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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Samuel Hill – remembered today for building the Maryhill Museum and a replica of Stonehenge in the Columbia Gorge – arrived in Spokane to talk about one of his overriding passions: good auto highways.

He was especially proud of the Columbia Highway, which he called the “last word in road building.”

“Compared with this road, Europe’s finest highways are a joke,” Hill said. “There is nothing in the world superior to it. Last year, 1,000 automobiles traversed this road from California to the Columbia River. Next year there will be 10,000. Surfacing of this road will be completed in two weeks.”

He had some advice for local good-roads advocates: Don’t try to build a road straight west across the Cascades. He said that even Snoqualmie Pass is open only 60 days out of the year.

Instead, he recommended improving the Sunset Highway to Wenatchee, and then connecting south to Goldendale, “thence down the Columbia River, across Oregon and into California.” He said this will “carry travel in its natural direction, toward California.”

From the marriage beat: A jury rejected the lawsuit of R.L. Ashcroft, who sued Miss Lunette Daley Cashman for breach of promise. Ashcroft had courted her for 17 years, yet she married “the other hired man” on the farm instead.