Your Community Builder
Your Community Builder
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The hallway clock in Ekalaka Elementary is trapped at 9:46. Made in Minneapolis, Minnesota by the Miller Program Clock Company, it is self-winding and powered by two 1.5 volt dry cells, each roughly the size of a soda can. The upper level of the school is warm and getting warmer as sunlight soaks the empty rooms. Downstairs, the basement is cool and surprisingly bright along the windows. Voices echo. Classrooms seem stretched without desks and chairs. Many are completely...
Ekalaka public schools have received a grant through Montana Disaster and Emergency Services in the amount of $64,631.50 to be used for a new generator. Carter County was not required to match the award with non-federal funds. Carter County DES Coordinator Georgia Bruski applied for the grant which was approved in October of last year. The generator's cost came in under budget at $59,351.67. The remaining money was returned to the state for future grants. The generator was...
A short while ago, I sent a letter to our Mayor, Mrs. Fix, stating my concerns about the Town of Ekalaka’s proposal to remove pavement from Mormon Avenue and replace it with gravel. To date, I have received no response from her. At the same time, I submitted that same letter to the Ekalaka Eagle as a letter to the editor. From that editorial, I have gotten an overwhelming response in favor of repairing the pavement from people all over town and from some county residents also. Mormon Avenue is a major street in this town t...
The traffic-cone orange fire suit has room for two and the helmet makes my head a goldfish in a fishbowl. Five separate straps join in my lap, holding my upper body against the back of the seat while my legs are free to straddle the car's battery. "How fast do you want to go?" Casey Schladweiler asks. "I wanna go fast." The yellow stock car merges onto the dirt track, Schladweiler hits the gas and swings the car around the first turn, its rear-end proclaiming "LONG LIVE...
All my life I have seen people rooting for their team or players and have done so myself. My earliest memories are going to the high school football and basketball games as a grade schooler in Ekalaka. That would have been in the 1940s and the early 1950s. We had some good teams and players back in those days; we still hear from Loyd Townsend, one of the premier athletes back then. Loyd played for many years on the town teams, including basketball, as well as refereed. Two others I remember are Ross Caton and Billy Jo...
When Hank Leffingwell woke up Saturday morning, he didn't think he would be up against a swarm. "They hit us like a bunch of piranhas," he said. The Community Wide Garage Sale was a quick success for the Leffingwells, who say they were able to sell their big ticket items right away. Most sellers were pleased with the turnout and a couple of the more rural sellers were surprised at the amount of people they'd had. A couple sellers were disappointed in the foot traffic,...
The town of Ekalaka has decided to ask the legal system to determine whether it or the Ekalaka Volunteer Fire Department Corporation has ownership and control of the town's fire service and whether the fire department is part of the municipality, as the town claims, or is a separate corporation. A complaint for declaratory judgement was filed in district court against EVFD Inc. May 10. According to the complaint, the town is requesting a judge declare it has "all legal right...
Anyone who didn't cast a ballot missed their chance to make a difference. Mike Watkins became the unofficial District 3 Republican nominee for Carter County Commissioner this November after defeating Bill Walker by one vote in Tuesday's primary election. The unofficial vote count was Watkins 238, Walker 237. Fifty-five percent of Carter County's registered voters cast ballots. Watkins told the Eagle the victory is still soaking in, but that he is waiting for the official...
Jo Kittelmann threw a kitchen boa around her neck, a three-foot-long cloth with red dish towels at the head and tail, and explained its usefulness. Instead of a wet tea towel over the shoulder, the boa keeps shirts from getting soaked while allowing either end to be wet and the other dry. Or both dry. Or both wet. It's one piece of material with four possibilities. Unique items like the boa are what Hideaway Gifts is all about. Located in the Rockwellesque school house by the...
Hi, I'm Ryan, the strange guy you may have seen walking around town recently. Eric offered an internship at The Ekalaka Eagle this summer, and my application was accepted. He's going to show me the "news biz" as it may or not be referred to as (I have no idea). If all goes to plan, I will complete a journalism degree from the University of Montana this December. If you see me wandering around, please introduce yourself. Here is my favorite joke: Three beekeepers are at a...
In my last article about Frank and Clara Nies, readers learned of Clara’s early life, her education, and moving to Montana. The article also gave information about her teaching experiences in Calumet, Jordan, and the Mackenzie school, which at the time was near the Fulton Ranch. In the fall of 1917 Clara came to teach the Spring Valley school and boarded at the Charles Nies home where she met Frank, her future husband. At the end of the school year she returned to Superior, Wisconsin and while there, Frank’s mother who was...
Maurice was born in Ekalaka, Mont., on March 2, 1925. He entered into rest and into the arms of our loving Heavenly Father on April 16, 2018. He was the fourth of seven children, and at the age of 11, moved with his family to Superior and then to Dixon where Maurice attended high school. He worked as a ranch hand and then for the railroad in the Dixon and Eddy Flat areas. During WWII, he entered the U.S. Army as an 82nd Airborne paratrooper serving all over in the European...
