Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Plans were under way for an exciting new transportation development in the region: a highway over the Bitterroot Range connecting the Silver Valley (and Coeur d’Alene and Spokane) to Missoula and Kalispell, Mont.

Railroads already connected Spokane to Montana, but for the first time auto drivers would be able to leave Washington and head east across the Rockies.

Two roads were scheduled to be built in the summer of 1912. The first was to be “by way of Burke and Glidden Pass to Thompson Falls and then east.”

The second was “by way …

From our archives, 100 years ago

Plans were under way for an exciting new transportation development in the region: a highway over the Bitterroot Range connecting the Silver Valley (and Coeur d’Alene and Spokane) to Missoula and Kalispell, Mont.

Railroads already connected Spokane to Montana, but for the first time auto drivers would be able to leave Washington and head east across the Rockies.

Two roads were scheduled to be built in the summer of 1912. The first was to be “by way of Burke and Glidden Pass to Thompson Falls and then east.”

The second was “by way of Mullan and St. Regis,” which sounds like it might be parallel to the route of today’s Interstate 90.

The people in Wallace were already excited about the new possibilities. They were planning auto touring parties to Glacier Park and Yellowstone Park.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1888: The poem “Casey at the Bat,” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, was first published in the San Francisco Daily Examiner. … 1962: Air France Flight 007, a U.S.-bound Boeing 707, crashed while attempting to take off from Orly Airport near Paris; all but two of the 132 people aboard were killed. … 1965: Edward White became the first American to “walk” in space.