Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 75 years ago

Spokane’s tourist business was recovering in 1935 after a long slump.

The tourism arm of the Spokane Chamber of Commerce reported that the city’s service stations, hotels and “cabin camps” (the precursors of motels), were doing better than any year since the boom of 1928.

Where were those tourists from?

The majority were from California and the western provinces of Canada. Also, many motorists were coming through from the Midwest, en route to the Pacific coast.

Spokane’s influx corresponded directly to an increase in visitors to both Yellowstone and Glacier national parks.

“Indications point to banner seasons for both parks,” The Spokesman-Review reported. Yellowstone, in fact, was “probably in the midst of the biggest season of its history.”

More from the tourism beat: A newspaper editorial cartoonist ran with the tourism theme and drew a satirical depiction of the evolution of the tourist cabin. The first panel showed plain cabins. The second showed fancied-up “Tudor Cabanas.” The third showed castles and mansions, with the sign “Period Villas for Fastidious Wayfarers.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1946: The United States detonated an atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific in the first underwater test of the device.