Good ol' days

125 Years Ago

From the Colfax Gazette, Friday, August 20, 1897

AROUND THE COUNTY

Garfield- L. W. Follis has finished harvesting a piece of timothy that is hard to beat. From 19 acres he had 45% tons, or nearly two tons and a half to the acre, says the Enterprise.

Pullman- At a recent meeting of the school board a five mill tax was levied to raise a sufficient amount of money to pay current expenses, and pay one-half of the bonded indebtedness, the idea being to pay one-half this and the other half next year, says the Herald.

Palouse- The council held a special meeting last Friday at which it was decided unanimously not to grant a franchise for an electric plant at the present time. There seems to be a strong sentiment in favor of the city putting in and operating a plant of its own, says the Republic.

Oakesdale- When the train passed through Saturday it carried the unconconscious form of a man who attempted to commit suicide by jumping from one of the car windows while the train was running at a high rate of speed down the grade east of Pine creek bridge, eight miles from town. His name is I. A. Holoway, and in company with his wife was enroute for Genesee from the east. No cause can be assigned for his action.

100 Years Ago

From the Colfax Commoner, Friday, August 18, 1922

RAINS HEAVY THREE-DAY CHECK HARVEST WORK

Heavy Downpour Lasts for Three Days.-Crews at Work Wednesday.

Rain began falling throughout the Palouse country Thursday afternoon and it continued to rain the greater part of Saturday night. Sunday additional showers fell and Monday evening and

Tuesday morning the ground was wet to the depth of several inches. The rains checked harvest

Work and the town was filled with harvest workers from Friday morning until Tuesday night. Many of the men secured their harvest wages and left for other parts of the state, but the great majority of them remainded over until the weather was settled and took back their old places.

The rain has put the ground. Into excellent condition for fall seeding and it has aided the fall pasture. Late grain such as oats, corn and potatoes will be greatly benefitted by the rain, which has put the ground into better condition than it has been during any August in recent years. Some of the farmers willl seed the latter part of this month and many of them will be forced to

secure their seed after it is threshed.

Wheat is now coming into the warehouses in large quantities. One farmer, who was in the city this week stated that he had visited several sections of the county and he gave as his opinion that one-third of the grain in Whitman County had been threshed. The most of the threshing has been done in the western part of the county and the harvest season is just starting in the northern part. Good weather for another three weeks will wind up the harvest season. In this county with the exception of a few scattered fields.The rains have not damaged the standing grain nor has it damaged the shocked grain. There will be less danger from smut explosions" and less dust and dirt to annoy the workers.

25 Years Ago

From the Whitman County Gazette,Thursday, August 21,1997

Hickman plans to open Yakima Canutt museum

BY JOE IRWIN

Gazette Reporter

A runaway stagecoach speeds dangerously out of control down a desert road as a dusty cowboy leaps forward from horse to horse in a valiant effort to get a hold of the reins. A speeding four horse chariot rounds a corner on what looks more like a battlefield than a race track.

Broken chariots and men litter the course at the Roman coliseum as Ben Hur jumps his team over a fallen competitor and into the lead.

Unforgettable scenes as these are among Hollywood's greatest all-time stunts and were trade marks of a former Colfax resident, Yakima Canutt. Born Enos Edward Canutt Nov. 29, 1895, in the Penawawa area, he would go on to become known as the "world's greatest stunt man," win an Oscar for the direction of the "Ben Hur" chariot race, win respect and rub elbows with famous actors such as John Wayne, Charleton Heston, Errol Flynn and Clark Gable. Canutt was also named four-time world rodeo champion at the Pendleton Roundup and was the only man to ride "Tipperary," the legendary bucking brone which dumped 83 world-class cowboys in the dirt. Canutt rode him twice. He often talked about one final ride through Whitman County and now, 11 years after his death in 1986, he's getting his chance.

The "Yakima Canutt Museum" will officially open Sept. 4 at Hickman Boot and Saddlery in Colfax, putting the lifelong cowboy back in the saddle through pictures and statues depicting his numerous achievements. "I thought it'd be nice to honor a guy who was probably the most famous guy to ever come out of Colfax," explained Bob Hickman, owner and proprietor of Hickman Boot and Saddlery. "I'm really interested in the old west so that's how this came about." Hickman, who for some time has housed a small saddle museum on the third floor of his store, said he felt the tribute to Canutt was a good fit.

10 Years Ago

From the Whitman County Gazette, August 23, 2012

BY GARTH MEYER

Gazette Reporter

The Tekoa water project has turned up almost every street in town. Last week, it added a mammoth tooth. In the late morning of Aug. 6, a crew from Granite Excavation was installing a storm-drain catch basin at the corner of Henkle and Broadway when pipe layer Don Zufelt saw something in the dirt. They stopped digging and summoned Dr. Ula Moody, archaeologist who was monitoring a different crew. Moody said the tooth was in loess soil about 3.5 feet below the road grade. Loess is the wind-blown soil which makes the Palouse so rich for grain. "I wasn't certain what it was at first," said Chris Koenig, Engineering Inspector for Century West. "It was large. It doesn't look like what you would consider a tooth."

"It's a mammoth tooth,no doubt," Moody stated.

The tooth, believed to be a second molar, includes small roots.

"That's pretty unusual," said Moody. "We were all very excited."

The tooth measures six inches long, four inches high and three and a half inches wide. Moody, who teaches anthropology at North Idaho College, said the tooth is typical of grazers, like an elephant. Moody acts as the Cultural Resource Monitor for the Tekoa water line project.

The tooth will go to the Tekoa museum. Without cultural material, which is defined as something modified by man, such as a stone tool, an item is deemed geologic, not archeological.