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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1883 | 14 |
| 1884 | 10 |
24 stories matching commenc
- The Dangerous Human Bite
A local man's thumb injury from a human bite leads to a six-month recovery and a warning about the toxicity of such wounds.
- Spokane Falls Catches the 'Building Fever'
Every block in town is adding a structure, and Frank R. Moore's new brick block on Howard Street signals that the city's old capitalists believe in its future.
- No Monopoly on Gaslight: Spokane's Council Draws a Line
Council granted a gas company the right to lay pipes—but pointedly refused an exclusive franchise, warning that monopoly would 'cinch the consumers.'
- A Frontier City That Could Not Stop Building
Brick blocks, storefronts, and frame houses rose across Spokane Falls as contractors raced winter—and touted the town's future.
- Spokane Falls Finally Gets a Water Company — and a Fire-Fighting Lifeline
After a winter of promises and a franchise left to gather dust, three investors buy out the original water-works rights and vow to lay pipe before the weather turns.
- Bank Bets Big on Spokane Falls Corner
A livery stable lot at Main and Howard sells for a tidy sum as the National Bank plans a three-story brick block, proof of the city's soaring property market.
- A Town Buys Its Own Railroad: Spokane Falls Bets $30,000 on a Line to the Coeur d'Alenes
A packed hall at Cannon's Hall pledges $30,000 in minutes to build a railroad from Spokane Falls to the Coeur d'Alene mines — money not due until the track actually exists.
- The Editor's Pistol: A Deadly Quarrel in Walla Walla
Chas. Besserer, editor of the Walla Walla Watchman, shoots a brewer who threatened him, and is acquitted on grounds of self-defense.
- The Pioneer Who Started With $24 Sells His Liquor House
J. N. Squier, in Spokane Falls since 1879, hands his wholesale liquor business to a San Francisco firm to chase his mining interests — leaving a fortune built from almost nothing.
- A Bridge to Span the Spokane
Citizens fund a new crossing at Post Street, promising a vital link between the city's shores and a grand view of the falls.
- The New Council Takes On the Sewage in the River
Spokane Falls' freshly seated city council moves against the habit of dumping garbage and sewage into the river above the falls — and against boys loitering in saloons.
- A Violent Land Dispute on the Little Spokane
A settler’s attempt to harvest hay on his newly acquired land leads to an armed confrontation with local Indigenous claimants.
- Spokane Falls Builds Through the Winter
Despite the cold, construction in Spokane Falls never stopped, and the coming spring promises a building boom that will double the city's size.
- Drawing the Lines of a New City
A called council meeting in September 1883 redrew Spokane Falls’s boundaries, split it into four wards, and argued over who would elect the city’s officers.
- The Boom Will Not Be Questioned
Three months in Spokane Falls and the Review answers the doubters: the hammers are still ringing, the hotels are full, and when the Northern Pacific opens in September the real rush begins.
- Spokane Falls Organizes to Build Its First Public Library
A handful of citizens meet in Cannon's Hall to launch a free reading room and library — a public institution open to all, funded by subscription, and aimed at the thousands who will make the town their home.
- Trail Wars: Spokane Fights for the Road to the Coeur d'Alene Gold
As prospectors rush the new Coeur d'Alene diggings, Spokane boosters battle a Portland paper over which trail is passable — and who gets to outfit the stampede.
- The Gold Rush That Wouldn't Wait for Spring
A Spokane Falls merchant is summoned back to the snowbound Coeur d'Alene mines as fortune hunters pour in a month early — and the Falls positions itself as the gateway to the new El Dorado.
- Spokane Falls Council Tackles Charter, Cash, and a Dead Horse
In August 1883, the Spokane Falls City Council met to discuss a new city charter, unpaid bills, street assessments, and the problem of a dead horse. The meeting offers a glimpse into the challenges of a growing frontier town.
- Central Block: A New Landmark Rises on Riverside Avenue
Spokane's newest brick building, Central Block, nears completion on Riverside Avenue, showcasing modern architecture and the city's rapid growth.
- A Portland Editor Reports from the Gold Fields
E. G. Jones of Portland visits Spokane Falls and files a dispatch: the town is the 'principal city of Eastern Washington,' the mines are real, and the smart money is already building stage lines.
- 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.
- The Six-Story Mill Built on a Rock in the Spokane River
In 1883, S. G. Havermale and B. F. Davis began raising a flour mill and elevator on Little Island, betting that water power and wheat would make Spokane Falls a grain capital.
- 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.