Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Pioneer Daniel Drumheller, former mayor of Spokane, celebrated his 74th birthday in 1915 by telling stories about the early days.

“I always remember with pleasure the first time I saw this valley (the Spokane Valley) in the early summer of 1864,” he said. “I came from Walla Walla and encamped at Jackson’s springs … on Moran Prairie, and that night my horses got away. I started out in search and I came down over the ridge to the southeast of the city from Moran. The entire valley was a field of bunch grass that came up to a horse’s belly, and that looked in the distance like a wheat field. A party of Indians camped that day at a spot where the Spokane Hotel now stands … I went to the river and for the first time, stood beside the falls.”

His second visit was not so pleasant. It was November 1866, and he had been sworn in as a deputy U.S. marshal. He crossed the Spokane River at the ferry operated by “Antoine Plank” (Plante) and struggled through snow until his horse gave out at what is today Coeur d’Alene. He spent the night under a tree, with a blanket and nothing to eat. The next morning, he found his wallet, with three $20 gold pieces, was missing. He went to the Old Mission and obtained food and a mule. He called it “the most severe trial he ever experienced.”

Some 50 years later, street excavators found two old $20 gold pieces. The dates on the coins made Drumheller wonder if they were his long-lost coins.