Enjoy these snapshots of articles written in past issues of the Nisqually Valley News from 45, 35, 25 and 15 years ago, respectively.
A Look Back at This Week, 45 Years Ago
• Yelm police were on the scene after an intruder set off the alarm at the Jayhawks building. After checking the store for the intruder, they summoned the Thurston County sheriff department’s K-9 unit to track the intruder. The dog lost the scent in the prairie grass.
• Jody Swain, Roy, and Alice Smith, Littlerock, were involved in an accident on Trosper Road near the freeway. Swain’s vehicle was making a left turn onto I-5 when it was struck by Smith’s auto. Damage to Swain’s auto was $950, with Smith’s auto receiving damage listed at $650. There were no injuries.
• A head-on accident on Grove Road caused an estimated $800 damage to a pickup and total destruction to the auto. One person suffered a bloody nose from his meeting with the windshield. There were no other injuries.
• Yelm’s Prairie Wranglers 4-H Club received an award for having one of Washington’s best community pride projects. Lisa Coulter, Retha Kay Dotson and Pam Banks earned awards for their work to rebuild and improve a livestock show arena in the area.
A Look Back at This Week, 35 Years Ago
• The Washington state Department of Community Development granted Rainier $291,392 for home and mobile home improvements in 1989. Rainier was one of 22 city and county governments around the state that were allocated Community Development Block Grants.
• The Lectric Leopard, an electric car, was available for $4,000 at C&E Electric in Yelm. Originally a 1980 Renault, the Leopard ran entirely by 6-volt deep-cycle golf cart batteries. Except for the amp and volt gauges on the dashboard and the missing exhaust pipe, it looked like any other car. It topped out at a speed of 50 mph and stopped running after 50 miles.
• A Yelm-area woman reported she was asleep in her bedroom when she awoke to her dogs barking in her living room. When she got up to quiet the dogs, she saw a subject bending over the dogs trying to quiet them. The subject did not steal anything and left her residence on foot.
• Friends of the Yelm Library funded their mission of constructing a new library building in Yelm by selling booster buttons for $2. Nearly 13,000 volumes were crammed into only 841 square feet of space.
A Look Back at This Week, 25 Years Ago
• Residents of a McKenna nursing home remained on higher ground as the burgeoning Nisqually River raised fears of localized flooding. While Thurston County officials issued alerts to about 270 residents along the river, no evacuations were necessary.
• A 32-year-old cabin, referred to as the Candyland Christmas cabin, won the annual Clearwood Community Christmas Light Contest. There were approximately 6,300 mini-lights around the home.
• After being named the Pierce County League golfer of the year, Yelm High School junior John Cassidy III was named YHS Athlete of the Month for November. He was slated to compete for his second state championship in the spring of 1999.
• Red Wind Casino collected more than 1,075 pounds of food and distributed it to the Salvation Army and the Nisqually Food Bank. The donation was part of a three-casino food drive challenge.
A Look Back at This Week, 15 Years Ago
• Yelm Assistant Superintendent Andy Wolf was named the Yelm Community Schools superintendent after Alan Burke’s resignation. Burke’s final day was set for Jan. 30, 1999, as he left for a position with the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
• State Sen.-elect Randi Becker, R-Eatonville, was appointed as the ranking member of the Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee.
• Chuck Chapel was appointed as the newest member of the Roy City Council, replacing Pat Sloppy, who served on the council since 1974. Chapel was a former public works director in Roy.
• Two Yelm youths put their Twilight skills to the test and won copies of the best-selling series. Stephany Robinson, 16, won a trivia contest and won a copy of “Breaking Dawn,” while Taylor Clark, 14, won a copy of “Twilight” by guessing how many forks were crammed into a jar, a play on the fact that the series was set in Forks, Washington.
