Seeley Lake's first Fourth of July fireworks

In 1949 you could buy some pretty powerful fireworks, fairly cheap compared to today’s prices. A big choice of all kinds of roman candles, buzz bombs with metal propellers, you had to be very careful where you set them off. They usually went straight up, but sometimes they didn’t and would scoot along the ground until they hit something solid. If a person was in the way they could be hurt pretty bad. There was a piece called a serpent, when you set that off it went thru the air slithering like a big snake, leaving a big string of sparks behind it.

Each year since we had opened in 1947, the day...