100 years ago today in Spokane: Natatorium Park announces plans for world’s fastest roller coaster

Spokane’s amusement park, Natatorium Park, was planning a new “racing coaster” (roller coaster) that would be 6,000 feet long and with a top speed of 70 miles per hour.

“We plan to erect in Spokane the fastest racing coaster in the world,” said the secretary-treasurer of the National Amusement Company, which was designing the coaster. “Before coming here we made a careful investigation of the northwestern states and decided that Natatorium Park was the proper place to build a modern amusement entertainment such as we plan to put up.”

He said it would be named “The Jack Rabbit” and promised that it would be a “real thriller.” He said it would dip and rise 12 times “to dizzying heights” and “travel continuously at the speed of an airplane.”

He said it should be in operation at the beginning of the summer.

The Jack Rabbit would become a popular feature of Natatorium Park until 1968, although there is no way to confirm that it was, in fact, the “fastest racing coaster in the world.”

From the flu beat: City health officials remained convinced that the flu epidemic was “rapidly on the wane.” Only 15 new cases were reported. There were no deaths during the previous day.