Good Old Days

125 years ago

July 27, 1888

H.S. Hollingsworth, Arthur Howe and Dr. Harvey departed last week on a hunting trip. They will be gone several weeks and expect to extend their trip into the very heart of the Coeur d’Alene mountains. They are well equipped with shooting irons, flour, bacon and coffee and expect to have bushels of sport before their return. They will make the trip on horseback, and have a pack animal well loaded.

P.B. Groat, immigration commissioner of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, says that the elevator and warehouse capacity for wheat at present at Spangle, Plaza, Rosalia, Oakesdale, Belmont, Garfield, Palouse City, Four Mile station, Whalan, Staley, Johnson, Colton, Uniontown and Genesee, in the Palouse region, will aggregate over two million bushels.

Those who do not make a practice of studying almanacs were considerably surprised last Sunday night when the moon went into eclipse early in the evening, the dark spot upon her face gradually growing larger until about 10 o’clock, when the eclipse was total. About 10:30 it began passing away, and shortly after midnight fair Luna came out in her usual colors. It was an interesting sight, and was fully enjoyed by our citizens.

100 years ago

July 25, 1913

Principal Hargraves of the high school, with the assistance of Janitor Organ, is utilizing vacation days in making substantial improvements in the school library. Handsome new bookcases have been built, other furniture and equipment added, and the books have been properly listed and catalogued. The library contains about 1,500 volumes, and the books are well selected for reference, forming a good foundation for a library which will no doubt grow from this nucleus. There is room in the school library for six or seven thousand volumes.

Another Whitman County town is showing much progressiveness in the matter of street improvements and the town is to be congratulated upon the decision of its council. Uniontown has created an improvement district for the business part of town and the council has let a contract for more than $20,000 worth of street pavement.

Mr. and Mrs. C.A. Price of Pullman stopped in Colfax for a short time on Friday while returning from a trip to Oregon and the Walla Walla country. They report that harvest is well underway around Walla Walla but the country is terribly dusty and the weather is uncomfortably hot.

75 years ago

July 22, 1938

Broncs, steers and calves, all bad actors to perform in Colfax’s sixth annual native drama of the west, the round-up of September 9 and 10, have been contracted for by the Colfax Round-Up association.

During the past week local quotations on white wheat dropped 5 cents and on red wheat 6 cents. The Wednesday market here was: White 48 cents; red 46 cents. The old crops were worth 4 cents less. Harvest on fall wheat will be general all over the county by the middle of next week.

50 years ago

July 25, 1963

The Colfax Grain Growers have purchased the concrete grain elevator owned by General Mills in Steptoe for $60,000, Manager Jack Hallett said Wednesday. The deal was completed this week, and the Colfax Growers took immediate possession and will operate the elevator during this harvest, he said.

Sheriff C.A. “Mike” Humphreys was demonstrating his technique on the department’s new teletype. The teletype will link the Colfax sheriff’s office with some 60 law enforcement agencies in the state, and will enable the office to send or receive messages as fast as they can be typed out on the machine.

25 years ago

July 28, 1988

Getting up for night feedings is something every parent can relate to, but Joyce Waddle of Colfax not only had to give her baby a bottle every hour on the hour, she had to sleep in the barn to do it. Apache, now a two-month-old colt, was rejected by his mother at birth and spent two days without food and water before anyone realized his mother was not feeding him. The first week Joyce slept in the barn with her alarm clock. The second week, she fed Apache every two hours. The feedings were lengthened gradually and the most exciting of all was when the foal started eating grain.

Colfax schools will begin the 1988-89 school year on Aug. 30.

A fire on the Jordan ranch near Winona Sunday afternoon brought response from Lamont, Harder, Endicott and St. John fire trucks. Approximately 30 acres of wheat were destroyed. A leak from one of the fire trucks’ gas tank added to the excitement. A tractor was employed to help get the fire out.

10 years ago

July 24, 2003

Due to increased fire danger, extremely dry weather conditions and forecasts which predict little or no precipitation, Kamiak Butte County Park will be closed to the public beginning July 25.

Two Palouse area ag pilots were credited with dropping the first water on a tree which was hit by lightning last Tuesday night at about 8 p.m. on Kamiak Butte. The two pilots flew over the burning tree and knocked down the fire while volunteer crews worked their way to the scene. The response by the ag pilots and subsequent rain helped keep the fire from spreading on the butte. The lightning hit a tree on the south side of the butte near the mid point about 150 yards below the park border.

One of the new windows in the Whitman County Courthouse had to be replaced after being hit by a BB shot. The window, which was in the juvenile department section of the building, was on the Main Street side of the building on the second floor.