100 years ago: Sunset Magazine gushes about Spokane

Sunset Magazine published a glowing article about Spokane and the Palouse under the title, “The Courage of the West.”

The article noted that 60 years earlier, the Oregon territorial governor stood at the falls of the Spokane River and said, “Some day there will be a grist mill on this spot.”

Then the article went on to describe Spokane in 1921.

“Within a radius of a mile round the place where stood the farsighted governor, 12 bridges cross the Spokane River today, the tracks of five transcontinental railroads follow its banks, copper wires carrying the energy of the falling water radiate in every direction to scores of flour and lumber mills, to gold-plated hotels and humble cottages, vitalizing every activity of modern American life.”

The author was also impressed with the Palouse, where he “stood on the brow of a hill and saw a tawny sea” of wheat, stretching “far beyond the horizon.”

From the bootlegging beat: Spokane police seized one of the year’s biggest hauls of bootleg liquor when they raided a home on West Buckeye Avenue.

The owner, apparently realizing the jig was up, led officers up a narrow stairway to the attic, “then over the rafters to a dark corner where a cache was found deep under a pile of gunny sacks and old carpets.”

There, they found 116 quarts of liquor, including 12 quarts of Three-Star Hennessy. The owner was booked into jail.

Also on this day

(From the Associated Press)

1962: The first Boeing 727 was rolled out at the company’s Renton Plant near Seattle.