Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A traveling correspondent chronicled the significant changes taking place on the arid lands around Moses Lake and Ephrata.

“Ten years ago, traveling south from Ephrata, range cattle and horses could be counted by the hundreds,” wrote the correspondent. “But as the homesteaders fenced in their farms, the good range became cut up and the horsemen began to cut down their bands, until today it is a rare occurrence to see a range horse.”

The same change was occurring west of Moses Lake. And for the first winter in 25 years, not a single band of sheep was being pastured on the land south of the Great Northern rail line.

From the accident beat: A rancher outside of Pullman went into his barnyard to shoot a chicken for dinner. After dispatching the chicken, he still had one bullet left in his gun. He decided to test his marksmanship by aiming at a knothole in his smokehouse.

The bullet sailed right through the knothole – and through the head of the 11-year-old son of his housekeeper, killing him instantly.

The rancher had no idea the boy was in the smokehouse. The rancher was “almost prostrated by grief.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1922: The first edition of Reader’s Digest was published.