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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1883 | 15 |
| 1884 | 10 |
25 stories matching continu
- Spokane Falls Fights to Be the Gateway to the Coeur d'Alene Mines
The town battles Portland papers and rival railroad stops over the best route to the gold fields, as a new stage road promises to cut the journey to 70 miles.
- The Gun in the Wagon
H. P. Fox was scouting land near Loon Lake when a loaded shotgun discharged into his arm. Surgeons in Spokane Falls amputated, but the long ride and his weakened health were too much.
- A Kangaroo Court on the Big Bend Road
A Spokane Falls correspondent sketches a makeshift courtroom in a back-room card den, where a nervous judge, two accused whiskey-sellers and a bewildered Indian witness try to settle the law over a can of 'wh—.'
- Spokane’s Vision for a Riverfront Drive
City boosters propose a scenic four-mile carriage road along the Spokane River to showcase the falls and surrounding wilderness.
- A Rough Ride for Pleasure Seekers
A buggy ride through Spokane ends in a tumble when a team of horses takes fright.
- The Wild West at the N.P. Hotel
A young man, fueled by a 'periodic drunk,' terrorizes a hotel proprietor with a revolver in downtown 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.
- 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.
- A California Mining Veteran Bets Everything on the Coeur d'Alene Gold Rush
George Henderson, a hardened prospector out of Martinez, California, arrives in Spokane Falls, spends one day in the Coeur d'Alene diggings, and walks out having staked claims, built two houses, and hired a crew to winter over — telling the town the mines 'could not be exaggerated.'
- Spokane Bet Its Future on a Railroad That Hadn't Arrived
A local correspondent complains that roundabout freight makes staple goods cost eight times Milwaukee prices—and predicts the coming Northern Pacific will turn Spokane Falls into a manufacturing power.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The Correspondent Called Spokane Poor and Dull. The Local Paper Fired Back.
In 1883, a traveling writer dismissed Spokane Falls as a speculative boomtown with no real hinterland. The local press answered point by point, defending the mills, the grain trade and the city's future.
- 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.
- A Joint-Stock Stage Line to Beat the Railroad to the Mines
Spokane businessmen subscribe a $20,000 company to run daily stages and freight to Eagle City, betting the gold rush will make their town the gateway to the Coeur d'Alenes.
- Spokane Falls Fights to Stay the Gateway to the Coeur d'Alene Mines
As rival towns and papers tout their own routes to the gold fields, the Spokane Falls Review insists the Big Meadows road will make this city the permanent key to the mines.
- The Boomer Who Lied About the Gold Fields
Spokane Falls' paper takes a Minnesota editor to task for a wildly inaccurate account of the Coeur d'Alene mines — and in doing so lays bare the whole machinery of Western town-site hype.
- 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.
- The Town That Grew 'In Spite of Reason'
A Walla Walla editor visits Spokane Falls and tries to explain its explosive growth — new brick blocks, crowded lodging houses, idle men in the streets, and a land office so busy it needs two more clerks.
- The Man Who Survived Thirteen Doctors
A patient's wry, furious account of his bout with spinal meningitis — and the horse-doctor who killed a servant girl with a morphine syringe — skewers the medical profession of his day.
- Spokane Falls Fires Back at the Boom-Sayers
A Walla Walla society paper printed a traveler's claim that Spokane Falls was a real-estate humbug at its zenith. The Falls' editor answered with population figures, water power, and an invitation to tour the new bridge.
- 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.
- 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 Prepares to Welcome the Northern Pacific’s Last-Spike Excursion
In September 1883, Spokane Falls planned arches, speeches and a day of civic pageantry to greet President Henry Villard and the railroad party opening the transcontinental line.