Good Old Days Aug. 4

125 years ago

The Commoner

July 31, 1891

Colfax college has been attracting the attention of citizens of the city to some considerable extent during the past week.

Dr.

A. B. Banks, of Tacoma, by request of the board of trustees, has been taking a lively interest in the financial condition of the school.

As known to many readers of the Commoner, the institution is greatly embarrassed financially.

Meetings of citizens and others were held on Friday and Saturday evenings last, addressed by Dr.

Banks, and looking to a possible solution of the present perplexing condition of affairs, but with little success.

The city is not disposed to assist in lifting the debt while the institution is located so unpropitiously as it now is with reference to the city.

The meetings held were not generally attended, and the efforts of the committee of the board in canvassing the city this week for funds, have been met with but indifferent success.

The idea of saving to the school its present building and site has been practically abandoned. The proposition now is to secure benefactors sufficient for the carrying on of the school in its old quarters for the purpose, in the coming spring of inaugurating an entirely new educational movement, looking to the securing by the board of a new site, large campus, good location, and new and suitable buildings. Such a movement will meet with the hearty support of the citizens of this city, and will undoubtedly be a success.

***

The secretary of the state board of horticulture has sent letters to all fruit dealers in the state who are buying or receiving green fruits from other states than Washington, stating that they must secure certificates from shippers in other states, setting forth that their fruit before being sent has been thoroughly fumigated, in cases where it is subject to any scale eggs, so that it shall contain no live scale egg germs.

Unless infected fruit is fumigated, both shippers and dealers are liable to losses, as will be the case where any live germs are found upon the fruit offered for sale not being cleaned.

Statistics and information relative to the condition of orchards and fruit-growers and associations are being collected from throughout the state so that previous to the marketing seasons of the various fruits estimates may be made to transportation companies of the bulk and carriage required, thereby securing more satisfactory rates from one part of the state to the other, and not allowing transit from other states three times the distance to come into competition because of lower freight rates.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

Aug. 4, 1916

The farmers who live near Rye station six miles west of Colfax have been working on a plan to have the Spokane and Inland build them a blind siding so that they can ship their grain out over this road this fall. R. J. Meredith who owns land in this vicinity stated that there is nearly 100,000 bushels of grain raised in this district and that every bushel of it will go out over the Inland if the company will extend the track 200 yards so that they can secure a gravity system from their grain tanks.

Eight of the ten largest grain growers of this district bought a tract of land from Ed. Davis this summer on which to erect their grain tanks. The idea which was worked out by those interested in delivering their wheat at this point was to have the company extend a blind spur to this land and the grain tanks which are erected on ground higher than the cars, the farmers figured that they could load their wheat by the gravity system. This would save them a considerable amount in the price of sacks and at the same time give them a short haul.

The matter was taken up with the company some time ago by O. C. Golden but the company has done nothing in regard to the extension of the track. Unless the work of extending the track is started at once, the farmers will claim that they will be forced to deliver their wheat at other points and to a rival road. Those who are interested in the side track and who expect to deliver their wheat at this point this year are Ed. Davis, Joe Barton, Frank Feenan, O. C. Golden, R. J. Meredith, I. F. Miller, and Jas McConnell.

These men are awaiting to receive word from the company in order that they may make final preparations for handling their wheat this season.

***

Information that has been receiving by the state college officials indicate that the potato crop in this country this year will be shorter than that which has been raised in the county for several years.

Cold wet weather and late summer is held responsible for the shortage. Whitman County farmers have always produced more potatoes than has been consumed by the people of the county and this is the first year that a shortage has been reported. Seed potatoes were high and difficult to secure and the late season did not give the farmers time to plant as they were busy with their wheat crop. Those who have raised several acres of potatoes this year will reap a good profit for their work, is the statement that is made by the potato buyers.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette Commoner

Aug. 1, 1941

While attendance in the public schools of Whitman showed a substantial falling off in the last school year as compared to the previous year, there is the somewhat compensating revelation in the annual report of County Superintendent R. R. Maxwell for the year ending July 31 that the total warrant issue for the 1940-41 year was $719,196 as compared to $745,293 for the 1939-40 year, a decrease of $26,097.

