100 years ago today in Spokane: Windstorm rakes region, knocking out power to trolleys

Spokane was blasted with a 40-mile-per-hour winds, causing numerous electrical outages and telephone outages.

A large pine tree near Sacred Heart Hospital crashed down, taking out the trolley wires and causing trolley service to be interrupted for 50 minutes.

The local meteorologist reported widespread anxiety about the high winds. He was frequently called to the phone to “answer anxious inquiries,” including questions about whether grain elevators might collapse.

None did, and the damage turned out to be comparatively light.

“The wind certainly was a strong one for this locality, but owing to the happy situation of Spokane, guarded as it is by high hills from the southwest, west and northwest, which serve as an effective wind shield, the city need not fear any serious wind damage,” said the meteorologist, somewhat optimistically.

From the labor beat: The Industrial Workers of the World (the Wobblies) were threatening a massive strike “designed to affect every lumber camp in eastern Washington and northern Idaho.”

The Wobblies issued 10 demands, including: all steel cots; no upper bunks; no more than 12 men per bunkhouse; “better food, served from porcelain dishes instead of metalware”; an eight-hour workday; a minimum of $60 a month and free board; Sundays off; and “free full medical service.”

The strike was planned for April, to coincide with the spring log drives.