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Local History
Summary
How things have changed
Every Monday in The Spokesman-Review we bring you a new installment of Then & Now, a photo feature showing historic and modern images of places around Spokane.
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Jim Kershner’s ‘This day in history’
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This day in history: The American Freedom Train and a big, fat Serbian wedding
From 1975: The American Freedom Train was heading to Spokane, and 12,000 people had already signed up to tour it.
This day in history: A courtroom melee sent a detective to the hospital
From 1975: A defendant in a Spokane courtroom kicked Spokane County detective Lt. Larry V. Erickson in the jaw when the defendant lashed out at officers who were attempting to …
This day in history: Timber industry suffered under high interest rates. Woman accused of killing husband said she was abused and neglected
From 1975: The Inland Northwest’s timber industry was hurting in 1975, continuing a long-term downward trend.
This day in history: Thomas Creech, who claimed he killed 42, convicted of murdering 2. Proposed candy store near Roosevelt school sparked outrage
From 1975: A Wallace jury convicted Thomas E. Creech, 25, of two counts of first degree murder – yet his involvement in 42 other murders remained an open question.
This day in history: Spokane’s debate over selling stray dogs for medical research intensified
From 1975: The hot debate over whether the city should sell stray dogs to Washington State University for research was getting even hotter.
This day in history: Whitworth’s homecoming game was canceled; Spokane principal warned that children were learning to gamble at fair
From 1975: Whitman College dealt Whitworth College’s homecoming celebration a blow when Whitman announced that it was forfeiting its upcoming game at Whitworth.
This day in history: Missoula man rigs Rambler to burn wood as fuel; Judge fines lumber companies for price-fixing
From 1975: Lance Cyr, a Missoula forestry student, found a creative solution to the gas crisis. He built a wood-burning Rambler.
This day in history: Spokane City Council considered traffic problems on Perry, Courtland and Central; boys injured by dynamite
From 1975: The Spokane City Council was looking into three traffic “problem areas,” identified through a number of citizen complaints.
This day in history: Authorities linked braggart to 9 murders. Spokane streetcar company proposed 10-cent fares
This day in history: A former groundskeeper claimed to have killed 42 people, which would have made him ‘the largest-known mass murderer in the history of the United States’
From 1975: Thomas Eugene Creech, 25, “a former church sexton,” was on trial in Wallace for murdering two housepainters – and then told the court he had murdered 42 people, …
This day in history: A man’s accidental death in Sandpoint led to a lawsuit from his family against the city
From 1975: The five children of Gerald Brown, 32, filed a $500,000 claim against the city of Sandpoint after he was struck and killed by a truck on U.S. Highway …
This day in history: Health concerns were growing over the Bunker Hill smelter, particularly for children living nearby
From 1975: Idaho health officials had grown so concerned about lead contamination around the Bunker Hill Co. smelter near Kellogg, they were contemplating banning children from living within a mile …
This day in history: The last relics of Expo ‘74 were coming down, marking the end of a landmark era for Spokane
From 1975: The “recycling” of the Expo ’74 site was nearly complete with “the removal and sale of structures and equipment.”
This day in history: Local chapter of National Organization for Women protest city over firefighter application; Montana woman accused of running smuggling ring
From 1975: The Spokane Chapter of the National Organization for Women charged the city of Spokane with failing to meet federal guidelines in accepting firefighter trainee applications.
This day in history: Dam business and a baseball photo that was historic for one simple reason
From 1975: Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson presided over the launch of “the largest hydroelectric generator in the world” at the Grand Coulee Dam.
This day in history: Spokane law legend Carl Maxey filed a $3 million suit against the city over its intentional river dumping
This day in history: A Spokane sewage dump sparked massive contamination jump in river; worker injured in electrical accident
From 1975: Stay out of the Spokane River! Don’t even touch it!
This day in history: A boy was being held in his parents’ shooting deaths, and a deadly fire broke out at an Indian boarding school
From 1975: A 12-year-old boy was arrested in connection with the shooting death of his mother and the wounding of his stepfather in an RV campground just west of Cheney.
This day in history: Panel recommends new juvenile justice system for Spokane youths; Former Detroit Tigers and Spokane Indians player named celebrity announcer for Chronicle’s World Series calls
From 1975: “Why did Johnny and Suzy become juvenile delinquents?”
This day in history: Spokane’s Flour Mill was taking on new life as a shopping mall three years after its last agricultural use
From 1975: The Spokane Flour Mill had milled its last wheat in 1972, and over the ensuing two years had been completely remodeled and transformed into a retail shopping mall.
This day in history: Sewage was coming to the Spokane River – on purpose
From 1975: Raw sewage would be “unavoidably” dumped directly into the Spokane River over a five-day period, said Spokane’s utilities director.
This day in history: The suspect in a brazen shopping mall attack in Utah had a local tie and, eventually, an infamous reputation
From 1975: A law student at the University of Utah and “former assistant to the Washington State Republican Central Committee{span}”{/span} was charged with aggravated kidnap and attempted criminal homicide following …
This day in history: The final family left a West Side Vietnamese refugee camp, and a century ago, a remote pioneer schoolhouse got press
This day in history: ‘I want to have a woman arrested for wearing men’s pants.’ Grocery checkouts and TV were about to be revolutionized
From 1975: Two technological advances were on the way to Spokane – computerized grocery checkouts and movies delivered via cable TV.
This day in history: Spokane City Council’s nighttime meetings were a hit. John Stockton’s grandpa considered pro football offer
From 1975: The Spokane City Council’s nighttime meeting experiment proved a success, so the council voted unanimously to continue nighttime sessions at least until Nov. 4, 1975.
This day in history: Four fires west of Spokane suspected to be arson caused; Western states organize exhange program for leading hotel orchestras
From 1975: Four fires were reported west of Spokane between 2:30 and 3 a.m. – the work of a suspected arsonist.
This day in history: Kibbie Dome was preparing for first football game. S-R featured massive railroad shop
From 1975: A new era of University of Idaho football arrived with the inaugural game at the covered Kibbie Dome.
This day in history: A teller’s simple plot to avert a bank robbery was surprisingly effective
From 1975: A man passed a note to a teller, demanding money, at the American Commercial Bank, 120 N. Wall.
This day in history: Foley’s dizzy spells turned out to have a simple cause
From 1975: Tom Foley, the area’s U.S. House Representative, planned to return to work after he suffered dizzy spells and checked himself into Bethesda Naval Hospital earlier in the week.
This day in history: Small towns snubbed new transportation board. Judge rejects ousted city commissioner’s bid to get his seat back
From 1975: Spokane County held the first meeting of the Public Transportation Improvement Conference, newly authorized by the state Legislature.
This day in history: ‘Don’t shoot! I’m under arrest,’ said bootegger and thief. Boy was injured in fall from Parkade
From 1975: A Spokane boy, 16, was in critical condition after he fell 100 feet at the Parkade downtown.
This day in history: Owner of derelict hotel ‘embarrassed’ of building’s state; ‘Master cracksman’ arrested in Calif. three years after big Paulsen Building burlary
From 1975: A derelict downtown flophouse, the Northwestern Hotel, was undergoing a major remodel because the owner was “embarrassed” by it.