Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Spokane’s Park Board continued to purchase large chunks of land for future parks. It purchased the large “stadium site” at Main Avenue and Jefferson Street – about where today’s Glover Field sits on the east side of Peaceful Valley. It also added a 70-lot tract on the west end of Peaceful Valley, along the Spokane River “to a point opposite Lindeke Street,” which is about where today’s Sandifur Bridge now stands.

The other big purchase was 60 acres “along the scenic high land west of Hangman Creek, from the Hangman Creek bridge to Garden Springs.” The paper called this High Bridge area site “exceptionally beautiful.”

From the mining beat: The earnings of the big Inland Northwest mines were estimated at nearly $5.4 million for 1912, an increase of over $2 million from 1911.

The Granby mine was the biggest-earning mine, followed by the Bunker Hill in second place and the Federal in third place. The Standard, the Hedley and the Hecla were next in line.

The miners, owners and shareholders had no way to know that the region’s mining industry would soon be headed for harder times.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1991: Eleven of the 12 former Soviet republics proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the death of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.