Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Joseph Ingraham, a former railroad man, decided to walk from Kalispell to Bigfork, Montana, by crossing the Flathead River on the ice.

In one spot, the ice was not thick enough and he fell through. He succeeded in “getting hold of the firm ice and drawing himself partly out.”

But then, his wet coat froze fast to the ice. He was unable to struggle free from the coat. Stuck halfway in the water, he “slowly perished in the cold.”

From the sledding beat: A 12-year-old sledder was seriously injured when he fell off his sled and slid across a buried board with a nail sticking out if it.

The boy suffered a 14-inch gash down his thigh which required extensive sutures. He was recovering at home. 

Meanwhile, the city announced the locations of several supervised sledding hills. They were: Elm Street, from Fifth to Eighth; Hilliard Street, from Fifth to Ninth; Hatch Street, from Fifth to Seventh; and Thorp Street, from Seventh to 10th.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson, in his State of the Union address, declared an “unconditional war on poverty in America.”