Bonner County History - Feb. 20, 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
Feb. 20, 1974 – MAYOR IS ALSO HISTORIAN
Starting with this issue, The News-Bulletin will publish a series of remembrances about Sandpoint in the early 1900s, entitled “Why, I Remember When …” The subject matter for the series comes from a 72-page history of Sandpoint by Mayor Les Brown, who said he compiled the history “strictly for my own enjoyment. A lot of people don’t realize my father [Harry E. Brown] was at one time the mayor of this town [from 1927-1933]. His office was right across from the present city council chambers and one day I found a bunch of old records in his safe. These documents gave me the idea for the history.”
•••
WHY, I REMEMBER WHEN…
…the kid dined with the Queen. November, 1926: Thousands have been thrilled by a glimpse of Rumania’s gracious queen, but probably nowhere in the world is any one so thrilled as was a Sandpoint boy last night. Lester Brown, son of Mr. and Mrs. H.E. Brown, imbued with the curiosity and intrepidity of modern youth, jumped on the queen’s special train when it came through Sandpoint just to see the queen, but the train was going so fast he couldn’t get off. Word of his plight was carried to the queen, who immediately ordered him brought to her. Dinner time came and he ate with the royal family and before the arrival in Spokane, the queen gave him an autographed photograph and a book she had written herself entitled “The Lost Princess,” in which she inscribed: “To Lester Brown from Marie, Queen of Rumania, after an unexpected meeting.”
75 Years Ago
Sandpoint News-Bulletin
Feb. 20, 1949 – MUST MOVE AUTOS
Continued snows have been piled at the sides of the Sandpoint streets until there is hardly any place to put the stuff and residents who might otherwise put their cars in their garages have been parking them on the street instead of shoveling out. It is getting impossible for the highway department to plow out the streets because so many cars are blocking the path. “People must move their cars off the streets and cars that are now snowed in must be shoveled out. All cars left on the streets at night will be impounded,” said Chief of Police H.H. McCrum.
•••
CITY IN BRIEF
Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Yaw, route 1, are the parents of a daughter born Wednesday, Feb. 9, at the Sacred Heart hospital in Spokane.
Mrs. Mervin Bergstrom was a Spokane visitor Sunday.
•••
LOCAL GIRLS ARE NOW DENTAL NURSES
Arriving home Thursday from San Francisco, where they graduated last week as dental nurses from a five months course at the Dental Nurses’ training school, were Miss Virginia Thomas, daughter of Mrs. W.F. Thomas, and Miss Janet Welo, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Welo. The young ladies are graduates of the local high school and attended the University of Idaho at Moscow.
For more information, visit the museum online at bonnercountyhistory.org.