Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Money by the bagful was big news in Spokane on the final day of 1910.

The city was titillated by the news that more than $2 million in cash and gold had routinely sauntered down Riverside Avenue, carried in a leather satchel handcuffed to the wrist of a seemingly nonchalant Old National Bank cashier.

He was moving the entire cash reserves from the old bank vaults at Wall and Riverside to the just-finished Old National Bank “skyscraper” at Stevens and Riverside. The cashier slipped out the door at unannounced times, surrounded by plainclothes guards with concealed automatic pistols, and walked the money down the street. He did this numerous times over several days, never carrying less than $100,000.

Meanwhile, the Spokane Daily Chronicle was crowing over the region’s phenomenal economic growth in 1910.

“Prosperity has blown her horn,” said the Chronicle, breathlessly, “… with figures so stupendous that the imagination is hardly able to grasp them.”

The paper reported that the “combined wealth” of the region reached $187 million, up from $166.5 million in 1909.

Agricultural was the region’s dominant industry, followed by mining and retail.