Among the expenses curtailed is that for the superintendents and teachers. During the year just ended $416,306 was paid for the services of 274 of them while in the previous year 283 of them were paid $469,989, the decrease this year being $53,683, due to three months' salaries paid in the 1939-40 for services given in the previous year.

***

“Every day brings new reports of crop damage in various parts of the state, and indications point to the indemnifications through the Federal Crop Insurance corporation, despite the so-called record-breaking wheat harvest forecast earlier in the season,” according to Anson Patterson, chairman of the Whitman County Agriculture Conservation association.

Latest reports indicate that some 40,000 bushels have gone up in the smoke in Walla Walla and Franklin counties. Columbia and Garfield counties have suffered another hailstorm with severe damage to wheat, while Douglas, Okanogan and Yakima report crop damages from a variety of causes.

Many applications for insurance have been received at the county AAA office and the present indications are that a record number will have been received by August 30, the deadline date for applications covering winter wheat seedings.

***

To accommodate a complete line of furniture, the Dreifus-VonShoehen Hardware company is remodeling its two-story building. The old Golden Slipper dance hall on the second floor will become the main display room for the new department, which probably will be opened the middle of August. The stairway leading to the hall is being taken out, giving about eight additional feet in frontage to the large hardware store on the ground floor. A new show window will take the place of the stairway entrance.

The balcony overlooking the ground floor will be extended forward about 10 feet and it will be reached by a stairway leading from the rear center of the first floor. Entrance to the second floor furniture room will be from the balcony, according to Carl Dreifus, in charge of the remodeling program, estimated to cost near $2,000 when entirely finished. The balcony and furniture room, which will be recalcimined and repainted, will be lighted by fluorescent lamps. The company will open its furniture department with an approximately $10,000 stock, Mr. Dreifus said.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Aug. 4, 1966

Four Washington and Oregon contractors have been asked to bid on the installation of 16 miles of buried telephone cable between Colfax and Steptoe. The buried cable is part of a rural service improvement program in the area, according to Pacific Northwest Bell manager Earl Halverson.

The firms invited to bid include Power City Communications and Mel Howell Construction, both of Spokane, Cableway, Inc. of Othello, and Kinnan Engineering of Camas Valley, Oregon.

The project will provide additional circuits for Steptoe and the surrounding farm area, making four-party service available.

***

City water line leaks filled basements along Main Street and sent crews on excavations in full view of sidewalk superintendents this week in Colfax. Five leaks, one of them in the 12-inch main which serves the south end of town, were reported to the city crew all within the last week, according to Superintendent Louis Carson.

“I'm just hoping we don't have a big fire on the south side of Cooper street,” he commented.

A six-inch line running down Fairview is feeding the south end of town and doing the job of the 12-inch main which was shut down Monday due to the leak discovered on the north side of the bridge over the south fork of the Palouse river.

The 12-inch main line started to leak July 25. Carson estimated water was escaping the line and running into the north fork of the Palouse under the bridge at 300 gallons a minute.

Carson reported the break was probably caused by action of an old concrete bridge abutment against the water line. Blasting last year from the flood control project probably moved the concrete block against the pipe, Carson said.

City crews hope to have the main line back in operation at the end of this week. The old bridge abutment will have to be broken down with a jackhammer and removed, Carson said.

“Meanwhile, we're having quite a time keeping water up on Thorn street hill now that the main line is shut down,” he said.

Seeping water in the basements of Tick Klock Drug, Coast to Coast Store and the former Getz Variety Store came from two leaks in small “service lines,” Carson said.

***

The new Colfax community ambulance made its first run Sunday morning as members of the Colfax volunteers inspected their new unit, expressed thanks to the persons who contributed to their ambulance drive and borrowed $1949.04 to make up the difference on the $13,959.86 ambulance price.

Chief Don Maher stated $.15 a mile will be taken from the ambulance income to pay off the loan. Contributions and an expected $600 to $650 from the Betty Crocker coupon drive will also be used to trim the debt. After the ambulance debt is finished, the $.15 a mile fee will be placed in a reserve fund for purchase on an ambulance in the future.

Probably the most obvious feature of the new ambulance is the space inside the rear compartment. The box-like fiberglass cover allows the volunteers more space to work on emergency cases.

