55 YEARS AGO:
This excerpt is from a Special Anniversary Edition of the Times.
All of us know of the huge newspaper chains, today, which encourage their papers to be competely neutral and to have no political leanings whatsoever. They feel no responsibility to their readers in any particular city or town to shed editorial light upon local issues.
Most community weeklies are family efforts; they almost must be to survive. They are dependent upon their advertisers for their existence actually, yet must never allow themselves to be coerced or swayed by this dependence.
Weekly newspaper owners are proud of the medium of communication they provide and contiually are striving to improve their product. As the community which the paper serves, must progress, so does its medium of communication.
50 YEARS AGO:
Two men were charged with causing a disturbance by being drunk at Barriere.
Barriere RCMP arrested both after a complaint from the ice cream drive in, that two men were fighting with ice cream cones.
Both appeared in court at Clearwater Saturday where they were fined $25 each or in default two days.
The pair elected to serve the sentence at Clearwater.
45 YEARS AGO:
Wells Gray finished second after going to the finals wihtout a loss in some well played ball games over the Aug. 16-17 weekend at Winfield.
The first game Saturday saw Wells Gray defeat Kelowna Labatts 7-5 in an 11 inning game to put them against Sun Country where they came out winners again with a 6-3 score.
Sunday Wells Gray had a 5-0 shutout against Central City MP’s with Chris Cleaveley pitching to put them into the final game.
After waiting the biggest part of the day for the final game Central City MP’s came back through the loser’s side to again meet Wells Gray 6-3 to take the tournament.
40 YEARS AGO:
A dozen competitors turned out for the Central North Thompson Rod and Gun Club shoot held at the CNT range Sunday.
First in the rim fire competition was Verne Brown, while Wayne Sunderman placed second and Kiyo Nakazawa third. John Cornell was fourth and a consolation prize of a free pass to the next shoot went to last place finisher Lonnie Russell.
In centre fire, Wayne Sunderman came first and Verne Brown second. Frank Voysey and Dave Smid were third and fourth respectively. Trophies were awarded to the first three finishers in each category.
35 YEARS AGO:
The 11th annual Vavenby Loggers’ Days celebrations, sponsored by the joint Vavenby and Clearwater Lions Clubs, began last Saturday morning with the best parade that Vavenby has seen for a long time with several floats, displays, horse and buggies and kids in fancy dress, on decorated bicycles and all having fun.
For the first time the 4-H Club entered a float and the Upper North Thompson Beef Club did a tremendous job of explaining to residents just what 4-H means. Later in the day the club shampooed a couple of steers prior to demonstration on clipping.
Three very patient ladies formed the main portion of the Vavenby Old Age Pensioners float depicting activities of that group.
30 YEARS AGO:
“Clearwater Improvement District is just like a municipality. It is running as a mini-municipality,” incorporation would “not see much change,” Tom Reid of Sussex Consultants Ltd. told his audience on Aug. 21.
The meeting, attended by about 85 persons in the Clearwater Improvement District hall, was called to discuss the report on incorporation recently carried out.
Clearwater Incorporation District members shared the head table with Derek Trimmer from the provincial government’s organizational policy branch and emcee Jack Patterson.
Mr. Trimmer said he was there as an observer to make sure residents had access to all information. The study, he said, had been financed by a government grant.
25 YEARS AGO:
Barriere and Clearwater RCMP seized and destroyed well over $250,000-worth of marijuana found growing in the North Thompson Valley thanks to tips from the public.
An estimated $200,000 went up in smoke Friday night when Clearwater RCMP burned roughly 200 six-foot tall plants of “very good quality.” The crop was located on Crown Land in a very remote location near Clearwater Valley Road, said police.
“Due to the remoteness of the area and the large amount, making it difficult to remove for normal destruction, on site destruction of the drug was authorized by Sgt. Henry, NCO i/c of the Clearwater Detachment, who personally supervised the action,” said Cst. Mike Savage, adding small mountains of the illegal green stuff were doused in diesel and burned.
20 YEARS AGO:
Raft River is hosting its largest contingent of spawning sockeye in many years, according to local Department of Fisheries and Oceans officials.
“It’s a wonderful sight,” said DFO field supervisor Doug Cowen. “It’s a phenomenal run this year.”
Projections are for between 50,000 and 100,000 of the red fish to spawn in the stream over the next few weeks.
This compares to four years ago, the last peak year, when 46,600 fish made it back to the river to mate and lay eggs.
The Raft has been the site of several salmonid enhancement projects over the past few years, including brood channels on the west side, and back stabilization along the east.
15 YEARS AGO:
Local residents have raised $11,621.43 so far to help Lynden Walker and his family, organizer Debbie Mayer reported last week.
“People have to understand that it’s not that he’s not getting the best of care. It’s that there are all kinds of other costs that the family has to meet,” said Mayer. “We’re talking about a two-income family that has suddenly gone to no income.”
The money includes $3,800 raised at a benefit night held at the Wells Gray Inn.
Lynden Walker, age two, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in late July. Since then he has been undergoing treatment at Children’s Hospital in Vancouver.
10 YEARS AGO:
Yellowhead Mining announced recently that it had exercised an option July 30 to acquire 31 mineral claims totaling 775 hectares from a US steel subsidiary, Cygnus Mines Limited. The company now fully owns all mineral tenures around its Harper Creek copper exploration project,which is located about 20 km southeast of Clearwater.
The purchase is important to Yellowhead because the Cygnus claims represented a significant portion of the established copper ore body.
5 YEARS AGO:
“It could have made Rock Creek look like a backyard barbeque but those guys were right on the spot and not afraid to go into action.”
That was the assessment of longtime Upper Clearwater resident George Briggs after tow-truck operator Kevin Tinker plus one or two other local men helped prevent a vehicle fire from causing a major forest fire.
According to Briggs, a vehicle from Alberta being driven by a woman with two children collided with a vehicle being driven by a local resident.
“It was really quite an effort by those folks,” said Briggs. “It was a good community effort.”
1 YEAR AGO:
Clearwater’s Candle Creek Half Marathon took place last weekend and organizers said it was a great success with 139 registered participants.
For the women’s 12 km race Veronika Satinska from Clearwater came in first place, Erin Daniel of Yellowhead County came in second, and Leah Blair of Clearwater took the third-place spot.
The men’s 21 km race saw Graham Hansel of Clearwater take first place, Derek Miller of Clearwater came in second and Little Fort’s Will Dana took third.
“I now know what it would feel like to be on top of Mount Everest — a long time of planning with a vision in mind,” said race organizer Juanita Allen.
newsroom@clearwatertimes.com
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