30 years ago

PALMER — A $1,600 fine was doled out to the owners of the Empire Mine for safety violations after one of their truck drivers was critically injured. The Empire Mining Partnership will also be paying a $1,000 fine for failing to address the 170-ton trucks signs of instability, as well as $500 added to their bill as the seat belt in the truck was not properly installed. The driver, 56-year-old Wayne Varvil of Harvery, was preparing to dump rocks onto a pile when the truck, the size of a two-story house, flipped under the crumbling rock surface and slid 60 feet along the 85-foot-high embankment. Varvil was hospitalized in critical condition, but was later released. He has not returned to work since the accident and remains on workers compensation. The owners of the mine did not contest the federal safety citations.

60 years ago

ISHPEMING — A resident of the Warren Trailer Court in the Greenwood area, Mrs. Forrest Perry, called the police to notify them that a 173-pound bear was roaming near her house at 9:30 A.M. Detective Sgt. Joseph Marra and Sgt. Victor Bertucci of the Ishpeming Police Department, alongside Thomas Warren of the Greenwood Trailer location, arrived with appropriate weapons and pursued the active creature. The bear began its get-away by crossing a highway near the court, and then turned back around. Knowing the officers were following, the bear jumped across the road, made its way into a swamp and stopped 50 yards away from its assailants. The police were able to see the bear through their scopes, and promptly killed it.