Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

More proof arrived from Wallace that hard-rock mining was a perilous profession.

John Larson, 36, was being raised on a hoist up the shaft of the Frisco Mine when he attempted to step off. He missed his footing, and his leg slipped between the lift and the wall of the shaft.

Then the cable settled and the machine crushed him against the wall. He ended up hanging face down, over a 1,400-foot shaft, by the shredded remnants of one leg.

His fellow miners worked frantically to free him, but they could not move the lift for fear that he would plunge down the shaft. It took them two hours to get him to safety.

By then, it was too late. He was so mangled that he died minutes after he arrived at the hospital. He left a wife in Wallace and a sister in his native Norway.

From the game warden beat: An admirer in Coeur d’Alene walked up to J.M. Hannaford, president of the Northern Pacific Railway, and handed him a fine string of trout.

Hannaford had barely thanked the man before the game warden walked up, arrested him for possessing fish without a license and told him the fine would be $100.

An abashed Hannaford said he would pay it. Only then did the men admit it was all a prank. They presented him with a lifetime membership in the Coeur d’Alene Rod and Gun Club, on behalf of his efforts toward establishing fish hatcheries.