The Carter County Chamber of Commerce has big plans this summer, as was discussed at the monthly chamber meeting in May. The first chamber sponsored event on tap this summer is the annual community wide yard sale, scheduled for the first Saturday in June. A sign-up sheet has been posted at Ekalaka Town Office. For a small fee of $10, anyone in the community may sign up to have their yard sale location printed on a map. The map will be printed prior to the June 2 event, and will be readily available at area businesses. This...
The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Auxiliary to Post #7885 in Ekalaka invites visitors, friends, and relatives who will be in town attending the local Memorial Day Service at Beaver Lodge Cemetery on May 28 to a picnic and social at the Events Center following the service. Auxiliary members believe this will provide an opportunity for those attending the service to get together afterwards. Locals who plan on attending the picnic are asked to bring a salad or dessert to go along with the meat, condiments, and beverages that...
My husband does the grocery shopping, but for decades I’ve provided him with a typed or computer generated grocery list. I may allow him to add to the list, but I always hope the store can provide all the other essentials I list. We went to Miles City and Baker last week, with lists for each town. I had an appointment with my neurologist to have Botox shots in my right hand, arm, and neck. The eye doctor was also in the building, and she had warned me macular degeneration was a problem with MS patients, so I needed to see h...
On Tuesday morning, the local Lions Club handed a check for over $12,000 to town clerk Kitty Schmid. The Lions Club has been raising and gathering funds earmarked for a new swimming pool in Ekalaka for several years. Recently, they decided it was time to turn the money over to the town of Ekalaka and new pool committee. Raising more funds currently, the committee decided to hold another raffle. Current raffle tickets can be purchased at the town office and Summit National...
Gwenith Schultz, museum receptionist and historian completed the first phase of the Eagle Archive project on Friday, April 6, 2018. The project began in 2005 with volunteers including Jeane Koefelda. Gwen continued the work in 2008 and has been the lead staff member on the project ever since. The workflow relied heavily on the ability of the museum to fund the project throughout the years and was completed with the assistance of grants including one from the Montana Community...
My Father, Lee Lavell, was a most unusual character. Some of you older people in Ekalaka knew him or of him, but I am going to tell you something about him that probably none of you knew. He just did it and never told anybody except his family about it. Numerous times while I was growing up, Dad brought a down and out man home with him. Usually it was Barry Doby, who lived in a tiny house down a ways toward town from us. Barry Doby, I don't know if it was spelled this way or as Bary, used to get drunk once in a while and...
by Sherry Farwell, Ned Summers & Marguerite Goeders Rozelle POST OFFICES & STORES The U.S. Mail, its post offices, and its mail routes were paramount in an era when mail was the sole method of contact with the world external to one's immediate neighborhood. Likewise, community-based general stores were essential places where people could purchase critical supply items, sell their local farm products such as cream, eggs, poultry, and garden produce, and visit with people other...
by Sherry Farwell, Ned Summers & Marguerite Goeders Rozelle TOWN OF BELLTOWER, MT The early settlers of Sykes-Belltower were able to use their imaginations because during the early 1900's, the Northern Great Plains was just being developed and there were few if any established boundary conditions regarding what was possible. In the minds of these early dreamers, their community had the opportunity to become one of central significance to the region, the state, and the nation....
As time moved on, I decided I would like to work games other than just at Ekalaka. Individuals who worked sports activities belong to an organization called Montana Officials Association (MOA) and had groups in Miles City and Glendive. I decided to take the basketball test and become a member of the organization. I didn’t pass. After much study with the rule book and a book called the “Case” book, I passed. The “Case” book was a wonderful book that had every kind of situation and problem that could come about as a referee w...
I was going to continue my articles on old and special neighbors, but decided to go down another rabbit trail this time. There have been a couple of individuals who asked, "Loyd, when are you going to write about your basketball referee days and years?" This may be a good time as basketball season is in full swing. My thoughts here are to bring back memories for people of schools, teams, and special moments during those years. I graduated from high school in the spring of 1948...
In the interest of communicating with the community, the Carter County Museum has included a flyer in this week's Eagle to share our economic and educational impact in 2017. First, we would like to thank our visitors, donors and volunteers for helping us make 2017 a record year. Thanks to you all, we increased our attendance by 28 percent for a total of 4,895 people. Local attendance – visitors from Carter County – rose by 10 percent. Of that number, 3,444 came to the cou...
There were a number of colorful characters hanging around Carter County in the early days, probably still are. When I first thought about writing about this I figured that I would have a wealth of persons to talk about but after thinking more didn't come up with many. It is probably because my memory of those days, especially people, is getting weaker. Well, I will do my best. The first person I think about is Ernie Funk; I couldn't come up with his first name but my brother Charles said it was Ernie. He moved from down...
I was saddened to read in the Eagle about the passing of Tootie Boggs. My brother Charles had already told me about her when he saw it online in the Miles City Star. Tootie was a real friend and fixture in the lives of all of the Lavell children. !thought about writing this as a letter to the editor but decided to make a story about it instead. Tootie was born in 1933, approximately a year before my oldest sister Dorothy. When we moved to Ekalaka from the country in 1944, the Boggs’ lived right down the road from us. T...
