From the files of the Polk County News ...

In 1928, thieves looted the Reliance post office of $200 in cash and the store of Postmaster W.A. Woody ... Among those attending UTK: Margaret Hyde, Madeline Harris, Vera Skullman, Susan Sullivan, Mary Jane Love, Beecher Lawson, Cap Lillard, James Clemmer, Kenneth Prince and Harold Wimberly ... Mrs. M.A. Brewer, widow of a Civil War veteran, celebrated her 79th birthday ... Silk dresses were on sale for $10.95 ... There were six deaths in the county from tuberculosis.

In 1938, railroad executive bowed to the decision of President Roosevelt and abandoned plans to cut the wages of employees 15%, thus banishing a strike possibility ... The Delano Cotton Mill was being sold to Miller Smith Company of Etowah and Chattanooga who planned to do repairs and put in modern machinery to hire more than 100 people ... On the 20th Armistice Day Anniversary, a Polk County Honor Roll was listed “lest we forget their part in the Great War”: James Adams, Thomas C. Cates, Lewis Chatham, James A. Collins, Roy C. Curtis, Virgil Green, Harvey Hughes, Gilliam H. Hyde, Willie James, Sam Key, Osar R. Liner, James L. Louden, Ben H. McClary, William C. McNelly, Joseph C. Runions, Bert Russell, Leonidas Taylor, Ephriam Thompson, Carl L. Weber, Arthur Lee.

In 1958, Buford Ellington was running for governor and Albert Gore was running for U.S. Senator ... Dorothy Thomas was at UT nursing school ... Food prices: Henny Pen dog food, 5¢/can; slab bacon, 49¢/lb.; pork & beans, 7¢/can.

In 1968, Donna Vest was crowned Football Queen ... Snow fell in the mountains ... A group hunting in the Tellico area netted a bear, a doe, two bucks and a boar ... Food prices: sirloin steak, 99¢/lb.; bacon, 39¢/lb.; chili, 25¢/can.

In 1978, a guardrail on Hwy. 64 kept a tanker from going into the lake but its load of 5,000 gallons of liquid asphalt was spilled ... Jada Ledford was Grasscutters Queen, Tonya Stafford was Midget Queen and Teresa Ross was Saints Queen.

In 1988, The county commission again defeated a wheel tax on second reading ... A plan for Hwy. 64 improvements was under study ... Four Basin area bars were cited for selling to minors .. Grass was planted at the Copperhill cemetery as part on an ongoing cleanup project ... Efforts were continuing toward an employee buyout of TCC ... McCaysville used a fire truck to honor Lynn Martin, Sheriff’s deputy and community volunteer who was killed in an auto accident .

In 1998, Republican incumbents won re-election, although in Polk County Donna Hubbard beat Jeff Miller for state senate. Zach Wamp won Polk County for the first time. Voter turnout was at 29% … Portions of the Hiwassee Ranger District of the Cherokee National Forest were shifted to the Ocoee and Tellico districts … The School Board voted to seek commission support for a long-range building plan … Federal money was approved for improvements to Chilhowee Campground and the upper Ocoee put-in.