100 years ago in Spokane: World premiere of The Grub Stake delayed by gale force winds hampering train traffic

Drifting snow and gale force winds continued to tie up almost all train traffic both east and west of Spokane.

Dispatchers weren’t certain where the trains were, because wires were down east of Spokane.

The drifts were also causing havoc for auto stage (bus) traffic. The auto stages in and out of Spokane had “given up the fight to get through the drifts.”

Regular auto traffic was also at a standstill in many places.

“The Apple Way is badly blockaded and in drifts, hopelessly stalled and out of reach of help are two auto buses, a snowplow and three freight trucks,” said The Spokesman-Review.

In downtown Spokane, Caterpillar tractors were being used to clear huge drifts of snow from the streetcar tracks.

The weather bureau in Spokane reported the greatest depth of snow recorded for February: 17 inches. The low the night before was 4 below zero.

From the movie beat: The bad weather also meant that the locally filmed Nell Shipman movie, “The Grub Stake,” would not have its hotly anticipated premiere in Spokane on Feb. 17 as scheduled.

Prints of the movie were not going to arrive on time, due to the railroad standstill. Now, the movie was scheduled to open on Feb. 24.

From the fire beat: First National Bank in Washtucna, Washington, was destroyed by fire along with a store and residence belonging to William Snyder and his wife, who just narrowly escaped.

The bank and store would be rebuilt, the Chronicle reported.