Voices From The Past

March 14, 1924

Motion Picture Theater to Open Here March 22nd.

The Star theater will be formally opened to the public here on the night of Saturday March 22nd. The “movies” to be shown on the screen that evening are a five reeler, “Peck’s Bad Boy”, and a two-act comedy. Both are pictures that will meet all expectations of young and old alike.

The old restaurant building is now being remodeled into a large auditorium that will suffice as a theater and community center. Electric current to operate the moving picture machine and to light the building will be generated by a Ford car. A dance will follow the movies, with music furnished by the Broadus Sun Dodgers orchestra.

William Flanery and Earl Homer are associated with the new theater and it is their plan to add a hard-wood floor for dancing as soon as possible.

Fleet Kiser Penalized for Disturbing A School

Fletice Kiser of Coalwood was arranged in Justice Court Monday before C.B. Lewis and he pleaded guilty to a charge of disturbing a Public School. A fine of $25 and a ten-day jail sentence was imposed.

The offense was committed by Kiser at the Williams School near Coalwood, on March 6th. Ostensibly on a well-meant mission, he visited this school that is taught by Miss Greta Mecklin. It was not long before Kiser’s presence in the school room became obnoxious both to the teacher and her scholars and he was advised that school work was to be performed, but that he was delaying the schedule. Twice the teacher threw Kiser’s gloves outdoors and twice he went after them, only to return and disturb the classes. Finally, Kiser assumed an offended mien and left without further commotion.

March 18, 1949

County will Participate in Hopper Program

Powder River County will participate in the federal grasshopper poisoning program, R.D. McCurdy, County Clerk, said Tuesday afternoon. Over two townships of range land have already been signed up and it is possible all of the 100,000 acres assigned to the County may be signed up.

Under the proposed program rangelands in five southeastern Montana counties will be dusted with poison to kill grasshoppers on their hatching grounds. The cost of the airplane dusting will be 40 cents per acre. The federal government will pay half of this cost, the state of Montana will pay one fourth of the cost, and individual ranchers will pay the other fourth, or 10 cents per acre.

Entomologists will determine the places in the County where it is most necessary to poison. No croplands will be dusted. Dusting of the rangeland will eliminate 85% of hoppers, it is believed.

If it is determined that the dusting program has value and is successful, it is believed that the Forest Service will dust the forest range land.

March 14, 1974

Patten family loses belongings in home fire

The family home of Charles Patten and all belongings were lost in a devastating fire fought in a high wind Sunday morning. The fire is believed to have started from electric wiring in a back bedroom while the family was away from home feeding.

Fire trucks from Broadus and Belle Creek, along with help from volunteers were unable to save the structure or belongings.

Many valuable antiques, including a piano, were lost in the fire. The original home was built of sod in 1916 by B.A. Patten and later, in the 1920s a log addition was built. More recently, an addition and trailer home were added to the end of the large rooms.

Talent Show packs them in

An estimated crowd of about 400 packed into the VFW Hall Saturday night to watch Talent Show contestants in action. Categories were vocal, instrumental, old time fiddling, and old time waltz. Winners in the vocals were Alvin Raschkow and Roberta Morgan; Bill Traub and Jim Sneath in instrumental; Bill Traub and Hubert Rumph old time fiddling; and Lloyd and Betty Carter and Francis and Georgia Traub in old time waltz. Wade Ruland, master of ceremonies and his band, The Big Sky Country Four accompanied the contestants.

March 18, 1999

Eight advance to Regional Science Fair

Eight Broadus junior high Science students will represent their school and community as they vie for cash awards and prizes at the Deaconess Billings Clinic Science Exposition in Billings this weekend. The eight students won purple ribbons at the local Science Fair,which was coordinated by science instructors Greg Childress and Wanda Jamieson.

Winners moving on to Billings are: Elliott Barnhart - “Radiant Radishes; Brian Williams - “What Does Lean Mean”; Lanissa Fortner- “Flower to Flower”; Mary Trusler - “Can We Eat Snow”; KayCee Gardner - “Wool It Dye? Wool It Fade?”; Shannon Janssen- “Is Your Common Cent’s Gone?” Emily Scoles - “War in the Tropics”; and Tonya Gardner - “Hot Tempered”.