50 years ago: A 38-ton, 66,000/33,000 volt transformer was being installed at the Crossroads’ substation near Athalmer to tie in the East Kootenay power system and the B.C. Power Commission Columbia Valley system, and was to be completed in two months time.
45 years ago: The Windermere District branch of ACRA was enthusiastic about the possibility of the valley becoming a winter wonderland.
In other news, a record 126 babies were born at the hospital during the previous year.
35 years ago: Considerable improvements were planned for the roads of the district. The streets of both Radium and Edgewater were to be paved that year.
In unrelated news, Jim Marshall and his family sighted a UFO over Panorama Mountain. Marshall phoned The Echo, and the editor at the time came to take a look and couldn’t explain the strange lights either.
23 years ago: Panorama Resort and Radium Hot Springs Glacier Skiing were set to go to court. Panorama began the action, and was asking for a permanent injunction preventing the defendant from continuing business in the Heli-plex, and a declaration that the defendant holds the lands in trust for Panorama Resort.
20 years ago: Four youths decided to forge their own path over Lake Windermere in their Ford Probe, and to no one’s surprise, subsequently plunged through the ice. Luckily for them, a nearby homeowner heard their cries for help and retrieved the teens one by one from the wreckage of their partially-submerged vehicle before rescue crews could arrive.
15 years ago: David Thompson Secondary School students had begun fundraising for a local skatepark. Local bands and students took part in the fundraising effort, which aimed to make about $2,000 to pave the new area.
10 years ago: The school board fired the first shots in a provincial labour dispute when the DTSS department heads all resigned from their positions after discovering they would not receive department head allowances. The Rocky Mountain School District stated in a letter that the DTSS department heads were not “performing their department head duties,” and consequently reduced their pay, leading to their resignations.
5 years ago: Forest industry sustainability was given a boost by heli-logging. The practice of removing timber from remote sites via helicopter created a smaller environmental footprint compared to the normal method of dragging trees across the forest floor.