The miner 3b 4b

ThE mineR

Seventh Grade Press

Volume 1, Number 5

Bighorn sheep of Sullivan Lake

T

he Seventh Grade Press is a series of sto­ ries written by seventh graders in Ms. Irene Ewing’s class at Sadie Halstead Middle School in Newport. Each student chose a topic of local historical importance, conduct­ ed research and interviews and went through a lengthy editing process.

More than 80 students participated and each one will get a ‘by line’ in The Miner Newspa­ pers. This is the fifth week of the project. Check back for the next several weeks for more on local history. See more on page 10A. If you find that you have something to add, interview candidates the class should talk to, or documents and artifacts you want registered in the local museum, contact the Seventh Grade Class at Sadie Halstead Middle School, in New­ port. They have agreed to collect and catalog everything that comes in, and deliver to the museum for archiving.

Newport once had its own airfield

By Jacob Coelho

In this little town, Newport, Wash., there was once an airfield. In 1929, the town of Newport purchased 53 acres from Mrs. J.C Scott and 2.68 acre from Jaynes Addition.

The idea was in fact to have an airport there and a park. After everything was established and some final improvements were made by the National Recov­ ery Act and WPA (Works Progress Administration) of 1933, the idea was to help reverse the economic collapse of the Great Depression. The Recovery Act See airstrip, 10A

population still clambers about the steep slopes of Hall Mountain. I recom­ mend seeing them when

you have time. I found my information on: Friends of the Columbia highlands.

www.columbiahigh­ lands.org/2012/02/26/ wildlife­v iewing­bighorn­ sheep/.

The Flood of 1948: Disaster and damage

By Chloe Jones

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E d ito r’s n ot e

By Madilyn Curtis

I’ve always liked ani­ mals when I was grow­ ing up, so when I had the opportunity to write an article about the bighorn sheep of Sullivan Lake, I took it.

There is a big herd of beautiful bighorn sheep at Sullivan Lake, but they weren’t originally there. The sheep were brought to Hall Moun­ tain on the east side of Sullivan Lake by the Fish and Game Department.

In 1972, some of the herd was captured in Canada in a national park and the rest of the bighorns came from the Thompson Falls area of Montana.

Up on the rocky slopes of Hall Mountain, wildlife watchers can watch the bighorn sheep grazing. There is a lot of nutrition in the danger­ ous cliffs and steep rocky drops.

The beautiful bighorn sheep were almost wiped out from their western range in the early 20th century. Since then, bighorn sheep have made a huge comeback.

Now several herds can be found in northeastern Washington, but the Hall Mountain herd is the most well known.

Although the Wash­ ington Department of Fish and Wildlife no longer maintains a feeding station for the bighorn sheep because of the possibility of entic­ ing mountain lions into the area, a big, healthy

June 15, 2016 |

Imagine you live in Cusick. It is June 3, 1948, and you are trying to get to your house. During any nor­ mal summer, this would be an easy task, but the early June of 1948 was not a normal summer.

You are sitting on a small row­ boat and paddling through town in 2 to 6 feet of water. The reason for this is that on June 2, 1948, the town of Cusick flooded, damaging at least 50 houses.

This flood also hit most of the Co­ lumbia River Basin, including Pend Oreille County. Some things that made the flood of 1948 worse, were an abnormally large snowfall and sudden increase in temperatures.

The total cost of repairing flood damage throughout the basin was estimated to exceed $100 million.

In his report of the flood, Floods of May-June 1948 in Columbia River Basin, C. G. Paulsen stated “... the flood of 1948 was the greatest since 1894 on the large rivers of the basin...”

It was recognized that basin was in danger of flooding as early as March 1, 1948, and by May 1, it was almost certain that there would be dangerous amounts of runoff that year. On May 15, water levels in streams started to rise, and on May 23, a dike failed along Kootenai River. This was the first of many.

For a while, people tried to save the dikes, or build makeshift ones, but, according to the “Big Flood was Nearly 50 Years Ago” a 1998 Hori­ zon article, they eventually gave up.

The river was just too big to be con­ tained. The flood hit 12,000 acres around Cusick and Usk on May 31,

which forced 600 people to evacu­ ate the area when the dikes were dynamited to disperse the water out of town.

In Pend Oreille County, the flood hit a peak of 28.9 feet above aver­ age, making it the flood with the

For a while, people tried to save the dikes, or build makeshift ones, but, ... they eventually gave up. highest peak since 1894 (the 1894 flood peaked at 33.9 feet above aver­ age).

Newport also flooded. The first sign of relief for Newport came on June 9, when the flow of the river dropped from 163,000 cubic feet per second to 149,000 cubic feet per second. By the end of the flood, the river had flooded about 27,400 acres of land around Pend Oreille County and killed 51 people.

There are several things that, if they hadn’t happened, the flood probably wouldn’t have been as disastrous. One of those things was diking. In the 25 or so years before the flood, the flood plains for many parts of the river had been diked off for agricultural purposes. This diking constricted the river and blocked off its natural floodplain.

During the flood of 1948, many of these dikes had to be dynamited to make more room for the river to flow.

