This day in history: ‘Wet’ candidates sweep Spokane city elections; plan for major amusement park at Riverfront rejected

From 1975: Spokane advertising man Thomas Main’s dream – some would say pipe dream – to turn Riverfront Park into a cross “between Disneyland and Tivoli Gardens” died a quick death at the hands of the Spokane City Council.

They voted 4-3 not to support Main’s plan.

One element in particular did not sit well with the council majority. He proposed fencing off the entire park and charging admission.

Main had months to prepare the plan, yet many details were still vague. He said the U.S. Pavilion should be a “repository for American memorabilia.” He suggested that the U.S. Pavilion be covered with aluminum, provided by Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical, “in honor of Henry J. Kaiser.”

He proposed pavilions from foreign nations depicting their cultures, and that the states would have pavilions presenting their history.

When asked where the overall funding would come from, he said, “I can’t tell you that at the moment.”

From 1925: The so-called “Wet Trio” of Spokane city candidates (meaning, anti-Prohibition) swept the city commissioner elections.

Leonard Funk, Charles Hedger and Robert Butler finished first, second and third in the balloting, which meant a new City Hall alignment. Whether this would be a pro-liquor administration was still unclear.

They had been widely considered the “wet” candidates, and they easily defeated the candidates supported by the Bone Dry League and the Anti-Saloon League. Yet the trio had bristled at the notion that they were the “Wet Trio.”