Good Old Days

125 years ago

The Commoner

July 18, 1890

A few days ago the bones of a white man sewed up in a sack were found on the shores of Pows Lake at Chatcolet. It is supposed the ghastly find had been washed up from the bottom of the lake during the high water of last spring and is the evidence of some foul murder.

The finding of the bones recalls an incident that may throw some light on the mystery, but who were the murderers and who the victim, are questions that will probably never be solved. About a year ago, on the bank of the lake, opposite and some two miles distance from where the sack of fleshless bones was found a man's hat, shoes and clothing were found. It was supposed that some bather had got over his depth and drowned, and the matter was soon forgotten. A dark crime has evidently been committed and the body put out of the way, but the waters of the lake refused to keep the secret and have cast up the only existing evidence

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

July 23, 1915

The city has exceeded its legal debt limit by $8,000, according to L. D. Brown and J. M. Rummell, state auditors who examined the city accounts last month. However, City Clerk Welty declares that the liabilities are $5000 under the limit, claiming that the examiners erroneously considered a $14,000 water fund as a debt.

Welty received the report of the examiners the first of the week. The figures place the assessed valuation of the city at $1,392,599, against which a legal debt exceeding one and one-half per cent of that amount cannot be incurred. This limits the debt to $20,888.99, but the report shows the present debt to be $29,365.03. The full debt is $58,584.65, but there are credits against it amounting to $29,319.63.

Welty maintains that the $14,152.97 water fund warrants is not a debt since the warrants are steadily being paid by patrons of the city water supply.

The report covers the books from January 1, 1914, to March 31, 1915. It took the auditors nine days to complete it at an expense of $109.25.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette Commoner

July 19, 1940

That sack sewing is apparently destined to become almost a lost art in the Palouse grain country in the future is evidenced in the quiet but wide-spread revolution taking place in the handling of grain in this region.

For generations this country has turned out twine and needle experts who could sew up a sack with a few swift movements of the hand, but with the change to handling of grain in the bulk. They are no longer required. About 80 per cent more than twice that of last year, of Whitman County grain will be handled this year in the bulk, County Agent A. F. Harms estimated.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

July 22, 1965

Checks totaling more than $1 million have been forwarded to the owners and operators of 313 farms since last week as the county ASC office began making payments under the 1965 wheat program, Office manager H. E. (Tony) Smick said this week.

The checks represent the amount individual farmers will receive under the certificate plan and are based on payments of 75 cents per bushel on wheat for domestic consumption and 30 cents per bushel on wheat for export, he explained.

Under the plan farmers will receive the 75-cent certificate payments on 45 percent of their normal production and 30-cent certificate payments on 35 percent of their normal production. "Normal production" averages 46 bushels per acre in Whitman County.

25 years ago

Colfax Gazette

July 19, 1990

The shortage of rental housing in Pullman now is spreading to the rural county, leaving students to compete with other new residents for a limited number of spaces.

Sources in Palouse, Garfield, Albion and Colfax report virtually no rental vacancies, with everything already committed for the upcoming school year and anything that opens up being taken almost immediately.

The city clerk in Palouse reported there's no housing for rent in Palouse, although a few places are for sale.

Even those are disappearing because of the town's proximity to WSU, she added.

WSU students started calling in March to find places for the next school year and still were unsuccessful.

Students are being advised to look in the rural county or Lewiston-Clarkston for shelter because Pullman is full, said Darci Jones from the Associated Students of WSU.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

July 21, 2005

More than 1,200 marijuana plants were confiscated in an "outdoor-grow" south of Pomeroy late last week by officers from the Quad Cities Drug Task Force, the Idaho State Police, Garfield County Sheriffs Office and the Washington State Department of Fish and Game.

Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers, who serves as commander of the task force, said the grow was located in a remote area of Columbia County about 15 miles south of Pomeroy, after information led them to conduct an aircraft surveillance of the area.

"This is the largest grow we have seen in the area in some time," he said. "Someone was planning on putting a large amount of marijuana on our local streets and chunk of money in their pockets."

Street value for the plants, many of them ready for harvest, was estimated at $800,000. Myers said it is unknown who the marijuana plants belonged to, and they have no specific leads at the moment. There have been several large marijuana grows in Washington State in the last 12 months and they will be looking into possible connections.