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

100 years ago in Spokane: For a good road trip, look no farther than Spokane County, columnist says

There are many great opportunities for good road trips near Spokane, a columnist argued in The Spokesman-Review’s Automobiles section on June 18, 1916. (The Spokesman-Review)

From our archives, 100 years ago

An anonymous columnist in the Auto section of the paper made a bold prediction: “About 200 years from now, this Northwest lake country will be as famous as the misty meres of Scotland or the emerald-girded sapphire lakes of Ireland.”

This poetic outburst was part of a column he (or she) wrote about a scenic motor trip in the Spokane area. The writer began by driving up the Sunset Highway to Medical Lake, “a pretty little place sprawled out among lush meadows.”

Then it was on to Clear Lake, that has “some rather dramatic looking cliffs that could be fittingly labeled Maiden’s Leap, only the Clear Lake maidens are nonsentimental. Wearing pink middies, they take to the water in boats.”

From there, the route went past several other lakes, unnamed by the author, “full of sedge and wild duck.”

The writer concluded: “Beauty may be in far places, but it is at home, too.”

From the movie beat: Several big, controversial “million dollar” movies premiered in New York, but The Spokesman-Review’s entertainment columnist said it was doubtful if all of them would be shown in Spokane because of the city’s new censorship laws. He said the “zealous custodians of our morals” might decide that “we could not be trusted to behave ourselves if permitted to view them.”

One was Thomas Dixon’s “The Fall of a Nation,” a kind of sequel to “The Birth of a Nation.” Reports from New York indicated that it had “no Negro-baiting,” or at least less than the previous film, but a lot of “juggling of historical facts to suit the dramatic purposes of the author and producer.”