Voices from the Past

October 24, 1924

John Witcher Fined $17.50 for Leaving Gate Open

Jordan. Oct. 16 - Charged with leaving a gate open, John Witcher was assessed a light fine by a jury in Justice of the Peace Wilson’s court Tuesday afternoon on a warrant sworn to by Lloyd Shively. Shively contended that corn in his field was damaged to the extent of about $40 by cattle that entered his field the night of September 6. Witcher acted as his own attorney and entered a vigorous denial of the charge. He testified that he was on an errand of mercy, that the night was dark and that he was in strange territory, that some of the gates through which he passed were open and some were closed. After a brief deliberation the jury returned a verdict of guilty with a fine of $17.50, which was promptly paid.

Our Printing Plant Has Been “Bee Hive” This Week

Receiving a copy for the official ballots on Saturday noon, every facility in the printing plant of Powder River County Examiner was pushed to its utmost capacity, working days and nights on Sunday to deliver the ballots to the county clerk at the earliest possible moment to insure absent voters getting their ballots in time for the election. Ballots for several precincts were delivered yesterday and absent voter ballots placed in the mail from the county clerk’s office. The balance of the work will be delivered by Saturday.

With the printing of the ballots and other election supplies, we are again issuing six pages of home print this week, carrying for the most part advertising material to the voters. Withal, this printing plant has had a press run during the past week of ten thousand impressions, including printing of the newspaper. Because of the length of the ballots, it was necessary to print them in two sections and then have them pasted together with extra help. The perforation of the ballots and numbering complete was done by this plant. The ballots measure 15 by 20 inches. Sample ballots have been mailed through courtesy of this paper to every post office in this county, where they may be posted for inspection of the voters.

October 21, 1949

First Doe Season Open October 29

The State Fish & Game Commission meeting in Helena on September 12 and 13 ordered a special deer season in the Otter Creek drainage area of Powder River County. Five hundred special deer permits, either sex, shall be issued for the area.

The fee for the special deer permit will be $5 and applicants, in addition, must have a 1949 Big Game Hunting License.

This is a special doe season requested by ranchers in the southwestern part of the county. In this area deer are so numerous that they are harvesting the alfalfa fields for the ranchers. At one time last summer 275 deer were counted on the meadow of one ranch in that area.

October 24, 1974

In Burn Center after Alzada Fire

Gary Schneider, 28, of Belle Creek was flown to the St. Paul (Minn.) Ramsey Burn Center Monday morning for further treatment after suffering serious burns in a range fire near Alzada last Wednesday. Schneider was separated from his pickup which held his wife and six year old son, Brendon, by flames and suffered the burns in his attempt to reach them. His wife suffered a burn on one hand and some of his son’s hair was singed, according to reports from Schneider’s brother, Ronnie, who also works for Gary Operating Co. at Belle Creek.

Schneider was taken to a Rapid City hospital where he was treated prior to being flown by ambulance plane to St. Paul. Reports there stated that he had received second and third grade burns over about 80% of his body.

About 200 men were estimated to be on the fire lines during most of the afternoon and evening. Two fire trucks from Broadus and one from Belle Creek were on the lines plus volunteer firemen and equipment from Belle Fourche, So. Dak. and other surrounding communities.

October 28, 1999

Food For Thought

By Missy Moullet - Reprinted from the Talon

What is the first thing you notice when you go to a game? It has to be the enticing aroma of Mrs. Wanda Smith’s famous popcorn. As many people will tell you, Mrs. Smith’s popcorn in the best.

Have you ever stopped to think how much work goes into providing hundreds of people with the delicious popcorn, hotdogs, polish sausages, fudge bars, beverages, and various candy items? For the past seven years, Mrs. Smith has been in charge of cleaning everything in the concession stand, ordering from five different distributors, which include the following: Coke and Pepsi products, candy, bread, and fudge bars, to provide customers with what they want. Mrs. Smith also keeps extremely organized records. She has kept, over the year, a total of every item sold at any particular event and that day’s earnings. Mrs. Smith makes sure that the profit coming into the concession stand balances out with the amount of items sold.

Have you ever wondered how many of each item gets sold in a game? Here are some numbers that will give an idea of just how much food and drinks are sold: 23,542 small pop; 4,043 large pops; 3,983 coffee, 1,248 hot chocolate; 15,679 fudge bars; 17,302 popcorn; 11,952 hot dogs and 32,778 candy bars including tangy taffy and taffy ropes.

Mrs. Smith commented that, “After twelve years, we finally got a sink with both hot and cold water.” That makes clean up a lot faster because it saves trips back and forth from the Home Ec. Room. Other items that have been added are the cooker for polish sausage, the freezer for fudge bars and the cooler for Powerade.

The amount of money concessions bring in depends on the game and how well the teams do. Winning teams are followed by more fans than those teams not doing as well. A percentage of the profit goes to the senior class during the fall sports and another percentage goes to the junior class during the winter sports.

You are probably thinking “How could anybody enjoy being in charge of this much work?” Mrs. Smith’s answer to this question is, “If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t be doing it!”