This day in history: Spokane slated to Coors beer warehouse. Bikes celebrated at field day
From 1976: Big news arrived for Spokane beer drinkers: The Coors Distributing Co. was building a 27,000-square-foot refrigerated warehouse at Mission Avenue and Thierman Street, and would soon begin marketing Coors beer in the Spokane area.
Coors beer had achieved near legendary status in Spokane and many other areas, largely because it was unavailable. Now, the company’s president said that “increased brewing and packaging capacity at the Golden, Colo., brewery made the expansion into Spokane possible.”
The new Coors warehouse was expected to open in September and would serve “about 700 retail outlets in Spokane, Pend Oreille, Stevens and Whitman counties.”
From 1926: A bicycle field day was planned at Coeur d’Alene Park in Spokane, presided over by J. Howard Rodds, “nationally known bicycle rider and representative of the Cycle Trades of America.”
Bicycles were no longer a fad as they were a generation earlier – they were widely used by both young and old. The field day would include “safety-first” programs, a bicycle parade, bike decoration contests and a “plank-riding contest.”
Riders would compete to see how long they could stay atop a 5-inch-wide, 150-foot-long wooden plank.
“A beautiful gold watch” would be awarded to the winner.
In unrelated outdoor-contest news, William Delyea, of Coeur d’Alene, was proclaimed World Champion Log Roller in the annual competition at Cliquet, Wisconsin.
“One of the stunts which he mastered was the rolling of logs while wearing roller skates,” the Chronicle wrote.