RECREATION & FUN p. 8Cross Country Skiing and Sledding...A Local’s Guide Fashion--Then & Now p. 3- Only Skirts To School... - How Flappers Forged Feminism And Fashion- Memories Of The Orpheum At The Village Shop

SKIING p. 2- History & Fun Tidbits MONTANA Sappphires, the most colorful precious stone in the world... p. 4 DownTown Info and other Cool Stuff p. 5 - 6 OLD TIMER WISDOM p. 7Gather ‘Round...When gathering ‘round the radio, singing in parlors and big band music was king. True stories.

The Old Timer’s favorite thing this week: Reading cookbooks like ‘Pimp My Rice’ at downtown’s Cana Market and perusing their

selection of fun food items. Rose jam or gnocchi anyone?

A BRIEF HISTORY OF WHITEFISH...The downtown histocial walking tour is online on the Glacier

Gazette homepage (or click here on the interactive version.)

www.glaciergazette.comOn Facebook: Stumptown Old Timer

& Glacier Park History and Lore

Whitefish local lore, insider’s fun & other cool stuffTHE Stumptown OLD TIMER

If you stay up late enough, you might see the Northern Lights. Right, this 1949 White-

fish Pilot article, waxes poetic on the pink snow. Read more about northern lights in

Whitefish and across Montana, online “A Quantum Love Story, the Aurora’s in MT”

Winter 2015 - 2016

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Local ski shop, The White Room on Central Ave in Downtown, has some old

wooden skis and ski bindings on display next to all of the latest gear. It’ll make you appreciate how far we’ve

evolved from early Nordic ski technology.

Above. A 1949 ad for local dance hall, The Oasis. In 1949, White-

fish hosted the Ski Nationals and The Oasis held a big dance.

Below: Oh the rope tow! Almost as terrifying as any run down the mountain back then. This picture of an early ski resort rope tow in Whitefish.

As early as 1935, a little ski club known as the Hell-Roaring Ski Club, set up shop in the Hell Roaring Creek area with a small, ski-in cabin marking what would become Whitefish Mountain Resort. This area is immortalized in the Hellroaring Basin (and the bar)on your resort map. Much to the chagrin of local pastors, the Satan’s Mountaineering Club found runs and explored the runs that would become Whitefish Mountain Resort. The picture above is of one of Whitefish’s founding fathers of local skiing. To learn more about the history of skiing in Whitefish visit the Flathead Valley Skiing Heritage Center 705 Wisconsin Ave. Read more about the mountain online.

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Only Skirts at SchoolAsk any girl who grew up in Whitefish pre-1960 if she ever wore pants to school. “Absolutely not,” declared Shirley Yeats, 88. “They would send us out if we wore pants.” Shirley recalls the long underwear and brown stockings that were de rigueur of her girlhood and the era, circa 1930s. At least the skirts weren’t as restrictive as the hobble skirt, pictured on the right. The arrival of flapper fashion brought short hair, a new definition of glamour and the beginnings of shorter skirts, see more pictures and the full story online.

Want to know how Flapper Fashion Forged Feminism? find the story on Facebook/The Stumptown Old Timer

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a Popcorn Truck In the 20s & 30s, Whitefish had a its silver screen heyday, with two movie theaters. The biggest

and longest standing Orpheum Theater was on the corner of Central & Second.

Every old timer in town has a favorite movie & memory of the

Orpheum. The Village Shop occupies the old Orpheum

Theatre and has preserved this heritage with old movie

cameras, equipment and posters on display alongside their fabulous fashion sense. The Orpheum didn’t have a

snacks for sale (although they did give away plates, china and other trinkets during shows)

but every old timer remembers the lady that drove the popcorn truck that parked in the back of

the theatre, supplying fresh popcorn for the shows for

generations of silver screen viewers.

