Good Old Days April 7

The Steptoe Butte Hotel is shown here in its heyday. The photo is not dated, but it does have an inscription which reads “Steptoe Butte 3,800 feet high. The best place in Washington to get a good view of the country.” Photo courtesy Joann Hamlin.

Shown here is the Colfax Telephone switchboard in an undated archival photo. This switch bank was once state-of-the-art technology. Photo courtesy Joann Hamlin.

125 years ago

The Commoner

April 3, 1891

Garfield was the scene of a rousing and earnest mass meeting last Tuesday afternoon, the purpose of which was to more thoroughly organize and unite the towns and districts in the matter of urging the claims of Whitman County for the location of the state agricultural college. Nearly every city and town in the county was represented. Delegations were present from Endicott, Rosalia, Tekoa, Farmington, Garfield, Uniontown, Palouse City, Pampa, Wawawai and Colfax. Messrs. A. Coolidge, Harry Cornwell and J. H. Leiter represented the city at the meeting.

The meeting was held in the largest hall in the town and was characterized throughout by great enthusiasm and harmony.

Senator R. C. McCroskey, of Garfield, opened the meeting, when Harry Cornwell, of Colfax, was made permanent chairman, and D. H. King, of the Tekoa Globe, secretary.

No time was lost in taking up the matter for which the meeting was called, and for an hour or more the prospects and advantages of Whitman County were discussed. It was the unanimous feeling that Whitman not only deserved the college, possessing superior advantages to all other aspirants, but would be able to convince the commissioners that such was the case. The greatest confidence was expressed in the integrity and high standard of the commissioners. The most important feature of the discussion was the agreement of all the delegates to wave every personal and local interest and to work together harmoniously to secure the college for Whitman if possible.

R. C. McCroskey, Garfield; Lillis Smith, Endicott, and W. H. Plummer, Farmington, were appointed to a committee to select a county executive meeting to take entire charge and use all efforts to this end.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

April 7, 1916

J. V. McCall, state president of the farmers' union, was in Colfax Tuesday on his way home from Mansfield and visited his daughter, Martha, who is a student at the Colfax high school. Mr. McCall stated that he traveled about 2,000 miles this month and that his travels in the interests of the Union average 18,000 miles in the last nine months.

He reports the organization in excellent shape. Farmers contemplate building a number of elevators in various parts of the Inland Empire, no less than 12 more will be in the process of construction this summer. Three of these will be built in the Nez Perce country, one at Benge and one at Kahlotus. Hay will also build a new elevator this season.

LaCrosse finds it necessary to build an addition to their elevator and Oroville will need three in its surrounding country. The state is ahead several locals and one new county organized. On the whole, Mr. McCall believes the farmers are on the eve of a most prosperous season. He took the evening train for his home at Hay.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette Commoner

April 4, 1941

Eight thousand fingerling Rainbow trout, average three and a half inches long, have been allotted to Whitman County, according to Joe Drolet, game protector.

About half of this number has already been received from the state hatchery, the fish being described by Mr. Drolet as being the nicest planting ever received by the county.

The recent arrivals were used to stock the mouths of the several good fishing streams in the county, including Weaver springs, on the Adams county line, which run into Rock creek and Nigger creek, a tributary of Rock creek above Rock lake.

The remaining half would be planted within the next 10 days, Mr. Drolet stated.

The fishing season throughout the state will open next Sunday but applicable only to the streams and rivers, except that the Snake river is open the year around. The lakes of Washington will be open on the first Sunday in May.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

April 7, 1966

Elections may be held as early as Tuesday, May 24, on consolidation proposals affecting four Whitman County school districts if all legal problems can be worked out, County Auditor Pauline H. Lust, supervisor of elections, said this week.

The consolidation of Thornton with Rosalia and Ewan with St. John was recommended by members of the county school organization committee Monday night following two hearings.

Action toward consolidation of the districts was started several weeks ago with petitions signed by residents of all districts involved, asking the county board to hold hearings and make recommendations.

Most of the chairs in the county commissioners' room were filled for the Ewan-St. John hearing at 7:30 p.m. Monday and a near-overflow crowd attended the Thornton-Rosalia hearing an hour later.

However, the hearings presided over by John Dorman of LaCrosse were orderly and only a few patrons of each district voiced opinions.

In both proposals, the county committee voted unanimously to exclude the bonded indebtedness of the larger districts from becoming a responsibility of the smaller districts.

This means that the property owners in the Thornton district would not be required to assume any of the Rosalia district's more than $300,000 bonded indebtedness incurred when the new high school was built and that Ewan property owners would not be required to pay off any of the $204,00 in bonds still outstanding on the new St. John school building.

The Thornton district has no bonded indebtedness, but the Ewan district has $44,000 in bonded indebtedness as of this date, incurred in 1956 when the patrons of that district voted to help pay part of the costs of the new St. John school, in which Ewan's high school students are educated.

Superintendent Kenneth White of Rosalia told the Gazette that his district owes $305,000 toward bonds on the new high school and $10,000 on bonds issued in 1956 on the elementary school bond issue is scheduled to be paid off this year.

