50 years ago: The annual Kinsmen Halloween party began with the traditional parade of costumed children around the Lake Windermere Memorial Community Centre. Over 40 prizes were given out to the likes of Snow White, Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, Donald Duck, Tweetie the canary, and one child dressed as a corn-on-a-cob.
45 years ago: Lungworm disease had been found in local area bighorn sheep. The sheep were reported to be in poor condition, suffering from heavy coughing and nasal discharge. Biologists from the Canadian Wildlife Service began to capture sheep and give them inoculations of penicillin to help cure their pneumonia and help them survive through the winter.
40 years ago: The extension of the Windermere District hospital was well underway. The new hospital section was to provide 18 patient beds, and was slated to be finished by May of the following year.
35 years ago: David Thompson Secondary School administration and teaching staff were concerned with the increased amount of marijuana use both on school property and in the “local vacinity” (sic). Students caught smoking marijuana were to be suspended for up to six months if caught.
32 years ago: A family of Laotian refugees were coming to Invermere. The family of eight was sponsored by the Rotary club for a year while they got on their feet and became self-sufficient. A committee had also been set up to arrange social functions, such as attendance at hockey games.
25 years ago: An investigation into Invermere’s Water Project by the R.C.MP. was concluded with no evidence found of any wrong-doing. Rumours of improper contracts and illegal kickbacks had been circling the town, prompting the criminal investigation.
20 years ago: B.C. gas had started preliminary studies into the feasibility of supplying natural gas to some 5,200 potential customers between Canal Flats and Radium. The proposed 108-kilometre project was to cost up to $24 million.
15 years ago: Valley restaurant owners united to fight a move to ban smoking from Invermere restaurants. The group moving to ban smoking was known as “Kick Ash,” prompting one smoker to say that they should call their group, “Save our Butts.”
10 years ago: Rumours were flying around that $4.9 million in funding had been lost for a proposed addition to the Columbia House Long Term Care Facility. The addition was meant to improve residential care and adult day care, as well as mental health, home-support and home-care services.
5 years ago: Radium Bighorn sheep were beginning to utilize 340 hectares of land that had been restored to its historical state. This included thinning of forests, and ecologists were hoping the sheep would begin to use this area rather than the town core. Since the 1900s, bighorn sheep populations throughout the Columbia Valley had been in decline in part thanks to the ongoing lungworm complex, first reported some 40 years prior.