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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1883 | 19 |
| 1884 | 2 |
21 stories matching clock
- The Tin-Can Alarm Clock Prank That Sent a Spokane Sleeper Racing Downtown at 1:30 A.M.
A prominent citizen rigged a string-and-tin-can wake-up call with the night watchman. Local pranksters pulled the string first—and he dressed and ran for a train that wasn't leaving.
- The Indian Scare That Wasn't
A rumor that Little Spokane Indians planned to burn out settlers sent twenty-two armed Spokane men rushing to Four Mile Prairie—where they found frightened neighbors and a land dispute, not an attack.
- Spokane Dressed for a Railroad King—and Waited Until Midnight
Spokane Falls spent a week building arches and hanging evergreens for Henry Villard's Northern Pacific excursion, but delayed trains turned the grand reception into a series of after-dark whistle-stops—and Ulysses S. Grant drew the crowd that the railroad had promised.
- The Union Block Collapse: A Mason's Fall Through a Defective Staging
A plank gave way during construction at Union Block, sending one mason into the cellar with a broken collarbone and a second man tumbling to the ground floor.
- Crushed by Logs at a Cheney Sawmill
Benjamin Inman, 26, was killed while unloading timber at Hinchcliff Bros.' mill, a reminder of the human cost of the region's timber boom.
- A Threshing Machine Tragedy
A farm worker suffers a horrific injury after falling into a threshing machine near Spokane.
- A Loaded Rifle Turns a Spokane Hunting Trip Into a Fatal Accident
Warren Clark, a recent arrival looking to invest in the city, dies in ten minutes after his own gun fires as he climbs back into a wagon.
- The Night the Jay Rial Company Insulted Spokane Falls
A packed house at Cannon's Hall got a mangled 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' — and the local critic did not hold back.
- The Railroad Ran Its Spokane Depot on Too Few Men — and the Crew Broke
One agent and one telegraph operator were expected to staff the Spokane Falls railroad office around the clock. The agent finally asked for a layoff, and the wire operator quit, worn thin, for a farm with lighter work.
- The Sting Operation at Squier’s Saloon
A Spokane businessman orchestrates a trap to catch a man selling liquor to local Indigenous people.
- The Marshal Who Wouldn't Let Go
A fugitive wanted in Cheney for robbing the sheriff's own office is caught at the Spokane depot—after a very undignified struggle.
- A Blanket Theft, a Brutal Assault, and No Arrests in 1883 Spokane
Two Native American men attacked a Chinese camp over a blanket. The injured man was left in the care of his countrymen, and the attackers vanished.
- An Arsonist's Fire in the Black Hawk Stable
A pre-dawn blaze in a Main Street livery kills four valuable horses and nearly takes the block — and the town is sure it was set on purpose.
- The YMCA Convention Soda Fiasco
A local boy recounts how a house full of visiting YMCA delegates led to a domestic misunderstanding involving a broken pitcher, potted plants, and a very confused father.
- Gen. Grant Slips Through Spokane Falls
The ex-president and railroad director Frederick Billings returned by daylight after a night passage. A professor's carriage tour and a box of silver specimens produced exactly the quote the young city wanted.
- The Stolen Petition That Could Have Split Spokane County
In 1883, a push to carve a new county out of Spokane turned ugly when a 350-name petition vanished from a Howard Street law office.
- A Spokane Craftsman's Twelve-Year Masterpiece in Human Hair
Charles Streib spent over a decade creating portraits of Generals Washington and Sherman from thousands of strands of human hair—a feat of patience and artistry that astonished the city.
- Sixty Armed Men Took the Jail at Dayton
A convicted murderer was hauled out of the Columbia County jail and strangled from a rope in the public square — the coroner's jury named no killers, and the local editor scolded lynch law while calling the mob 'cool and systematic.'
- The Night Fire Nearly Took Browne's New Brick Block
A stove left burning in a plaster-drying room set Spokane Falls' finest new brick building alight — and the town had nothing but buckets to fight it with.
- The Train They Hoped Would Stop: Spokane's Bid for the Last-Spike Spotlight
A mass meeting at Cannon's Hall appointed a committee to welcome President Villard's Northern Pacific excursion and make sure the editorial train lingered long enough to see the falls.
- A Stagecoach Ride Into the Last Paradise of Bunch Grass
A correspondent survives a headfirst plunge into an icy creek to report on the new stage route, the boomtown of Okanogan, and the railroad the Big Bend is begging for.