LOCAL NEWS BRIEFS

The Heritage Museum in Libby. Photo courtesy of the Montana Historical Society.

 

Montucky Clear Cut at Turner

Mountain

By Brian Baxter

 

The totally new and unique event billed as the Montucky Clear Cut is coming to Turner Mountain from Feb. 9 through 13. Imagine venturing down the slopes of our local Turner Mountain Ski Area on a snowboard. Your fellow snowboarders and you are the only folks on the hill. There’s plenty of room and there is no passing on the groomed runs, so you don’t have to worry about pressure from behind. The coast is clear. It’s a spectacular vista of the Purcell, Salish, and Cabinet Mountains all around you. As you head down you begin to angle and cut into your turns, essentially carving into the mountain. The beautiful powdered snow shoots up like crystalline ocean spray as you maneuver and transverse through the treelines and into bumps, hops, and freestyle curves. At times, your hands nearly touch the base snowpack during the more drastic turns.

Dave Redman is the main contact for this event. Redman used to work with our teams at the old Libby District Forest Service office across from J. Neils Park back in the early nineties. In talking with him, he said, “This event will help an all volunteer management and operations ski hill stay alive. We’re supporting an amazing group of volunteers.”

The Montucky Clear Cut is open to participating carvers, friends, and family. The carvers group is donating 100% of registration fees to the Turner Mountain non-profit 501 c3. Redman continued, “Libby is shifting it’s economy from natural resources production. Our visit will help the community towards a more sustainable economy.”

The four days on the slopes will include Demo’s, a Beginners Carving Clinic on the tenth between 10 am and twelve pm, Apres Activities, games, and a dinner party. The event is also being billed as most likely the most fun alpine snowboarding carving event in North America.

Some of the local sponsors include: Dave Blackburn’s Kootenai Angler, Burger Express, Switchback Bar & Grill, Cabinet Mountain Brewery, Venture Inn, and the Evergreen Motel. For more information see the website at www.montuck yclearcut.com or call Dave at 307-389-3725. Questions preferably can go to their email at montuckyclearcut@hotmail.com. For more information on Turner Mountain Ski Area, go to skiturner.com, call 293-2468, or email contact@skiturner.com. To find out about renting the hill, email hillrental@skiturner.com.

 

 

Heritage

museum seeks

pre-1960 business-related items

 

The Heritage Museum is currently working on an exhibit of Local Area Businesses. We are reaching out to the community for donations of local business-related items that pre-date 1960. We are particularly interested in items that have business names displayed on them or can be documented as coming from a business in this area.

Please understand that a donation of an artifact does not guarantee that it would be used in this exhibit. However, it may still be accepted for the Museum’s collection, which is then accessible to researchers or available for possible future exhibits. If your donation is accepted, it becomes the property of The Heritage Museum. We cannot accept items on loan.

If you wish to make such a donation, please call Laurie Mari at 293-8260 or Mark Morain at 293-8239 to make arrangements.

Please do not leave items at the front door. In order to be considered for this exhibit, any donation must be presented no later than Feb. 22.

The 2020 season of The Heritage Museum has been extended and will begin with Opening Day on Saturday, May 9.

 

 

Heritage

museum

considered for National

Register of Historic

Places

 

The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the nation’s historic places worthy of presentation. The program falls under the National Park Service’s purview, and is meant to “coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.”

Being a part of the National Register of Historic Places  would not put any restrictions on the museum’s property, unless federal grant money has been used for restoration or preservation. It would however ensure that preservation is taken into consideration when the building or site’s future is in question.

The Heritage Museum’s initial nomination work came from board  member, Sharon Lynn Turner at the museum. She passed it on to John Boughton with the Montana State Historic Preservation Office. Boughton then did thorough research on it to ensure that the Heritage Museum was eligible to be listed.

Boughton then presented the nomination to the State Historic Preservation Review Board. The board approved the nomination, and the next step is for him to send the nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, which makes the final decision. A decision is expected within the next few months on listing the museum based on its list of criteria.

On the nomination form, the building’s 130 foot diameter, 12-sided (dodecagon) design of “hand-peeled and notched western larch and lodgepole pine logs” is described as unique and part of the  Neotraditional Rustic architectural style.

Floyd Lucas, Wayne Tlusty, John Davidson, Dan Emerson, and Claude Huckins are listed as architect/builders. The first three are named as volunteers, and according to the 45-page nomination form, they were not the only ones.

“The museum, constructed between 1976 and 1978, represents the coordinated and almost wholly volunteer efforts of an entire community partnering to preserve their town’s local history,” it says.

 

 

Montana

Public health takes

precautions about

Coronavirus

Although Lincoln County, Mont. has no reported cases of or contacts  with the Coronavirus originating from Wuhan, China, it is important to use caution as numbers of worldwide diagnoses and deaths from the virus continue to climb.

Montana’s Department of Public Health and Human Services (PDPHHS), last week, released key resources about how to respond to suspected cases of the virus for local health departments and healthcare institutions statewide.

Currently only the Center for Disease Control (CDC) laboratory is able to test for the virus, so all suspected cases are to be reported to local public health officials to be shared with state and national public health officials.

At this point, Coronavirus, also referred to as 2019-nCOV is only considered a concern for those who travelled to Wuhan, China or came into close contact with someone diagnosed with or suspected to have the virus, and who has symptoms.

To be on the safe side though, local healthcare workers are now equipped with interim guidelines for collecting, handling and testing clinical specimens, and with interim laboratory biosafety guidelines as well.  If any suspected cases do arise chances of exposure will now be minimized.