Memories for Wednesday, May 18, 2022

10 Years Ago –

May 16, 2012

Graduation speaker maintains ties with students

Don’t be surprised if veteran teacher Patti Webb gets a little emotional Sunday afternoon when she delivers the commencement address at Malta High School.

Webb, who will retire at the end of the school year after teaching for 30 years, was selected by the 56 students of the Class of 2012 to be the commencement speaker.

“I’ve taught some of the students in this class for four years at different grade levels (1st, 6th, 7th, and 8th). I think that’s why they thought of me for graduation,” she said.

As for the emotion, “You don’t spend a year with someone, eight hours a day, without making some sort of connection,” she smiled, adding, “This graduation speech could be very difficult.”

Webb, who spent her first year of teaching in Shelby, came home to Malta to teach for 29 more years with a couple of years off for family.

She currently teaches kindergarten but has also taught first, fourth, and sixth grades and junior high English, as well as a stint in the Resource Room.

Mustangs take 2B title

The Malta Mustang track squad placed first in four individual events and used their depth to claim the team title Saturday at the District 2B Track Meet in Glasgow.

The Mustangs swept the top four spots in the long jump led by Jake Bushman who was followed by Kendall Denham, Jade Olson, and Dalton Brookie.

Tucker Schye won the 100-meter race and Kyle Boos was first in the 110 hurdles. Boos was followed by Denham in second place and Sam Peterson in fourth.

The Mustang 400-meter relay team also placed first with its best time of the season.

Showing at the Villa

Wrath of the Titans starring Sam Worthington and Liam Neeson

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25 Years Ag0 –

May 14, 1997

Dodson educator to end long career

Ann Johnson will be retiring at the end of this week after 50-odd years of teaching at Dodson.

She was born and raised in Loring, one of three children of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Dyrdahl. She went to the Hermanson Country School and then high school in Loring. After her dad, whom she held in the highest regard, Ann admired and respected Mr. Scott, superintendent during her four years in high school.

After completing her education at Northern Montana College in Havre, Ann was hired to teach in Dodson in the fall of 1942, and to her delight, Mr. Scott was superintendent there.

She taught third and fourth grades, (still her favorite grades) and then fifth and sixth, alternating for several years.

After three years of work, new county museum to open

It’s the day a lot of people have worked hard for, the grand opening of the new Phillips County Museum.

With the task of raising $200,000 and a year’s worth of remodeling work, the Phillips County Historical Society will open the doors of the new museum to the public Saturday.

A grand opening ceremony is set for 10:30 a.m. in the parking lot at the new museum located on Highway 2 east. Guest speakers will include society president Gene Barnard, Toni Hagener, president of the Eastern Montana Historical Society, and Sharon Moran, a grandniece of the infamous outlaw Kid Curry, whose life will be chronicled in a museum display.

Showing at the Villa Theatre

Anaconda starring Jon Voight and Jennifer Lopez

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50 Years Ago –

June 1, 1972

Chip Young Won State “B” Javelin

Chip Young placed first in the Class B javelin event and Bill Cole was second in the discus to earn the Malta team 10 points at the state track meet in Missoula last weekend.

Young, a promising sophomore Mustang, tossed the spear 192’2” in winning the event.

Cole, a 1972 graduate, came in second in the discus with a throw of 154’3” behind Deubner of Medicine Lake who won with 156’9”.

Gary Mavencamp of Saco placed second in the 100-yard dash and was fifth in the 200-yard dash to bring Saco 5 points.

Havre Firm Low Bidder On Multi-Purpose Room

Eskestrand Bros. Construction Co. of Havre was the low bidder for the contract for the new multi-purpose room at the Malta Elementary School.

The contract was awarded to Eskestrand Bros. at a special meeting of the Malta Board of Trustees last week. There were five bids submitted from firms in Glasgow, Wolf Point, Havre, Great Falls, and Lewistown for masonry and steel buildings, with the steel building being the cheaper.

The contract is for $81,500, which was within the architect’s estimate, according to Supt. Jim Nordlund.

Tree Planting

Members of the Dirt Daubers Garden Club planted a tree in the Malta Cemetery recently in observance of Arbor Day.

The tree, a blue spruce, was chosen because it is the official tree of the club. It is hoped that an additional tree can be added each year.

Showing at the Villa

Hello, Dolly! starring Walter Matthau and Barbra Streisand

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75 Years Ago – May 22, 1947

County Asks Bids On Four Contracts By June 6

Phillips County is advertising for bids on four county contracts to be received at the courthouse by the board of county commissioners on June 6.

Present contracts for medical care of indigent sick and infirm, inmates of the county farm and jail for a period of one year; for county printing, for supplying drugs, and for the operation of the county hospital expire June 30.

The printing contract is held by the Phillips County News, hospital by Mrs. Edna Raymond, drug by the Malta Drug Company, and Drs. G.W. Setzer and W.T. Williams are county physicians and surgeons.

Early Day Cowpuncher Visits Stomping Grounds

George Duffield, one of the real old-timers of northern Montana, has been visiting old stomping grounds around Dodson the past week. He is visiting his daughter, Mrs. Harold McBride, Mr. and Mrs. Al Schulz, and Mrs. Ike Neibaur.

Duffield first came into northern Montana in 1890 with Horace Brewster, Charles Russell, and George Barso. Brewster was trail boss when the first herds crossed the Missouri at Claggett at the mouth of the Judith River and were thrown onto the open range in the Bear’s Paw Mountains.

Showing at the Palace

The Plainsman starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur

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100 Years Ago – 1922

- Fourteen seniors graduated from Malta High School in the eighth annual commencement exercises of the local school. Graduates were Florence Hanson, Lily Edwards, Louphelia LeNoir, Eva Town, Gleynn Johnson, Mildred Porter, Kenneth Murray, Lucille McCormick, Ramona Ness, Dorothea Simser, Cecile Henry, Leta Wilson, Leah Caves, and Lloyd Kjos.

- Malta High School’s entry in the mile event, Lester Day, took first in the annual interscholastic track and field meet at Missoula. Day placed third in the half-mile race. As a result of his efforts, Malta placed tenth in the state-wide contests. Kenneth Liskum, entered in the pole vault, had a little tough luck, and failed to place.

- May 19 was Park Day in Malta. It was pointed out that hardly a night passed that one or two tourists did not stop overnight in Malta and that an attractive camping place would be of great attraction to such travelers.

- The Enterprise thought it was about time something was done about the gambling and bootlegging going on around Malta. “If the officers whose duty it is to enforce the laws fail to do so, then the law-abiding citizens of town should take the matter up with state authorities”, the paper stated flatly.

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118 Years Ago – 1904

- Sheriff Harry Cosner had arrested Ed Sherman up near Culbertson. Sherman was accused of working over horse brands throughout Sheriff Cosner’s territory which extended from the vicinity of Wagner to the Dakota line and from the Canadian line to the Missouri River. This territory took considerable getting around.

- Folks were all agog over a musical stereopticon exhibit that was to be held at the Methodist (Little White) Church.

- Malta businessmen were discussing the possibilities of putting on a real ‘rip-snorter’ of a Fourth of July celebration.

- “The Montana Homesteader”, Hinsdale’s maiden effort in the world of journalism, had been received in the Enterprise office. J.T. Farris was editor.

- Several vagrancy cases came up in B.W. Brockway’s court in a general spring cleaning drive. The case of the “Crippled Kid” was the first on the docket.