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This day in history: Kootenai County backed giant outdoor concert at State Line. Cheney college president criticized governor

Kootenai County commissioners issued a permit for a giant outdoor rock festival at Northwest Speedway at State Line, Idaho, the Spokesman-Review reported on April 29, 1976. Promoters had hoped to have the concert in Liberty Lake, but officials had rejected the plan.
By Jim Kershner The Spokesman-Review

From 1976: After Spokane County rejected a permit for a giant outdoor rock festival at Liberty Lake, the promoters had a backup plan.

They were moving their proposed concert just a few miles east, to the Northwest Speedway at State Line, Idaho.

Kootenai County commissioners subsequently voted, somewhat reluctantly, to issue the permit. They had earlier rejected the permit on the same grounds that Spokane County had rejected it – failure to reach safety requirements – but the promoters provided additional evidence which met the requirements.

One Kootenai County commissioner said he “was philosophically opposed to holding the festival” but said he was “bound by law” to approve it.

The promoters claimed they would attract 6,000 people per day, and would provide entertainment “such as ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, Bill Haley and the Comets and Olivia Newton-John.”

In other rock concert news, the appearance by Elvis Presley at the Spokane Coliseum two days earlier merited only a small mention in The Spokesman-Review, which said that Elvis “performed before a full and often screaming house.”

From 1926: Noah D. Showalter, the president of Cheney Normal School (now Eastern Washington University), who announced a day earlier that he would resign as of Sept. 1, was interviewed by the Spokane Daily Chronicle. He said Washington Gov. Roland H. Hartley’s colleges in the state would be, as the Chronicle described it, “dashed on the rocks” if his policy was carried out.

President of Cheney Normal School Noah D. Showalter suggested the state government's lack of funding for the school now known as Eastern Washington University played a large role in his decision to submit his resignation, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported on April 29, 1926. He said he might take course work at Stanford or do research at Harvard after his resignation became final on Sept. 1.
President of Cheney Normal School Noah D. Showalter suggested the state government’s lack of funding for the school now known as Eastern Washington University played a large role in his decision to submit his resignation, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported on April 29, 1926. He said he might take course work at Stanford or do research at Harvard after his resignation became final on Sept. 1.

Showalter, the namesake of EWU’s Showalter Hall, said the state was withholding so much money from the college that it would have to shut down later in the year.

“In all my 32 years teaching experience in this state, I have never seen such hectic days for education as we are witnessing at this time,” he said. “We are confronted with a situation which must be met four-square.”