Superior-Alberton shuts out Eureka 6-0

Hot Springs hopes to add to gridiron legacy

On the outside facing of the press box are two years inscribed in big, black numbers: 2012 and 2016. This year’s Hot Springs High School football team hopes to add 2019.

Horsemen take second in District Championship

The weekend was full of teams from Sanders County looking to come away with a solid triumphant win from the basketball season.

Mixed bag for local high school teams

Volleyball

Thankful for support

As the newspaper said, Jake was sentenced to one year and one day, $10,000 restitution, and three years supervised probation.

COVID plans put to test as firefighters crowd camps

HELENA — Jon Paul was leery entering his first wildfire camp of the year late last month to fight three lightning-caused fires scorching parts of a Northern California forest that hadn’t burned in 40 years.

Forest Service employees snowed in to desk jobs

SUPERIOR – As hard winter weather and blizzard-like conditions hit the area last week, the Forest Service was forced to delay some of their plans. Tawnya Brummett, district ranger for the Superior Ranger District, said a number of small projects are underway. There have already been a few survey crews out investigating places for future projects. While most of these were in lower elevations, the higher than average snowfalls have caused a few delays in the schedule this year. Most of the delays have not been too serious. There are a number of areas in higher elevations where the Forest Service expected delays to occur. In recent years, they have been able to work on some projects in lower elevations all through the winter. This year has been different for the crews as snow has built up in lower elevations. “[The winter weather] impacted us slightly, I would say, just in some of our low elevation projects,” Brummett said. While a number of areas are buried under feet of snow, the Forest Service has had plenty more fieldwork to do in the winter months. With how many winter recreation opportunities there are in the area, lots of work goes into making sure everything is safe. To this end, one thing the Forest Service does is keep an eye on avalanche risks in the area. Each week, rangers go out to look at the avalanche dangers to assess the risks in an area. The Superior Ranger District coordinates their efforts with the Missoula area and ranger districts in the Idaho panhandle to keep an accurate idea of the area’s condition. According to Brummett, the area around the Idaho state line has had especially high avalanche danger the last few weeks. While there have not been any avalanche fatalities in Mineral County, she said there have been a few around other parts of western Montana. Brummett said the Forest Service crews are looking forward to the warmer weather. Once the weather clears and the ground thaws they will be able to start work on more field projects. Until the weather improves the Forest Service employees are busy with office work, such as requesting grants to fund many of their activities. Brummett described this as possibly the least favorite part of the job for many of the employees at the Superior Ranger Station. She said most of them would rather be out in the field working on projects than stuck behind a desk. “There’s always a lot to do,” Brummett said. “But my folks would definitely rather be out in the woods doing it.” The Forest Service has also begun planning their controlled burns for the spring and summer. Brummett said it was also too early to say how the fire season this year would be effected by the snowpack. She said the precipitation in the area was looking good and the moisture levels were healthy. However, a particularly warm period could dry things out quickly and increase the fire risks. The Forest Service has begun hiring for their temporary summer jobs. The most common jobs available are for firefighters and fire support crews. There are also positions available on trail and timber maintenance crews as well as on the Mineral County Resource Advisory Committee. Brummett said she wanted to get the positions filled early so everyone can be ready to go once the season starts.

Savage Heat's Paro, Lawson excel in all-star football showcase

Former Hot Springs Savage Heat player Trevor Paro capped his high school football career at the Class-C, 6-man All-Star Game a couple of weeks ago at Custer.

Panthers all improve at Seeley Invite

There were sunny skies and high temperatures at the Seeley-Swan Invitational Track Meet at Big Sky High School in Missoula Saturday and Mineral County’s track teams used them to their full advantage.

Two Superior wrestlers headed to state tourney

This past weekend, the Superior Bobcat wrestling team traveled to Florence for the Class BC Western Divisional tournament. After it was all said and done, two Superior wrestlers advanced to the state tournament in Billings this weekend. Bridger LaPierre had a great tournament and finished it off with a first place finish in the 160 weight class by pinning his opponent from Bigfork. Jack Mitchell will also be headed to Billings thanks to a fourth place finish in the 120 weight class. He was defeated by Cole Gilleard of Mission/Charlo for third place.

Election plan would allow either mail or drop-off voting

Dear People of Mineral County:

Chicken talk on the menu

Plains residents will have the chance to give public opinion on chicken issue

Chickens found their way back onto the town council agenda last Tuesday night, and now the town council is looking to know what the public thinks about allowing chickens inside city limits.

Sanders County residents attend public lands rally

A busload of supporters from Sanders County (the home county of land transfer proponent State Sen. Jennifer Fielder) joined over 1,000 other Montanans at the Public Lands Rally in Helena Jan. 30. Brandishing signs emblazoned with “Sanders County”, including one that read “Shame on Senator Fielder”, forty people made the long journey from the sparsely populated county near the Idaho border and joined with several others from Sanders County in the Capital’s rotunda. The bus started picking up passengers from Bull River Junction, about ten miles from Idaho, at 6 a.m. Riders represented many small towns, from Heron to Hot Springs.

Fisher leads Blue Hawks to 64-24 rout of Flint Creek

With the Thompson Falls offensive line dominating play up front, quarterback Trey Fisher ran for six touchdowns and 187 yards, leading the Blue Hawks to a 64-24 thumping of the two-time defending state champion Flint Creek Titans in 8-man high school football action Friday night in Thompson Falls.

Insurance company refuses to renew

One Mineral County couple is being denied renewal of their homeowner insurance policy because the carrier says they live in a “high wildfire risk area.”

Montana Department of Transportation director to retire

Montana Department of Transportation Director Mack Long will retire later this month, Gov. Greg Gianforte announced Friday.

A personal account of the origins of the Superior Lions Club food and gift program

Last Christmas in a story about the Superior Lion’s Club’s Christmas food and gift program you asked the Lion’s how it started.  Since the program began just after Christmas in 1957 or 58, all of the current Lion’s were too young to remember.  

Superior girls run past Hot Springs

Those rumblings you may hear from the southern territory of the Western 14C girls basketball conference have been traced to Superior.

Outdoors: Birds-eye view

Jessica Stugelmayer

Mineral, Sanders counties get $900,000 in federal payments

Mineral and Sanders counties will receive more than $900,000 this year from the federal government under a long-running program that compensates local governments for nontaxable federal land.