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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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This day in history: Spokane City Council considered traffic problems on Perry, Courtland and Central; boys injured by dynamite

Two boys were injured after they found a blasting cap on the South Hill, The Spokesman-Review reporter on Oct. 19, 2025. The newspaper also reported that the Northern Pacific Railroad was hiring contractors to build a 41 branch railroad from Orofino, Idaho, to "the center of the Clearwater forest." (Spokesman-Review archives)
Two boys were injured after they found a blasting cap on the South Hill, The Spokesman-Review reporter on Oct. 19, 2025. The newspaper also reported that the Northern Pacific Railroad was hiring contractors to build a 41 branch railroad from Orofino, Idaho, to "the center of the Clearwater forest." (Spokesman-Review archives)
By Jim Kershner The Spokesman-Review

From 1975: The Spokane City Council was looking into three traffic “problem areas,” identified through a number of citizen complaints.

Those were:

• Perry Street, at the intersections of 18th, 19th and 20th avenues. This street presented several problems involving stop signs or lack thereof.

• Courtland Avenue at its intersection with Monroe Street. The problems involved pedestrian crossings from Emerson Primary School, as well as traffic entry and exit onto Monroe Street.

• Central Avenue, from Division Street to Wall Street. The problems included congested arterials and school crossings to Madison Primary School.

From 1925: Two boys, 10 and 13, found a “dynamite cap” (blasting cap) at a construction site on the South Hill.

They decided to “test the explosiveness” of the cap. So they cut open the cap, tied it to a tree, and touched a match to it.

Nothing happened.

So they tried it again.

“It exploded with marvelous results – so marvelous that both boys were literally plastered with fragments,” said The Spokesman-Review.

The boys were taken to Sacred Heart Hospital, but fortunately most of their wounds were superficial and neither was seriously hurt.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1781: British forces under General Charles Cornwallis sign terms of surrender to George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown at 2 p.m., effectively ending the American Revolutionary War.