Time for a new beginning

PLAINS - It is the end of an era for the Clark Fork Valley Press and Mineral Independent. 

Recently, it was decided that office of the Clark Fork Valley Press and Mineral Independent was deemed unacceptable as a place of business and a new modern building will be put in it’s place. 

Right now the headquarters of the two newspapers is located at the Realty Office at the top of Railroad Avenue.

Before the office comes down, the history of the building has been recognized and observed by Plainsman Randy Garrison.

Prior to the existence of the Clark Fork Valley Press, the newspaper that filled newsstands in Plains was the Plainsman. On the false wall that is on the front of the office you can still see, faintly, a faded painted sign that reads “Plainsman”. 

Garrison worked for that paper and remembers the history of the building to this day.

Garrison said the Plainsman building was built in 1895 and sat next to what is today Colleen’s Country Store. He said the first owner was John Roln, who had the building moved across the railroad tracks in 1903 to where the building sits today on Lynch Street.

The original building, the left side, stayed the same until 1970, Garrison said. At that time the paper still remained the Plainsman and Don Coe was the editor and publisher.

Coe added the right side of the building. He said that Coe was the longest running owner of the paper. He bought the paper in 1948 after retiring from the Navy.

According to Garrison, Coe had remodeled the building over the years and by the time he sold the Plainsman in the 1990’s it was quite different than the original building.

In the 1980’s two papers were in circulation in the area, the Clark Fork Valley Press and the Plainsman. 

When Coe sold the Plainsman, the owners of the Clark Fork Valley Press, Ron and Susie Smith, bought the Plainsman and the building. 

The Plainsman was now a part of Plains history.

The Smith’s made major changes to the building, Garrison said, adding a kitchen, a bathroom and a small bedroom, completely changing the building from it’s original plan.

The owners today of the Clark Fork Valley Press and Mineral Independent, the Hagadone Corporation, walked through the building and felt that it was time for a new, fully refurbished office. 

Very shortly, one of the town’s original buildings will be dust in the wind and just memories in old newspapers that fill empty chicken coupes, attics, family albums, and in the desks of the old who hang onto the past. 

Much work has already been completed, and every day desks, old books, and defunct tools of the trade are leaving the building. 

The power and water have been shut off, wall panels have been moved to expose the guts of the building and remnants of years gone by are being exposed.