The new owner of the historic Florence Hotel, Thomas Taylor, has proposed displaying Missoula co-founder Frank Worden's unique square grand piano in the mezzanine of the downtown building. An official welcoming/unveiling ceremony will be held Friday, April 14 at 4 p.m.
This week, we salute a Valentine – not the day, but the man: Valentine H. Coombes. In the 1890s, his name was ubiquitous, appearing on dozens and dozens of legal documents, mostly timber land purchases.
“Live, by remote control,” direct from the studio in the Hammond Arcade, it’s “Paul Keith and His Arcade Orchestra!” That’s right, Missoula's Hammond Arcade had its own orchestra, appearing on its own radio show (the Hammond Radio Review) for the downtown building’s grand opening in 1934.
It’s a birdwatcher’s paradise this time of year. The annual southern migration of the “Northern Snowbird” is underway to destinations like Palm Springs, California; Destin, Florida; Phoenix, Arizona; and numerous locations in Mexico, Costa Rica and Hawaii. It's a longstanding phenomenon in these parts.
Blowing and drifting snow. Severe wind chills. What a week in western Montana. We have to go back in our own previous reporting from 2017, and way back in the record books and newspaper reports (1875, 1888, 1897 and 1899) to find anything comparable.