Simple majority votes in both the Thornton and Rosalia districts would be required to effect their consolidation, and the same would apply in the Ewan-St. John merger.

Norman Westling of the state department of public instruction, invited to attend the hearings by the county committee, said that there were no provisions under which the Thornton district could be “partitioned” to permit some patrons to consolidate with one district and some with another. He did point out that individual property owners can petition to have their property transferred to districts immediately adjoining them, after the consolidation vote, if they wish, but that their petitions would have to be decided by the county committee.

Among those opposing consolidation of the Ewan and St. John districts at the hearing were Ed Hayes Jr., Dave Johnstone, Mrs. Gene Weiss and Mrs. Ed Hayes Jr. Favoring the consolidation were Ogden Eriksen and Norman Bailey. Further explanations were sought by Emmett Shawgo and Mrs. Norman Bailey.

Speaking in opposition to consolidation of Thornton and Rosalia were Art Maley and John Weitman of Thornton, both of whom thought Rosalia was the “wrong place” for a central school. Maley said that St. John and Oakesdale were both “more centralized” and Weitman complained that the Thornton district was too badly divided to vote on consolidation at the present time.

Mrs. Anson Patterson, Mr. and Mrs. Dale Peringer Jr., Ralph Thursby, Mrs. Virgil Klaveano, Mrs. Robert Scholz and Mrs. Lester Mason were among those favoring consolidation. All agreed that Rosalia offered more than any other district to the Thornton people, and Mrs. Patterson urged patrons to consider the past favors the Rosalia district had shown the Thornton people.

Also figuring prominently in arguments favoring the consolidation was the paved highway from the Thornton area into Rosalia and the “quality of the education” provided by the Rosalia school system.

Pullman Attorney Don McMannis, representing the Thornton school board, said the board was not opposing consolidation and didn't wish to take sides but that the board members felt that the proposed consolidation did not represent the “collective thinking of the community” nor the “feeling of the majority.”

25 years ago

Colfax Gazette

April 4, 1991

Plans for the new USDA office building on the south hill of Colfax have led to city-county discussion on the status of the Almota grade road. The road at present now belongs to the county, but it runs through property which is now inside the city limits.

Phil Messina, city administrator, said a transfer of the road to the city could lead to an improvement project which would be financed by the state's Transportation Improvement Board, the state office which paid 90 percent of the cost on the $332,500 Thorn Street project in Colfax last summer.

The city now owns the Almota road up to KCLX radio station. Traffic loads on the road have increased with development of the hospital, Whitman Convalescent Center, Community Bible Church, Hill-Ray Plaza and the two medical centers.

Addition of the new USDA building, which has been proposed for a site between Hill-Ray and the church, is expected to add more traffic to the grade. The building will house ASCS and SCS staffs which now total about 25 people. Parking space requirements for the new building have been set at 55 to accommodate staff and farmers who use the building.

Sidewalks, gutters and storm drains are among the items needed for the road which sustained increased pedestrian traffic as the south hill area developed.

A move for annexation of the proposed USDA site, approximately 1.5 acres, was delayed at the Monday night city council meeting. The Kenneth Ledgerwoods of Pomeroy, who have received a contract to lease the building to the USDA, have yet to file a survey plat with their petition for annexation. Messina said a plat map is needed before the petition is complete and the city can set an annexation date.

Beside annexation, the Ledgerwood project will also have to undergo a zoning decision. Hill-Ray and other property within the city limits is now in an R-3 residential zone which will not accommodate an office building.

The site at present is in the county agricultural zone.

The office building's proposed site is on Vista Point Drive, a road which was part of the Hill-Ray development and never turned over to the city. An agreement to add the road to the city's grid was dropped after city officials realized residents of Hill-Ray, under state laws, were exempt from paying property taxes on living units in the complex.

Police Chief Barney Buckley said the city and county have shared winter work chores on the Almota Grade road. City trucks and county trucks have plowed the road. Some of the city work on what is officially a county road has been offset by county trucks dropping sand on Fairview Street on the lower part of the hill which is part of the Almota grade.

Messina said the county would agree to continue to provide ditching and weed control for the road segment if it officially became city property.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

April 6, 2006

Whitman County Parks Department is moving through the paperwork process for a project to raise Sunshine Road near Highway 270 for a bridge across the Bill Chipman Trail. The bridge tunnel underneath the road would serve the trail.

The aim is to keep the motorist on the road and riders and walkers on the trail separated.

It will also ease vehicle access to the highway by bringing Sunshine Road traffic level to the highway.

Parks Ranger Roger Marcus said the project has been awarded $81,352 by a federal transportation enhancement grant, which will be handed down through the Department of Transportation.

Parks Director Tim Myers said he hopes the project can be done in conjunction with the DOT's widening of Highway 270, but Marcus noted the project, like all county projects, must go through a competitive bid process.

Myers said the project is moving through the planning stages, and it is now in the hands of the county's planning department, which will determine whether to issue a conditional use permit and review the plans through the State Environmental Policy Act checklist.