Jim Kershner’s This day in history » On the Web: spokesman.com/topics/local-history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Some statistics in The Spokesman-Review give us a vivid picture of how Spokane spent its Memorial Day in 1911.

Here’s where people went, according to the streetcar and rail companies:

• Natatorium Park, 20,000 people.

• Fort Wright and Greenwood, 12,000.

• Manito Park, 9,000.

• Spokane Indians ballgame, 6,500 (they won a doubleheader against the Vancouver Beavers, or as the sports reporter put it, they “sunk the bitter gaff of defeat into the short ribs” of Vancouver).

• Coeur d’Alene and Hayden lakes, 4,000.

• Medical Lake, 1,800.

• Fairmount and encampment, 3,000.

• Lake Pend Oreille, 600.

Keep in mind that Memorial Day that year was the warmest day of the year so far: 81 degrees.

That helps to explain the following statistics: 3,000 gallons of ice cream consumed in the city, 9,600 gallons of beer.

“All day long, large crowds filled establishments wherein relief might be found from the direct rays of the sun,” said The Spokesman-Review.

The paper claimed that ice cream consumption set an all-time record in the history of Spokane.