100 years ago: Congressional committee recommends $400K for Columbia Basin dam; Spokane city leaders close fish market

The Spokane Daily Chronicle ran two items on its front page which were connected – although perhaps readers at the time did not realize it.

The first item stated that Washington had 16% of the total potential water power in the U.S., most of it undeveloped.

The second item carried a banner headline, saying that a Congressional committee recommended an appropriation of $400,000 for the proposed Columbia Basin dam project.

The connection might not have been obvious at the time, since the Columbia Basin project was being touted as an irrigation project, not a power project. In ensuring decades, the plan would evolve into the Grand Coulee Dam project, which provided both power generation and irrigation.

From the seafood beat: Spokane’s municipal fish market – which occupied stalls in Westlake’s Market on Riverside Avenue – was officially abolished because of a lack of money in the city’s budget.

The Spokane Daily Chronicle lamented this decision, noting that the market had saved the public “thousands of dollars by providing cheaper fish.”

When it was established in 1918, the municipal fish market obtained salmon from state hatcheries at an affordable price. Now, however the state hatcheries were selling to canneries, and the market could no longer break even.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1985: Mitch McConnell becomes senator of Kentucky.

1987: Aretha Franklin is the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.