This day in history: Nor’wester ‘76 concert turned into riot. Civil War veterans were angry at Spokane high school teacher

From 1976: Hundreds of angry concertgoers went on a violent rampage at the Nor’wester ’76 rock festival in State Line, Idaho, destroying the stage, setting semitrucks on fire and toppling a huge crane.

The crowd grew angry “when word spread that the festival was closing down” two days ahead of schedule. The headlining bands dropped out for fear that the promoters could not pay them.

Angry ticket holders stormed onto the festival grounds, targeting “the stage, the semi-trucks parked near it and a dozen or so small trailers parked backstage for the performers to use.”

“An Early Dawn milk truck was pushed over the grandstand seating, coming to rest on its side in the infield,” said The Spokesman-Review. “The truck was then set on fire. No one was in the truck when it rolled. A tall crane backstage toppled, crashing into the awning over the stage and through the stage door. The entire twisted mass was then set ablaze. … The speedway literally looked like a battlefield during the height of the riot.”

The promoters were nowhere to be found and “unconfirmed reports were that they had simply run out of money.”

“Local law enforcement officials did not approach the speedway, but directed traffic on adjacent roads as the riot ran its course,” said the SR.

No serious injuries were reported, but at least six persons were hospitalized including a man who was struck by an auto on the festival grounds and a woman who broke her leg attempting to prevent another woman from falling.

From 1926: The Spokane chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic veterans’ fraternal organization issued a vigorous and unanimous protest against “The Story of Our Country,” a history book written by Ruth West, head of the history department at Lewis and Clark High School and her father, Willis Mason West, a history professor.

The veterans’ group was angry about a passage that appeared to question the patriotism and loyalty of the commander of Fort Sumter at the beginning of the Civil War.

However, Ruth West said it was all a misunderstanding. The editors apparently confused two officers with the same last name. The paragraph in question “will not appear in the text, and will not appear in the school edition, which will be out in June.”