IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com looks back at life in east Idaho from September 1 to September 7.
1900-1925
ISLAND PARK — On September 1, 1921, The Rigby Star reported that a local man shot and killed a black bear about 50 feet in front of him.
P.G. Sessions was tending his sheep in Island Park during the summer of 1921. He discovered a black bear near his sheep, about six miles south of the Island Park station.
Sessions fired a.45 automatic at the bear, striking it in the side. At this point, the bear turned to Sessions.
He fired twice more at the bear, killing it, which weighed between 500 and 600 pounds.
“Mr. Session intends to bring the hide of the big bear down as evidence of his experience,” according to the newspaper.
Sessions claimed to have seen 19 bears during the summer of 1921 and had lost many sheep as a result.
1926-1950
REXBURG — On September 6, 1932, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported that a teenager who was believed to be missing had been found safe.
Louis C. Thompson, 14, of Rexburg, went missing on Aug. 31, 1932. He was last spotted in a rowboat on the Snake River west of Rexburg. The sheriff’s office searched the river for Thompson but was unable to locate him.
Thompson later revealed that he had boarded a train heading south and was found alive in Burley. Thompson’s aunt, with whom he lived, called his parents with information about his whereabouts.
The teen was reportedly working in Burley.
1951-1975
IDAHO FALLS — A 19-year-old woman was reported in good condition after jumping from a moving car, The Rigby Star reported on Sept. 4, 1952.
Alice Rowher told Bonneville County Sheriff Dean Wilkie that she accepted a ride from Rigby to Idaho Falls with a young man who is a friend of her brother but whose name she does not know.
She claimed she asked him to let her out in Idaho Falls, but instead he drove across the John’s Hole Bridge and onto the airport road.
Rowher claimed she became scared and jumped from the car, which she estimated was traveling at 40 mph.
An employee at a nearby grain elevator witnessed her jump and alerted Jesse Clark, the elevator’s manager, who called the sheriff. The girl was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.
Wilkie claimed the girl told him she performed a complete somersault after jumping out of the car.
“Although stunned, she was able to talk,” according to the article. “She stated that the driver stopped and offered assistance, but she refused to ride with him further. “He then apparently drove away.”
Rowher, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Rowher of Rigby, was a student nurse at the LDS Hospital.
1976-2000
POCATELLO — A woman was arrested in Pocatello on a charge of indecent exposure, the Idaho State Journal reported on Sept. 7, 1977.
Maxiene Virne, 32, of Nevada, was accused of running in the afternoon wearing nothing but ankle socks and blue tennis shoes.
She plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was given a three-day suspended jail sentence and fined $7.50 in court costs.
