25 YEARS AGO — 1984
  A single-engine plane carrying three Civil Air Patrol cadets on a training flight crashes in a wooded area near Willsboro. James Langley, 51, of Plattsburgh and passengers Michael Moran, Walter Besaw and William Cosgrove, all 17 and from Willsboro, were critically or seriously injured.

  Clinton County legislators say the state owes local taxpayers $61,000 for housing its prisoners in the County Jail this year. The state-sentenced inmates are costing the county money, they say.

  Fewer people and vehicles crossed the border in the Northeast in August. Border traffic dropped by 1.7 percent that month.

  Franklin County's Malone Off-Track Betting parlor has two weeks to turn a profit. Without signs of money making at the parlor, the New York State Racing and Wagering Board will consider closing the Malone branch.

50 YEARS AGO — 1959
  Seven prisoners in the new Clinton County Jail addition are locked in their cells for now. The entrance door is jammed, and the cells cannot be unlocked. Until a company expert can get to Plattsburgh, that will be the situation.

  Eleven of Clinton County's suspected cases of polio have been diagnosed as definitely being the disease. The county polio toll stands at 17, including both positive diagnoses and suspected cases.

  Three large barns and two other farm buildings on the so-called Roberts Place on Hallock Hill in Keeseville are destroyed by fire with an ensuing loss that might exceed $40,000. The property was that of Peter E. Martin, a resident of the farm for 57 years.

  Two bus lines that had showed interest in Plattsburgh now say they will definitely not set up bus service. They cite the number of taxis that operate in the city.

75 YEARS AGO — 1934
  Fire, which started while the season's harvest of grain was being threshed, destroys two large barns, garage, granary and two silos on the George Degon farm on the Constable Road in Malone.

  Because of increased traffic when the Whiteface Memorial Highway opens next year, a 10-mile stretch of highway in Wilmington from High Falls to Jay will be widened and then resurfaced.

  The harvest of the potato crop in the Chateaugay area is now under way, and farmers report the crop is larger than anticipated.

  Fifty men are employed in rushing the pouring of concrete on Malone's new Post Office.

100 YEARS AGO — 1909
  The shirt factory in Malone is having a rush of work this fall. Seventy-two hands are employed, and the payroll is between $500 and $600 a week.

  Apparently the question of the site of the Champlain memorial is not yet totally settled, although it was generally supposed that by naming Bluff Point the matter had been determined.

  The Delaware and Hudson Co. plans to rebuild the Fort William Henry Hotel at Lake George, which burned early last summer. The new hotel will cost $50,000 to build.

  The barns of Dean Oliver, who lives two miles west of Ellenburg Center, are destroyed by an arson fire. Mr. Oliver nearly caught the fire bug in the act.

— Compiled by Contributing Writer Sue Botsford, who can be reached at 834-7201 or botsford@westelcom.com