Good Old Days

125 years ago

The Commoner

Nov. 28, 1890

For several weeks past the residents of Colfax have been awakened in the dead hours of night by practical jokers playing in the role of coyotes. Sunday night the annoying sounds were heard, and Chief Justice Mackay with Officer Duncan started out to round up the animals. They succeeded in running to earth two young men giving the names of Charles E. Prescott and Frank Hanna, and placed them under arrest. Monday morning they paid Justice Pattison $6 each as the price of their fun.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

Nov. 26, 1915

Contracts are to be let in December for the construction of eight and three fourths miles of permanent highway leading from Pullman and bids, calling for the construction of the Inland Empire highway connecting Rosalia and Oakesdale, will be opened on the 20th of Dec. The cost of grading, draining and bridging the eight and three fourths miles of state road leading south from Pullman is estimated at a cost of $29,460. The cost of that portion of the route connecting Rosalia and Oakesdale is expected to cost $28,000.

Bids for constructing both links of the Inland Empire has been called for by the state Highway Commissioner and contracts for building these roads will be let the latter part of December.

The road leading south from Pullman, it is stated, is one of the principle roads in the county and connects Pullman, Uniontown and Colton.

For years, the people of the eastern part of the county have been agitating the building of this road.

The work of grading the road is expected to be completed by March the 1st if the awarding of the contracts are not delayed.

A time limit is to be insisted upon by the state highway board in the construction of the route south from Pullman as well as that portion of the road between Rosalia and Oakesdale.

December the 20th is the date set by the state highway board for the opening of the bids which are to be submitted for the building of these Whitman County roads.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette Commoner

Nov. 29, 1940

With a 20 to 25-year sentence imposed on Eddie Doll November 20 in Greenfield, Mass., for bank robbery, all of the four bandits who took part in the robbery of the First Savings & Trust bank here on the afternoon of September 21, 1932 are now behind prison bars, but for offenses other than the one committed here.

Doll was the driver of a sedan who waited in the alley back of the bank while Machine Gun Kelley, Ed Bentz and Reese Bailey held up the bank's employees, scooped into the bags $10,625 in currency and silver and a much larger amount in bonds, and made their escape.

Kelley, Bentz and Bailey are serving life terms in Alcatraz federal prison for the participation in the Urshel kidnapping in Utah about two years following the bank robbery here, according to Deputy Prosecutor John D. Evans, who was informed Wednesday in a letter from District Attorney John W. Heselton, Greenfield, that Doll had been given not less than 20 years nor more than 25 years for bank robbery at Greenfield.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Nov. 25, 1965

Union Pacific railroad, one of the “parents” of the Camas Prairie railroad, will oppose strenuously any efforts of the Corps of Engineers to force abandonment of 91 miles of line along the Snake river from Lewiston to Riparia.

The railroad's intentions are stated clearly in a letter mailed Nov. 4 by G. H. Baker, general manager for the northwestern district of Union Pacific, to Manager E. N. Klemgard of the Port of Whitman.

The railroad company has been informed that a report prepared by a New York consulting firm “reached the conclusion that re-location of the railroad was not economically justified,” Baker said in his letter. “We have not been permitted to see the report of that study and we do not know how it was prepared nor what information was used, except that we do know it was not based on any information obtained from the railroad company.”

The Corps of Engineers has now indicated its intention of making further study, both for the purpose of completing the original study on the necessity of relocation, and also for the purpose of determining the value of the line in the event that it is concluded to condemn the railroad rather than to relocate it, the letter continues. “We recently met with the corps to discuss their request for information to be used in the second study.

“It is the position of this company that the Camas Prairie railroad is of vital importance to the area it serves, and we will strenuously oppose any efforts of the corps to force its abandonment.

25 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Nov. 29, 1990

Officials from WSU and the county health department met recently to discuss providing health care for students with families, according to Jean Mackimmie, health department administrator.

They will meet again to discuss such issues as medical insurance, clinics for families and unpaid bills, she added.

The two groups are searching for ways to coordinate their efforts and share costs, Mackimmie explained.

They began meeting after the county discovered they were expending a lot of their efforts in Pullman and perhaps not reaching the rural poor, she said.

The university requires all students to have medical insurance, either through their parents, the university or a private carrier.

Families usually can be included but the deductibles can be as much as $50 to $100, prohibitive for many student families.

WSU is willing to work with the county, Mackimmie said. “We have made some inroads. We just want them to be aware of it.”

The university is looking into changing its insurance or getting a different broker to enable families to be included, she said.

They also are looking at expanding Student Health services to students' families but are hesitant because of budget problems, Mackimmie added.

An increasing student population coupled with rising tuition rates impacts local agencies, she noted.

“Students have to pay their tuition so it is often things such as health care or housing which suffers.”

Local agencies which provide assistance to county residents for such things are impacted by students, since they are such a large segment of the population, Mackimmie noted.

Such services include the Women Infant Children program run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Well Child Clinic run by the state, and private food banks.

Different programs have different requirements depending on whether they are funded by local, state or federal sources, Mackimmie said, but local taxes and private donations contribute to many program budgets.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

Dec. 1, 2005

The Department of Transportation is installing an electronic reader board along Highway 195. The sign will be located about a mile north of the north Pullman bypass intersection. It will be the first electronic road sign in Whitman County.

The sign's location will provide a notice point for traffic related to events on the WSU and Idaho campuses.

Larry Batterton, DOT supervisor at Colfax, said the sign will be operational within the next couple of weeks. The sign will alert motorists to tune their radios to a yet undetermined frequency for road and traffic information.

The message will be sent from the DOTs Traffic Management Center in Spokane and broadcast from a tower at the Pullman DOT shop. Aztec Electric of Spokane is working on the sign under contract for the DOT.

The emergency sign has been in planning for a year and a half, and was put into action when funds cleared and a rock slide restricted travel across Snoqualmie Pass. The slide led to a shutdown of the pass, while the population of Pullman had increased because of Dad's Day festivities and the Arizona State-WSU football game.

Crews from the DOT positioned a temporary sign at the north bypass in Pullman to advise westbound motorists of the closure of the pass, the main I-90 route across the state. Drivers were advised to use White Pass or Stevens Pass to get back to the west side of the state.

Contractors are still on the scene of the rock slide, which hit just east of the snow shelter on the east side of the pass, and traffic flow is restricted in each direction.

Most holiday travelers using the pass last week gave varied accounts of their passage in the work area.