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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1908 | 8 |
| 1909 | 9 |
| 1910 | 6 |
23 stories
- Government to Build School for Pend Oreille Indians as Settlers Push for Removal
A new school is planned for Indigenous families opposite Cusick, but the report reveals settler pressure to move them off prime hay lands and allot the land instead.
- Twenty Thousand Acres vs. the River: Calispel Valley Takes Its Case to Congress
Farmers around Usk and Cusick organize a diking district and send a committee to Spokane to beg a rivers-and-harbors congressman for a dredge, a dike, and a federal appropriation.
- The Dike That Wasn't Built
Cusick's levees saved 500 acres of grain, but Dike District No. 1 lost its season to a right-of-way feud—and now heads to court to condemn the land it needs.
- The Battle for the Calispel Valley
Landowners face a major legal fight as the Calispel diking district moves to reclaim thousands of acres of submerged land.
- Gunfire and a Moral Cleanup in Cusick
A whiskey-fueled crowd shot out the windows and back bar at Joe Cusick's saloon; the town's 'better element' answered by ordering 'lewd women' to leave.
- A Dangerous Fall at the Calispel Spur
A railroad inspector suffers a broken collarbone after stepping off a train in the dark and falling twenty feet into the river bank.
- A Valley Drowns Every Spring—and One Farmer Wants a Better Dike
A correspondent warns that the Pend Oreille freshet has wrecked $50,000 worth of Calispel Valley crops—and argues the proposed diking districts are too piecemeal to save the basin.
- The River Took the Whole Calispel Crop. Now the Farmers Want a Dike.
After backwater from the Pend Oreille drowned nearly every acre in the Calispel valley — a loss of $50,000 to $75,000 — landowners meet, hire a Spokane lawyer and move to organize a diking district under state law.
- Valley Ranchers Organize to Dike the Pend Oreille: A $40,000 Flood Control District Proposed
About 25 landowners met at Gifford's ranch to sign a petition for a diking district covering nearly 10,000 acres, aiming to protect their fields from the river's annual overflow.
- A Lamp Left Burning in the Kitchen Erases Cusick's Hotel and Store
The Ponderay Hotel and the Usk Mercantile Co. store burn to the ground an hour after midnight, and the town learns neither may ever reopen.
- The Government Comes to Divide the Valley
A petition to remove the Pend Oreille Valley's Indian families instead ends in 160-acre allotments at Cusick — and a scramble for the best ground in the valley.
- Farmers Take On the Pend Oreille With a Dike — and No Bonds
A railroad contracting firm agrees to build Calispel Diking District No. 1 for warrants instead of cash, giving 6,500 acres of bottomland one season to prove it can beat the high water.
- The Kaniksu’s 1908 Fire Season: 40 Blazes, $3,569 Spent, and a Warning in the Young Timber
Federal rangers and local crews kept the Kaniksu National Forest from another Alispel-scale conflagration, but the season still burned 700 acres and cost an estimated $15,000 in damaged reproduction.
- Cusick Wants a Calaboose as Railroad Roughs Run Wild
A justice of the peace petitions county commissioners for a jail after railroad construction crews bring drinking, brawling, and black eyes to town.
- Duck Club Loses Fight Over Calispel Lake Homesteads
A Spokane land office ruling sided with settlers who argued that marshy ground at the upper end of Calispel Lake could be drained and farmed.
- Cusick’s New Water Works
A local entrepreneur brings modern infrastructure to a growing valley town.
- A Town Determined to Stay on the Map
Cusick lays fresh sidewalks to the depot, grades its muddy streets, breaks ground on a drainage dike, and chases a long-idle sawmill back to life.
- A Hundred Ranchers Tried to Steer the Railroad Down Their Side of the River
Property owners from the Calispel valley packed a Cusick meeting to lobby the Idaho Washington Northern for a west-side route—offering cheap right-of-way and a pile of guaranteed tonnage.
- A Valley Votes to Hold Back the Water
Property owners in the proposed Calispel Diking District No. 1 unanimously back a 5,250-acre flood-control district and elect three commissioners.
- Calispel Votes Again to Hold Back the Water
Property owners back a diking district 31 to 2, setting up a court survey and a railroad partnership to protect lowland farms from overflow.
- Arson at Cusick: $200 Reward for the Fiend Who Tried to Burn the F.O.A. Hall
Someone piled slabs against the northwest corner of the Cusick hall and set them ablaze before dawn Friday. F. M. White spotted the fire and put it out before the town could burn.
- The Kalispel Valley Diking Project
Farmers in the Kalispel Valley seek to protect their land from seasonal flooding through a private financing arrangement, bypassing the need for public bonds.
- 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.
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