Corner of Second & Central Ave, Downtown

406-862-3200on Facebook/VillageShop

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Tucked away on the south corner of the downtown Whitefish Central Ave-nue strip, there’s a wonderful jewelry store, Stephen Isley Jewelry, with a specialty: Montana Yogo sapphires and Montana sapphires. If you’ve never heard of these sapphires, stop in to take a peek. These gemstones will dazzle you with their spectrum of natural colors; and the staff at Stephen Isley Jewelry will dazzle you with their knowledge of gems. Montana is a mecca for sapphire production—producing one-third of the world’s sapphires, including the one, the only, the exquisite: Yogo sapphire. Cindy Just and Stephen Isley share their stories about this unique gem, its history, geology and their experience collecting these local, Montana made gems. Access the full version of the story on Montana Sapphires on the online edition, under the Stories tab,at glaciergazette.com.

LOCAL GEMS: Montana Sapphires The World’s Most Colorful Precious Stone

History Bit: Early Madams & Their Gems

Back at the turn of the century, when Whitefish had a real red light district, the madams in town were fond of jewels, especially raw stones. There were at least three madams who excelled at their trade in early Whitefish: Julia, May and Dotty, circa 1904 - 1911, according to old Police Ledgers. There was also a male madam, Jack Matthews. When madams inquired at the jeweler, they called first or requested proprietors visit them at their place of business. Raw gemstones were their preference, perhaps because they held value if you left town in a hurry, according to legendary local writer Dorothy Johnson. Ms. John-son penned classic westerns,‘Who Shot Liberty Valance’, ‘The Hanging Tree’ and other classic Western tales under the nom d’ plume: D.M. Johnson.

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Get a map to downtown Whitefish at

explorewhitefish.com

TRY MONTANA’S BEST TACO, The Elk Taco at PESCADO BLANCO

in the Railway DistrictReservations daily, 406-862-3290

www.pescadoblanco.com

Visit the Stumptown Historical Society on Facebook for cool history and take their architectural tour map on your visit to DownTown.

Go DownTown for some Local Flavor!

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Left: This early advertisement shows the trade and services available in early Whitefish. The Ca-dillac Hotel, built in 1922, offered long term room rentals, as evident from this palm reading ad. This was the era of snake oils and door to door salesman. Note the need for switchboard opera-

tors “call room 88.” It was a dusty little town back then, and early police reports detail a vibrant night life complete with fines and ‘violating the common decency’ charges the next morning. Boarding houses were popular back then, as men flocked to the West for railroad and logging jobs. Meals were included at boarding houses, but bathes were not and early papers advertised 5 cent soaks. Per-haps the most popular boarding house was Ma Green’s. For pictures of this popular boarding house proprietor and nickel soak ads, visit the Stumptown Historical Society’s Faebook page.

Get your schedule online bigmtncommercial.org

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The Stumptown Marketplace has interesting shops and unique gift,

food and local items!

COOL STUFF 6Native American tribes hunted and made winter camp at the foot of the Lake, and there are stories of arrowhead caches near the lake. Trappers, following the fur trade, were the first white settlers. In the early 1900s, logging brought industry to this heavily forested area: the first cut of trees between Whitefish and Kalispell were so tall the path cut between the two towns was ‘like a canyon.’ Local rivers, White-fish and Stillwater, were used to float logs to nearby mills. But the railroad brought boom to the town; when the roundhouse was built (where engines could turn around on the tracks) Whitefish became the Terminal Point of a railroad empire. In 1904 the town officially incrporated, and the rest is history.

Whitefish once hosted two taxidermy shops in downtown, one was located in half

of the Great Northern Bar. This downtown wa-tering hole has real relics of our town through the years: the signs on the walls, a collection

decades in the making.

Local Artifacts & A Sundry of Museum Pieces

at the Stumptown Historical

Society’s

DEPOT MUSEUM Winter hours,

Mon - Sat: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Summer hours,

Mon - Sat: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.500 Depot Street, Suite 101

406-862-0067

WINTER CARNIVAL, Feb. 5- 7, 2016go online at www.glaciergazette.com for

history, info, links and fun facts

Below: News items pulled from 1909. Opals found once, but not again. Don’t we all miss pure lard? Sledding enthusiasts lost in stumps made headlines and of course,back then, Christmas trees candles in the pre-electricity days made for danger every holiday season.

