Quest under way for button winners

And the winners are

Shirley Reynolds and the rest of the Columbia Falls Heritage Days Committee want to know the answer to that mystery.

They're hoping to track down the people who bought four special Heritage Days buttons and award the $100 and $50 prizes they have coming to them.

The big weekend has come and gone now, with hundreds of people flocking to town to help celebrate the centennial of the town's founding.

It was in 1909 that Nellie LaFrambois sold the land to businessman James Talbott, who then platted the original townsite.

This year's Heritage Days buttons, sold for $1 apiece to commemorate the event and raise some working capital for next year's celebration, marked that 100-year-old founding.

One style of button pictured James Talbott resting on a sidewalk bench surveying his town, with a small boy squatting in front of him looking for something on the sidewalk.

There is a dark stripe on the boy's shirt sleeve. On two of the winning buttons, a second dark stripe has been added.

The other button style showed LaFrambois walking along the sidewalk with her young child in tow, passing in front of a plate-glass storefront. A reflection shows in the glass just to the left of the little boy's head, painted in tiny white dots. The other two winning buttons have that reflection blacked out.

Both pictures are excerpts from Clark Heyler's mural of the town's history, painted on the east side of the Masonic Temple across from Smith's Food and Drug along Nucleus Avenue.

Now, button purchasers are urged to check their specific buttons.

If either description matches up with the button in hand, give Reynolds a call at 892-0178.

When the four winners are identified, Reynolds said, they will all draw for the prizes - two $100 gift cards, one each at Super 1 Foods and Smith's Food and Drug; and two $50 gift cards, one each at Mike's Conoco and Town Pump.