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

100 years ago in North Idaho: Harrison Gun Club floats down Lake Coeur d’Alene as dikes fail during major flooding

How bad was the flooding in North Idaho?

The building of the Harrison Gun Club “floated down Lake Coeur d’Alene.”

Also, every dike between St. Maries and Coeur d’Alene “has given way and the intervening acres are one huge lake.”

All of the businesses in St. Maries closed so that people could turn out to help save the dikes, but “the continued rise of the water made all efforts useless.” The mill and lumber yards were in 10 feet of water.

The level of Lake Coeur d’Alene was reported as 2,134.8 feet.

Other towns were also suffering. The South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River went over its banks near Kellogg and about 50 people in the Sunnyland addition were made homeless. Every bridge between Kellogg and Wallace had been swept away.

In Spokane, water was entering basements along Trent Avenue. In Peaceful Valley, backyards and outbuildings were flooded. Water spread over the 700 block of North Superior Street after seeping under an embankment.

One man who lived on Superior Street barely escaped drowning when he tried to rescue his household possessions via raft. The raft overturned and the man was barely able to swim to safety. The water was nearly 5 feet deep.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1868: The U.S. Senate failed by one vote to convict President Andrew Johnson as it took its first ballot on the eleven articles of impeachment against him.