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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1908 | 16 |
| 1909 | 15 |
| 1910 | 7 |
38 stories matching bet
- A $6,500 Bet That Ione Would Boom
A Newport businessman buys a quarter-section as railroad talk sends ranch prices climbing around Ione.
- The Tax Law Said Exempt. The Attorney General Said Assess It Anyway.
Washington's attorney general advised county assessors to tax money and credits in 1908, betting the legislature's 1907 exemption would be struck down.
- Around the Horn With a Hold Full of Salmon
Seattle shipping men launch a regular Cape Horn service to New York and Philadelphia, betting on the Panama Canal to put salt water on equal footing with the railroads.
- A Mine, a Mystery Blast, and $20,000 to Find Out What's Down There
The Conquest mine pumps out its flooded lower workings and bets big on a new season of development — but a strange underground explosion nearly knocks the crew off its feet.
- The $18,000 Fake Prize Fight That Landed a Butte Businessman in Jail
F.H. Pilling borrowed $18,000 from a friend to bet on a prize fight that never happened. The con artists vanished, and Pilling spent nearly a year behind bars before making bail.
- A Brick Depot Rises, and Newport Bets on the Railroad
Pressed brick arrives from St. Paul as the Great Northern builds its new Newport station — and freight figures show the town's lumber and brick trade climbing month over month.
- A $32,000 Dike Bet Pays Off in the Calispel Valley
Twenty teams race a June deadline to reclaim 6,500 acres, backed by ranchers who saved a crop last year and proved the dike would pay.
- Bremerton Chosen as the Pacific Fleet's Great Coaling Station
The navy yard on Puget Sound begins surveying a $2,000,000, 200,000-ton coaling plant — a bet that the fleet's future lies in the Pacific.
- The Newspaper Follows the Rails to a Brand-New Town
The Calispel Valley Times leaves its old home for Usk, a railroad town newly placed on the market, betting that business will build the valley.
- Newport Money Builds a Water System for a Brand-New Town
Newport investors incorporated the Ione Water Power Co. to pipe Cedar Creek water into Ione, a private utility bet on a townsite still being born.
- Railway Contractors Bet Big on Usk as Milwaukee Line Speculation Swirls
A 480-acre ranch sells for $15,500, then the Usk townsite itself changes hands, fueling talk that the new railroad will remake the Calispel Valley.
- A Spokane Syndicate’s Apple Orchard Dream at Marshall’s Lake
Col. J. E. Lindsay and backers planned a four-mile irrigation ditch and 640 acres of fruit trees five miles north of Newport, betting that water rights could transform the valley.
- The Marble Quarry That Swallowed $200,000—and the Syndicate Ready to Try Again
A new Spokane company plans to consolidate the failed U.S. Marble Company’s Stevens County properties, with Vermont investors betting on a comeback.
- A Pioneer Businessman Bet on an Opera House at Third and Union
W. S. Whitney bought adjoining lots and planned a two-story cement block with shops below and a dance hall and opera house above.
- The Silver-Lead Company Bets on Metaline
Ore assays, new concentrators, and a bunkhouse point to a mining camp shaking off its slow start—and Newport money is buying in.
- New Capital, New Mill: Dalkena Lumber Co. Takes Over
A Minneapolis-backed corporation buys the D. K. Mill, plans a band mill and retail lumber trade, and bets on the coming railroad.
- Newport Turns On the Lights
The Northern Idaho Montana Power Co. is wiring 2,500-candlepower arc lights and tungsten incandescents at intersections across Newport—a $4,500 bet on the town's future.
- Kansas Lumbermen Buy the Eagle Mill and Bet on Newport
Moeser Bros. of Topeka take over the idle sawmill south of the Great Northern depot, promising a planing mill, timber holdings and a steady run.
- A Stern-Wheeler for the Pend d'Oreille: Newport Bets on the Metaline Trade
Seven thousand dollars subscribed, a hundred-foot boat drawing two feet of water, and a captain promising to be running ore to Newport by June 1.
- Stevens County Bets $1,000 on Its Apples
Spokane's apple-show manager came to Colville with a proposition: a county booth in Spokane and Chicago, a special fruit train hauled as second section of the overland fast mail, and $6 a box waiting in Illinois.
- Newport's Railroad Franchise Went Through in a Single Night
In May 1908, the Commercial Club packed the council meeting and Newport's leaders voted without dissent to hand the Idaho & Washington Northern its franchise, betting the town's future on rail and industry.
- A Battery Factory in the Pines: Newport Bets Its Future on Dry Cells
One of only two dry-cell battery plants west of the Mississippi opens in Newport, promising 25 jobs by September and a thousand cells a day by fall.
- A Legislature in the Homestretch: Saloons, Gambling and a Fight Over Pledges
With days left in Olympia, Washington lawmakers weigh local option, an anti-racetrack law, a sweeping criminal code and a bill aimed at unions and suffragists.
- Eastern Capital Bets on Newport's Electric Future
Flynn Bros. plan a 600-horsepower plant four times the current size, promising day-and-night power and a magnet for manufacturers.
- Newport Bets $12,000 on a Concrete Hotel — and a Street of New Homes
A three-story, thirty-room hotel at Washington and Second leads a summer building rush that will remake several Newport blocks.