100 years ago in Washington: Yakima and Wenatchee dismissed a bid to leave ‘the good old Evergreen state’

There was almost zero support in Yakima and Wenatchee for a proposed new state of Lincoln, which would have consisted of Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

The board of the Wenatchee Commercial Club objected “as emphatically as possible” to a new state. The Yakima Commercial Club said a “vast majority of the Yakima Valley have no interest in such a proposal.” The Spokane Chamber of Commerce had asked both cities to gauge whether support existed for such a plan.

The Wenatchee club pointed out that a new state would require a new administration, a new Capitol building, new state institutions “and an endless duplication of expense.”

“We are very well satisfied with the present state of Washington,” the Wenatchee club secretary said.

The Yakima club secretary said he could see why North Idaho people would want out of their state, but could “conceive of no reason” to secede “from the good old Evergreen state.”

From the tourist beat: Plans were in the works to build a “natural outlook station” (overlook) at the summit of Mount Spokane.

The preliminary idea was to erect large flat rocks on the mountain peak as a tourist attraction. Auto traffic up to the mountain was scheduled to resume on June 1.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1960: Elvis Presley was discharged from the U.S. Army.

1998: NASA scientists said enough water was frozen in the loose soil of the moon to support a lunar base and perhaps, one day, a human colony.