Good old days

125 Years Ago: May 16, 1890

Over the green hills of Palouse and through her winding valleys, your correspondent today wended his way to this fair village. Allow me to digress long enough to remark once again the surpassing beauty of this garden spot of Washington at this season. The drive from Colfax to this place is a specially fine one. No route is better adapted to give the traveler a proper idea of the agricultural wealth and resources of our country than this one.

The glories of the Palouse have been sung far and wide but “The half was never told.”

Colton was founded some five years ago. Its situation – a most beautiful one – is on the slopes rising from the southern side of Union Flat, some 32 miles southeast of Colfax. The land is less heavily rolling than in the vicinity of Colfax and the soil is of unsurpassed fertility. Colton claims a population of some 300 souls.

100 Years Ago: May 21, 1915

The sophomores of the Colfax High School gave their annual “Sophomore Frolic” last Saturday evening, to which the Freshmen, Juniors and Seniors were bidden.

The ballroom at the K. of P. Temple was beautifully decorated with apple blossoms and class colors, and to the music of the Stump Sisters’ Orchestra. The young people whiled away the evening with dancing.

The patronesses were: Mrs. Huffman, Mrs. Sutherland, Mrs. Williams, Mrs. St. Peter, Mrs. Mattoon, Mrs. Neill, Mrs. Sweeney, Mrs. Bakala, Mrs. Littleton and Mrs. DePledge.

75 Years Ago: May 17, 1940

Efforts on the part of officers to enforce the traffic laws in Colfax only result in complaints by the citizenry that business is being driven out of town, declared State Highway Patrolman H.G. Bartleson at the chamber of commerce meeting Wednesday noon.

The program, arranged by the fire and accident prevention committee and introduced by Fire Chief L.L. Burgunder, featured as speakers Sheriff Carson J. Walker and Police Chief Jim Hickman in addition to Patrolman Bartleson.

Attempts to regulate traffic and tag offenders result in kickbacks, and even churches and granges protest if we try to keep cleated tractors off of hard surfaced highways, asserted Officer Bartleson.

“One of our worst problems is the hitchhiker, college students who stand in the street to thumb rides but run back to the curb upon seeing an officer.”

50 Years Ago: May 13, 1965

The earthquake which shocked the Seattle area last week went for the most part unnoticed by Colfax residents.

The only location where the tremor, which occurred about 8:30 a.m. last Thursday, was generally noticed was at St. Ignatius Hospital, where patients and hospital personnel felt the quake.

Dr. Ole Slind, in surgery on the top floor of the building when the tremor struck, said the tremor definitely shook the building and that there was “no doubt that it was an earthquake.”

Dr. Robert Henry, who was preparing for surgery at the time, also noticed the shock.

“I was walking into the scrub room when the building shook enough so I bumped into the doorway,” he said. “My brother was present at the time and commented, ‘This is an earthquake.’ He had been in San Francisco.”

Henry said the quake was also felt by patients on the second and third floors.

25 Years Ago: May 10, 1990

Backers of the Colfax Codger Pole presented a plan to place the 62-foot pole at a site on Spring Street in downtown Colfax. The proposal was presented by Dick Miller, president of the Chamber of Commerce.

Miller noted city concern about the loss of parking spaces.

“The way things are going now, we won’t have to worry about parking downtown,” he said, regarding the condition of Colfax retailing.

City consideration of the project included a letter from Dr. George Ripple, who owns buildings on the east end of Spring Street. Dr. Ripple threatened to take action to stop the project, which he believes will cut access to his buildings.

10 Years Ago: May 12, 2005

Pomeroy Superintendent Jim Kowalsk and Colfax High School Principal Michael Morgan, two of three finalists for the top Colfax school job being vacated by the resignation of Supt. Joel Aune, made official tours of the district this week. The tours concluded with a public session in the school library.

Morgan, who has been principal of Colfax High School since 2000, is a former assistant principal, vocational director and teacher at Deer Park High School and a former teacher and vocational director at Mary Walker High School in Springdale.