A new edition and an old friend

With today’s issue of the Chronicle, our readers will notice that our traditional Mustang Days Historical Edition has received a bit of a facelift.
For some 50 years the Chronicle has published stories about local history at Mustang Days, in part because the newspaper building and all of its archives burned in a fire around 1930. Publisher Ron Lytle and his successor, Pat Schmidt, attempted to recover as much history as possible with the annual historical editions, and we have kept up the tradition.
This year, however, with so many positive things happening in our community and with short staffing making some of the labor-intensive historical research difficult, we have taken a different approach to our annual publication.
We have gone with the theme “We Believe in Lovell – and North Big Horn County” as a way to celebrate the many positives of living in this community. Each story carries the kicker “Lovell is …” and features a particular aspect of the community: health care, patriotism, tourism and recreation, the sugar industry, the fire department and history (the museum).
We see this as a two- or three-year operation and plan to tackle other aspects of our community in 2025 such as education, first responders, another industry such as bentonite, construction/contractors, a different area of agriculture and the like. So, if you don’t see “your area of business” in this week’s edition, don’t fret. We plan to get there and are open to suggestions. Please let us know.
It was truly uplifting to celebrate our community in this fashion for Mustang Days, and we hope you will enjoy reading the uplifting stories.
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We received a blast from the past this week in the form of a visitor to our office who worked at this newspaper 60 years ago.
Bill Schweinler, who worked for Burt Huntington from late 1959 to around 1965 or ‘66 as the primary reporter for the Chronicle, stopped by this week to say hello. With him was his wife, Bonita.
Bill said he moved to Lovell from Wisconsin, where his father ran newspapers. He is a graduate of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. After his time in Lovell, he moved back to Wisconsin to work for the Park Falls Herald and won a national news photo of the year award.
He went to work for the American Cancer Society Minnesota Division in St. Paul, then later Princess Cruise Lines in Alaska in the Princess Tours division. He presented a long list of states in which he has lived including Minnesota, Kansas, Nevada, Idaho, Washington State and New Hampshire, as well as Minnesota and Alaska.
But Bill always liked Wyoming and moved to Gillette three years ago.
He is still sharp and spry at age 91.
Lovell certainly made a strong impression in him. He said on the day he was to report to work, he was waiting on Main Street early in the morning in front of the old Busy Corner Pharmacy store where Wild Edge is now located, and seeing his Wisconsin plates, a police officer stopped to check him out. He said Burt wouldn’t be in until 8, so he took Bill for a cup of coffee.
Bill said Lovell was one of the friendliest places he ever lived, the kind of place where folks would wave at you even if they didn’t necessarily know you. He very much enjoyed his years here. We have enjoyed reading Bill’s work in our newspaper files from the 1960s. His coverage of the 1963 LHS state basketball championship team was wonderful. He wrote a weekly column entitled “Billboard” and helped usher in modern photography for the Chronicle.
One interesting side note: Bill said he came through Lovell Tuesday to get a haircut. He and Bonita were driving to Billings, but with a love for the Big Horns, they took the long way around, came down to Lovell and stopped at Kurt’s Cuts, now the Barber Mafia, for a haircut. He said he loves a good, old fashioned barber shop instead of a hair salon for a haircut.
We always enjoy seeing folks coming home for Mustang Days, and while Bill Schweinler wasn’t here for the celebration, it was great to meet and visit with him.
Have fun on Mustang Days.
— David Peck