100 years ago in Liberty Lake: The quadruple drowning on the lake was ruled an accident, but questions on the safety of the boat in question still swirled

A coroner’s jury ruled that the recent Liberty Lake drownings were accidental – but was unable to determine whether the boat was at fault.

The official ruling was that the drowning was accidental, and “the causes of the accident” were “unknown to the jury.”

The jury heard copious testimony about whether the boat’s air chamber was insecurely fastened – as alleged by the father of three of the victims. The jury even went to the rental dock to investigate.

But the evidence “was too problematical” to place the blame on a faulty boat.

Because of the ruling, the county said it would not conduct an investigation into the rental boat business. Yet the accident did cause resort operators to tighten their safety rules. The manager of the Liberty Lake resort said he would no longer rent boats when the water was rough, no matter how much patrons demanded it.

From the weather beat: The temperature in Spokane hit 91, but a road inspection party on Mount Spokane ran into a big surprise.

They ran into “huge snowbanks” 2 miles from the summit and were forced to abandon the remainder of the trip.

The party also came across “Old Frank” Hanna, “the hermit of the mountains,” who in previous seasons had lived alone halfway up the mountain.

He had company this winter for the first time. His brother and family were staying with him, he said.