This day in history: Boy rescued from collapsed snow fort after massive dump of snow in Spokane

From 1974: The Spokesman-Review’s roundup of news events in 1974 covered a wide range of subjects: streakers, DDT spraying, a Kootenai Indian “war,” and, of course, Expo ’74.

The “streaking fad” culminated in a mass streaking event at Eastern Washington State College. About 1,000 people showed up to watch 30 streakers, both male and female. One streaker noted that “man was born nude and streaking is just a new form of healthy and clean American fun.”

The tussock moth was the target of a massive DDT insecticide spray over thousands of acres of Inland Northwest forests.

The Kootenai Indian dispute was declared a “war” by the tribe – but a nonviolent one. The tribe demanded their aboriginal lands be returned, and until then, it said, “a state of war will exist” between the tribes and the U.S.

From 1924: Nine-and-a-half inches of snow on the ground proved to be both playground and peril for Spokane’s children.

For Billie Willey, 11, it nearly proved tragic. He and the rest of the “neighborhood gang” on North Adams Street had built “an enormous snow house” – apparently like a makeshift igloo.

Billie was left to guard the snow house while his friend went to get his mittens. When his friend returned, the house had collapsed and Billie was nowhere to be seen. Billie’s big brother arrived and pulled the unconscious boy from under several hundred pounds of snow.

Billie was unconscious, but after about 20 minutes, he was able to sit up and say “the house just crumbled.”

Meanwhile, a number of Spokane’s hilliest streets were closed to traffic so that they would be “safe for coasting” – i.e., sledding.