100 years ago in Eastern Washington: A couple’s strange disappearance after a trip to Spokane spurred a search from neighbors

The mystery deepened over the whereabouts of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Hicks, who had a farm near Sprague.

The couple left their home for what was intended to be a one-day trip to Spokane to see a dentist. They left their cows and other livestock to be looked after by the neighbors.

But the Hicks couple never returned. They had now been gone five days, and police had no clues about where they might be. Police said they weren’t even certain what make of car they had driven to Spokane.

Police speculated that they might have had a mysterious accident on the way to Spokane. Neighbors had begun a general search.

From the speedway beat: Plans were underway to build an auto speedway at the Alan Track just east of Post Falls.

The Alan Track already boasted a horse-racing track, but now the owners were contemplating an adjacent $150,000 speedway in which race cars could hit 125 miles per hour. It would be the “largest of its kind ever built in the United States,” said the owner of the Prince Automobile Speedway Construction Co.

Also on this date

(From onthisday.com)

1944: “Going My Way,” directed by Leo McCarey and starring Bing Crosby premieres in New York. It went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1945.

1960: The Anne Frank House opens in Amsterdam.

1991: The 356th and final episode of CBS’s second-longest-running series TV show “Dallas,” second only to “Gunsmoke.”

2002: “Spider-Man,” starring Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe, premieres.