This day in history: The final family left a West Side Vietnamese refugee camp, and a century ago, a remote pioneer schoolhouse got press

From 1975: The last Vietnamese refugee family left Camp Murray in Tacoma, after the camp had relocated 1,310 refugees in towns and cities across the state, including many in Spokane.

Camp Murray was closing, not because there were no more refugees, but because it had been constructed for summer occupancy only.

“Accustomed to the humid warmth of Southeast Asia, the refugees had found that the plywood huts were not the warmest part of their welcome to their new country,” the Associated Press wrote.

Another refugee center in Cheney had already closed. State officials “have not indicated whether a new relocation center will be opened in Washington.”

From 1925: Spokane County’s only remaining “pioneer log schoolhouse” was located on the side of a peak, 4 miles south of Mount Kit Carson and 40 miles northeast of Spokane.

“There it houses five children and a teacher and represents School District No. 167,” the Spokane Chronicle reported. “… Mrs. Jane Smith is the teacher. Three of the five pupils are her children.”

The log building had a cedar shake roof, a “chimney set on four piles set in the ground,” and a flagpole “with the national emblem aflutter from the top.”

The school was so remote that teacher Jane Smith admitted that it took her three tries to find the place.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1967: Justice Thurgood Marshall is sworn in, becoming the first Black person on the Supreme Court.