January 25

Jan. 25 – On this day in Montana history in 1962 Montana Republican Gov. Charles Nutter, two of his top aides and three flyers were killed in a plane crash during bad weather near Wolf Creek. His Lt. Gov. and friend Tim Babcock, who had a trucking business in Billings, took office with a heavy heart. Republicans and Democrats were in the midst of a major fight over the future of the state, but the deaths brought the state together for at least awhile. Montana U.S. Sen. Lee Metcalf, a Democrat and fierce opponent of Nutter, said: “Regardless of our political differences, Don Nutter and I were friends.”