From the Missoulian, Aug. 1, 1989
I happened to be in the office alone at noon July 31, 1989 when the phone rang. A stringer who worked at a radio station in Kalispell was calling, reporting some police radio chatter about a major oil spill at the pristine and popular recreational lake just outside of Glacier National Park, about four hours north of Missoula. I was able to confirm the information on the phone and the editor told me and photo editor Kurt Wilson to charter a helicopter.
Only a single-engine plane was available, so we jumped into that and flew to Whitefish. There's no airport in Whitefish, but there is a grassy airstrip outside of town, and that's where we landed. We hitched a ride into town, where the lake is, and rented a boat to go three miles up the shoreline to the point where the oil spill was. We were on the scene within three hours of the spill and had the story to ourselves the first day.
