This day in history: Chad Mitchell Trio founder sentenced to prison in marijuana case; logs filled Spokane River downtown

From 1975: Spokane’s Chad Mitchell, founder of the Chad Mitchell Trio, was sentenced to five years in prison and five years probation for possessing 480 pounds of marijuana. He had been arrested while in a truck transporting the marijuana.

When he heard sentence pronounced in San Antonio, Mitchell said, “This has been the most painful year of my life.”

His conviction would be reversed in 1976, because his right to due process had been violated. But later that year, a higher court reinstated the conviction. In the end, Mitchell spent only five months in a minimum security federal prison, and successfully resumed his singing career.

The Chad Mitchell Trio had been formed at Gonzaga University when Mitchell and the other members were students.

From 1925: A portion of the Spokane River downtown was jammed with thousands of logs all the way from “the Great Northern railroad bridge clear to the mill” – meaning, the Phoenix Mill, at the foot of Wall Street.

“Never in years has the south channel of the Spokane River been so filled with logs as during the last few weeks,” said a caption of a photo in the Spokane Daily Chronicle. The paper estimated that 2.7 million feet of logs were in or near the river.

This backlog, pardon the pun, was necessary “to keep busy the second shift at the Phoenix Mill.” The paper noted that the Phoenix Mill was “now owned by the Long Lake Lumber Co.”

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1945: Allies begin bombing the German city of Dresden, resulting in a devastating firestorm that destroys city and kills more than 22,000 people.