Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The members of the Spokane Elks Lodge were looking forward to what was billed as “a splendid joyfest” – “the first annual explosion of Elks Lodge 228.”

It was to be an all-day outing to Liberty Lake on the upcoming Sunday.

The Elks were planning to take four special trains to Spokane’s favorite getaway spot. The revelries were to include a band playing patriotic music and “unlimited lemonade.”

And the day’s big finale?

“A historical reproduction of the sea fight of the Merrimac and the Monitor,” to take place on the lake with tin-covered replica boats.

On Sunday, the battle went off just as planned, with plenty of laughs as the ramshackle boats pelted each other with cork bullets.

The day also included a few extra attractions. “Dutch Jake” Goetz, who struck it rich with the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines in North Idaho, presided over a kangaroo court of his fellow Elks and fined J. Stanley Webster 25 cents for contempt of court. This occasioned much mirth, since Webster was actually Judge J. Stanley Webster.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1914: World War I began as Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. … 1945: The U.S. Senate ratified the United Nations Charter by a vote of 89-2.