Gather ‘RoundThe days of singing ‘round the piano; gathering ‘round

the radio and songs like ‘Good Night Sweetheart’, ‘Celery Stalks at Midnight’ or ‘Deep Purple’

OLD TIMER WIT & WISDOM 7

BOOKWORKSWhitefish’s Original

& IndependentBOOK STORE

862-4980

244 Spokane Ave

DOWNTOWN WHITEFISHnext to Buffalo Cafe

The staff at Bookworks recommends winter reads for you on Facebook/Bookworks

There’s an old radio at the Depot, and if you plug it in—it still plays for you. But what’s even bet-ter than listening to the beautiful wooden antique is listening to old timers recall memories of crowd-ing ‘round the radio to listen to music. “It’s where we listened about Pearl Harbor,” long-time local Flossie Fletcher recalled, “but we also listened to ‘Lights Out Mys-tery,’ which was real scary, and ‘Inner Sanctum’ which was “really scary.” And while the 20s and 30s rep-resent the heydey of radio dramas, invariably it’s the music that came

via radio that triggers the most memories. Flossie Fletcher re-calls crowding around the radio and sever-al tunes, including ‘Day by Day,’ ‘Harbor Lights’ and ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.’ Or what about ‘Begin in the Beginning.’ Back then, it seems, every family had a piano play-er amongst them—and everyone else sang, “My sister played piano,” Fletcher admitted. Flossie also remem-bers the radio show ‘Hit Parade’ can sing all the words to ‘Good Night

Sweetheart.’ It was the stuff that people fell in love to back then. Other locals remember Bing Cros-by’s ‘Where the Blue of Night Meets the Gold of Day’ and ‘Deep Purple.’

Go online to read more musical memories or listen to

‘Celery Stalks at Midnight’ on Facebook/Stumptown Old Timer.

go online for more Old Timer Wit & Wisdom, our interactive pdf takes you there..

Criss Cross Whitefish On

Cross-Country Skis

LOCAL SLEDDING SPOTS....a.k.a. Tobogganing Sometimes you need a break from the mountain, and Whitefish has plenty of great sledding hills to enjoy. The most thrilling sledding site also is near the railroad, the Great Northern Veterans Park & Sledding Hill has small, medium and steep runs, making it great for every age including adults. Take 93 N to-wards the Whitefish Golf Course, it’s tucked away on Ramsey Ave, just north of the cem-etery. Plenty of parking. Take 93 N towards the golf course; turn right at the cemetery just before the golf course, drive one block down Ramsey Ave, then veer right and go down the hill towards the railroad, you’lll see the park to your immediate right. Kiddie Park is just south of downtown on Central Ave and great for the younger kids. Finally, Muldown Elementary School, west of down-town off Second St. has a single hill that is great for wee ones.

Whitefish is a mini-mecca of cross country ski spots. The Glacier Nordic Center is lo-cated at the

Whitefish Golf Course. This section by the lake is nearby town and offers over 12 km

of groomed trails and vistas for cross-coun-try and skate-skiers. Kids are welcome. For a more backcountry experience, Round Meadows offers intermittently groomed trails and beautiful backcountry. The interconnecting loops are hours of adventure, but this area has no services. With acres of National Forest Service land, the Flathead Valley has endless opportunities GO ONLINE on the recreation tab for more info on skiing and local recreation. www.glaciergazette.com

INSIDER SECRETS, RECREATION

The Stumptown Ice Den has indoor public skating. www.stumptowniceden.com

Cross-country skiing for everyone at the Glacier Nordic Shop

Groomed and lit trails at the golf courseClassic & skate ski rentals for adults & children.

Lessons, rentals, accessories. Open daily 9:30-5:30. 862-9498.

www.glaciernordicclub.com