Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
75 Years Ago At the left is a stepped hydroplane whose builders, left to right, Harold, Don and Del Fox, used the cabinet shop of Boyd Kohler to build it in. It has a 5-foot beam and is 14 feet long and will be propelled by a 22 h.p. outboard motor on Pend Oreille and Coeur d'Alene lakes this year. At the right Joe Short is shown in the high-speed boat built nearly all by himself in C. A. Bruning's shop, which he took to Conkling Park on Lake Coeur d'Alene Saturday evening. His younger brother, Larry, is at his right The craft, 7 feet 11 inches long, is of the scow type; is simple and strong as well as speedy and with its 10 h.p. motor will plane at 35 m.p.h. It weighs about 75 pounds.
25 Years Ago Gridders make pit stop at pipe Colfax football team candidates take a break Monday night for a little water during the start of practice season. Coach Doug Curtis and his assistants greeted 48 football players who will have two weeks of practice before the Colfax Jamboree Sept. 6 when St. John/Endicott, Reardan and Liberty will bring teams for short stints.
125 Years Ago
From the Colfax Gazette, Friday, August 27, 1897
Broke Out of Jail
Monday night at Pullman, three men whose names were not known, were seen breaking into the residence of J. M. Palmerton. The officers were notified and the men captured while still in the house. The were locked up and preliminary examination fixed for Tuesday afternoon. When the officer went to bring the prisoners into court, he found the lockup vacated, the three burglars having escaped during the morning. The cell door was fastened with bolts, the nuts being screwed into place. The prisoners had cut a notch in a piece of board, thus making a wrench, with which the nuts were removed. Once out of the cell, a hole was kicked in the side of the lockup and the prisoners walked off.
100 Years Ago
From the Colfax Commoner, Friday, August 25, 1922
UNIONTOWN
Threshing operations were delay ed until the first of this week by an electrical storm, accompanied by rain, which hit this section last Friday. The storm continued for several hours, but no damage was done other than to hold up the harvest work.
A garage and 100 gallons of gasoline were burned on the farm belonging to Joseph Grassl Jr. Friday night. The automobile in the garage was saved with considerable difficulty, and after removing it, the gasoline in two steel tanks exploded. The fluid was prevented from spreading
by the walls of the structure. Flames from the fire could be seen for a long distance. Mr. Grasl was at a loss to explain the cause of the fire.
A. J Darr was painfully injured on the Andrew Mortenson farm last week when he fell from a bundle wagon which he was driving. Mr. Darr fell directly in front of the wagon, striking the wagon tongue and his ear was nearly torn off by the fall. Dr. Burg here took nine stitches in the wound.
50 Years Ago
From the Colfax Gazette, Thursday, August 24, 1972
City nixes lone Clay street bid; crews will undertake project
A lone bid Monday on the city's long-awaited Clay street project has been rejected by the city street committee. Work on the project by city crews will probably get underway Monday, according to City Supervisor Art Anderson. Northwest Paving Inc., Pullman, offered to do the job for $20,100 in the lone bid at city hall Monday night. The Northwest bid was about $3,000 over the engineer's estimate.
The job calls for digging out the street, filling with drainage rock and installing a drainage system to carry the large amounts of runoff water which have flooded Clay street during the rainy seasons. Curbing and sewer pipe are also part of the project. Anderson said the city now has between $12,000 and $13,000 tied up in materials for the project. Another $7,000 to $8,000 cost to the city will be involved in labor time.
Using a contractor could have pushed the cost into the $35 to $40,000 range. Five bids were received for seal-coating streets in the downtown and North Flat areas. Standard Asphalt of Spokane was the low bidder at $6,895. Also bidding were Construction Electric Inc., Spokane, $7,129; McAtee and Heathe $8,792; N. G. Johanson, Spokane, $8,317; and Northwest Paving, $13,562.
10 Years Ago
From the Whitman County Gazette, 2012
Messy mob sparks wildfire, prompts Labor Day closure of 'The Dunes'
By Joe Smillie
Gazette Reporter
A wild weekend party at the Ilia Dunes on the Snake River across from Almota left hundreds of rangeland acres charred and resulted in the closure of the sandy beach for clean-up of piles of trash.
Officials with the United States Army Corps of Engineers estimated some 3,300 people were at the Ilia sand dunes, aka "The Dunes", Saturday. They left behind mountains of trash that prompted the corps' Walla Walla office to shut down the popular beach spot three miles downstream from Lower Granite Lock and Dam Sunday to clean up.
Bruce Henrickson, spokesman for the corps' Walla Walla office, said cleanup of the mess will keep the dunes closed through the coming Labor Day weekend.
"It's just terrible that a bunch of partiers can leave it like this," said Henrickson. "It's a good time to thank all those that use the spot and act responsibly on our recreational lands."
"It was horrible. It was absolutely horrible," said Chris Darby, chief of Garfield County rural Fire
District No. 1.
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