG SUCCESS

Friday’s Bicentennial Women’s Pants Art Show, from all reports, was an unqualified success. The brainchild of Dustyne Anderson, the contest attracted national interest, most notably from the Levi Strauss Co. in San Francisco and Seventeen magazine. The only hard rule for the event was that each pair of pants had to deal in some fashion with the nation’s upcoming 200th birthday. The three first place winners, Millie Enniss, Laclede (pants design of George Washington crossing the Delaware and Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation); Tammy Evans; and Karen Green of Colburn each won a $25 gift certificate from Levi Strauss. Second place winners were Jeri Self, Karin Dexter, and Gina Woodward. Third place winners: Alice Bridenbaush, Sandpoint, and Janine Larrende of Malibu, Calif. Honorable mention: Rachel Van Horne, Mark Murray, and Heidi Munce, whose pants depicting George and Martha Washinton kissing was judged the most original idea in the contest. Levi Strauss provided one of the two judges for the competition, which took place on the lawn of the old fairgrounds.

75 Years Ago

Sandpoint News-Bulletin

Aug. 25, 1949 – FLIPPERS SET FIRES

Careless smokers twice set fire to dry grass and sawdust on the north side of the approach to the city dock Saturday. The fire department was first called at 2:25 o’clock in the afternoon. They returned to the station after extinguishing the fire, only to be called back at 3:50 to find that another cigarette flipper had caused a second fire in practically the same place. 

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EVENING STORM MAKES FIERY DISPLAY

The electric storm that romped across the Idaho Panhandle Saturday at 5:30 p.m. gave Sandpointers a thrill with its sharp lightning flashes and crackling thunder rolls. Soon after the storm began, lightning struck a pole near the north end of the abandoned power line to Talache, leaving it in flames. Lightning later set fire to a snag on Gold Hill, which blazed so brightly that residents all over Sandpoint remarked on it. Heavy rain followed, while heavy hail swept across the lake and pounded the Hope area. 

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BIG BANK DEAL

The Idaho First National bank, the oldest national bank in Idaho, established in Boise in 1867, on Aug. 20 acquired the Bonner County National bank, establishing it as its Sandpoint branch, with A.K. Walden, of the Nampa branch, as manager. Bonner County National bank was for many years owned by W.W. Von Canon and associates; more recently by the Walter Cosgriff banking group of Salt Lake City.

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