The patient's cot in the ambulance can be adjusted to eight different positions, and unlike the older ambulance, it can be elevated for the height of an X-ray table for easy transfer.

New oxygen controls are easier to operate and a larger oxygen tank boosts the volunteers supply from 20 minutes to a matter of hours, according to Captain Dick Babb.

Better lighting systems inside the ambulance make it safer for operation. New “turning lights” which illuminate to the side of the ambulance as it turns a corner are also featured.

A rear compartment heater, exhaust fan and fresh air scoop are other new features of the ambulance, Babb said.

25 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Aug. 1, 1991

Union Pacific Officials Monday at Omaha announced plans to call for bids from short line operators to lease two lines in Whitman County. The lines are the lone rail service to grain cooperatives based in La Crosse, Endicott and St. John and provide coal shipments to the WSU heating plant at the campus in Pullman.

Grain cooperative managers were advised by UP representatives last week that the lease call would be made by the railroad firm. The grain managers admit that the railroad company's proposal makes them nervous about the future of the line.

La Crosse Grain Growers, Wheat Growers of Endicott and St. John Grain Growers all use the UP links which feed into Hooper.

The company's announcement also said they were attempting to lease out a line in the Walla Walla area which runs along highway 12.

The rail branches were classified as “light density” in the UP news release.

The Whitman County lines include 111 miles of track running from the UP's main line at Hooper through Colfax and Pullman to Moscow. The second segment runs from La Crosse through Lancaster to Thornton.

The 111 miles of track amounts to the remaining half of the UP “loop” which was left in operation after the UP shut down its east side of the Whitman County operation last April. Until the shutdown, UP crews picked up cars around the loop and returned them to the main line at Hooper.

Shutdown of the east side operation, which included Garfield, Farmington, and Tekoa is still being contested in U.S. Appeals Court in San Francisco. A Sept. 12 hearing date was set on the case.

The company's Monday news release said they hoped to transfer lines to a new operator by the end of this year.

The Hooper-Colfax-Pullman segment of the lower line provides a route for bulk coal shipments to the steam plant at Washington State University. Grain storage elevators and processing plants in north Colfax are loaded out on the UP tracks.

***

Carver Jonathan LaBenne was back at work on the Colfax Codger Pole Monday and plans are in the works for the Sept. 15 dedication program, according to Bob Clegg of Colfax, member of the Codgers.

Clegg said the Codgers plan a program from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Codger site. Preliminary planning includes a performance by Spokane singing groups who will give renditions of the Codger bowl songs. A dedication, presentations and food service are among the preliminary plans.

With the help of the weatherman, the Codger dedication will be at the pole site. Participants will be asked to bring their chairs.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

Aug. 3, 2006

Young visitors to Klemgard County Park will see new playground equipment in September.

Tim Myers, county parks director, said Monday the playground equipment, which will cost about $41,400, will be installed after the county fair.

He said a majority of the money came from a donation from a private individual with ties to Whitman County.

The existing wooden playground structures have been deteriorating over the years, and some of it has been removed as it has aged, but not replaced. As a result, the playground at Klemgard has shrunk over time, Myers said, and the equipment is normally used by busloads of kids at a time.

The old equipment will be torn out this month.

The new equipment, from Northwest Recreation of Washington, Selah, will be metal and plastic and include slides, a climbing apparatus, swing set and a digger. Myers said the equipment is geared mainly toward third through sixth graders, but there will be areas suitable for younger children.

Northwest Recreation will install the upright framework and the county park board and staff will install the rest.

***

Opening Tekoa's trestle to pedestrian traffic has become one of the key goals of the town's Public Development Authority. The high trestle, which served the defunct Milwaukee Railroad for approximately 70 years, has often appeared on Tekoa logos and promotional material, but it has been closed since the railroad went out of operation more than 25 years ago.

“It's awesome what it can do for the town,” Miriam Flock, president of the PDA commented after a meeting which drew representatives from the Washington and Idaho parks departments and the Coeur d'Alene Tribe.

Flock said she believes “a whole lot of town buy in” would be involved in the project.

She said one of the keys to the project will be obtaining use of the “missing link” segment of the railroad corridor which would like the trail of the Coeur d'Alenes with the John Wayne Trail that crosses Washington.