This day in history: The North-South Freeway was a long time coming even in 1975

From 1975: The Spokesman-Review ran a headline, suitable for recycling today, that read, “Traffic relief for north side seen distant.”

The truth had dawned on Spokane that the North-South Freeway, “first proposed in the 1940s,” was not going to happen “in the foreseeable future.”

So now officials were scrambling for an “interim solution to the North Side traffic problem,” although they probably did not realize how long “interim” could be.

Among the possible solutions – a one-way Division-Ruby couplet. An even more ambitious idea never came to pass: a couplet all the way to Francis Avenue, using Lidgerwood Street as Division Street’s one-way companion on the northern section.

The article noted, presciently, that decisions on North-South Freeway “still seem far away.”

From 1925: A group of “public-spirited Spokane men” purchased 2,000 acres on Mount Kit Carson, next to Mount Spokane, as a new “recreational ground” for the public.

“Kit Carson will cost the people of Spokane nothing,” one of the buyers said. “On the other hand, it will give them one of the greatest recreational parks in the Northwest. … We feel that the scenic beauty of this peak surpasses Mount Spokane.”

The deeds would be held in trust “pending certain developments.” Mount Kit Carson would later become part of Mount Spokane State Park.