Another thing that contributed

to making the flood worse, was the above average snowpack in 1948.

In addition, temperatures that rose and stayed high resulted in a sudden thaw and large amounts of runoff, which contributed to the flood. Also contributing to the high water levels of the Pend Oreille River was the abnormally large amount rainfall in the April of 1948.

Along with all of this, there were very few flood warnings in newspa­ pers, with the only two being in The Newport Miner. All these things contributed to the damage caused by the flood of 1948.

On June 13, 1948, an article in The Newport Miner stated that although “… the flood of 1894 was four feet higher than the 1948 flood the damage in 1948 … was far greater.” The flood damaged or destroyed many things, includ­ ing bridges, roads, schools, dams, homes/farms, businesses, and private property. About 250,000 thousand acres of farmland were destroyed and at least 20,000 acres of land were damaged by erosion.

On top of all this, dikes that were dynamited had to be repaired.

Repairing all of that cost a lot of money. It cost so much, that in their June 3, 1948, issue, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported that, “The … State military funds have about been depleted because of the flood.”

In fact, the total cost of repair was estimated to be $100 million for the whole Columbia River basin, of which, Pend Oreille County had to pay $2,330,950, which would amount to about $23.5 million See flood, 10A

Proud of our history Proud of our community Making decisions with tomorrow in mind

PONDERAY

NEWSPRINT COMPANY A responsible partner in the communities where we live 422767 Highway 20, Usk, WA 99180

Thumbs up to the 7th graders’ History Project

509-447-4225 • Newport, WA www.rogersbodyandframe.com m

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seventh grade press

| June 15, 2016

ThE mineR

Newport brick industry ruins wolf’s plans

BY Hailey Bays

Bricks make buildings that wolves can’t blow down; that’s one reason a community needs a brick factory.

Another reason is to make buildings that are tough, fire proof, and that will last a long time. Hand made bricks will last longer than machine made bricks.

Brick is made of clay and shale that is ground up.

They mix the ground dirt, water, and sand. After the mud is mixed the mud throwers roll the mud with sand

File photo|The Miner Newspaper, 1991

Don Jackson, owner of Jackson Motors since 1955, has turned over the Ford dealership to two of his sons, Bill, (left) and Doug (right). Don was the special guest at a surprise retirement party last Wednesday, but he said he really isn’t retiring. He thanked the people of the community, without all of the good customers, “we wouldn’t be here today,” Jackson said.

Jackson Motors began as a tire shop ther, Claude Jackson in 1935. In 1946, when my grandpa, Donald Jack­ son joined the tire shop, Jackson Tire Company

By Morgan Jackson

Jackson Motors started out as a tire shop in New­ port, Wash., that began with my great-grandfa­

Our Culture Our History

actually became Jackson Motors.

Jackson Motors was a Ford dealership located on Washington Avenue.

My grandpa took over the business around 1960 and he had the business for about 30-40 years.

My Grandpa Don started something called “Punt, Pass, and Kick, ” up at the Newport High School, for all ages. The project was to inform kids, teenagers, and high schoolers about how to play football. The NFL was supported by Ford in the 1960s, and since Ford supported them, the NFL gave them footballs for

the Punt, Pass, and Kick project.

Jackson Motors also donated cars to the high school driver’s ED class.

Jackson Motors had a used car lot just across the street from the shop, next door to the theater.

My grandad retired before the shop closed and he had given it to my dad’s older brothers, Uncle Bill and Uncle Doug in 1991.

Jackson Motors closed in 2001 due to the failing economy and people buy­ ing cars from Spokane, and Coeur d’Alene, be­ cause of people traveling way more than they did years ago.

Cusick in the early 1900’s

By Kaily Braden

Priest Lake Lumber Co. FAMILY OWNED SINCE 1983 Priest Lake, Idaho

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In 1908­09 Blackwell’s Railroad came to Pend Oreille Valley and to the town of Cusick. The arrival marked the end of boats being used as the only transportation.

However, boats were still used to move log rafts.

The Cusick community was made up of a lot of foreigners. That would in­ clude Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, Irish, Slavic, Finnish, Austrians, Swiss, English, Scotch, Czech, and Yugoslavian people.

Native Americans were not foreigners and also lived in the community.

The Community Congre­ gational Church was built around 1910 by Mr. John Bond. The Calispel Grange was organized in 1911 near Cusick, and then moved to Cusick in 1942.

It still has a large mem­ bership. William Can­ non was the first Grange Master.

The Cusick’s women club was organized in 1916 by Mrs. Mildred Wike. This club was the first civic organization in Cusick.

The first high school and grade school was built in 1926 and opened the spring of 1927.

The present grade school was opened in 1951. The John Adam Wike gym was built in 1956.

In 1936 or 1938, elec­ tricity came to the com­ munity through Resources Events Agents (REA) and Public Utility District (PUD). The telephones came in 1951, the same year as the grade school

was opened.

In 1948 the flood hap­ pened. Everyone in Cusick had to evacuate. Lawrence Schultz said, “To paint a picture of Pend Oreille County it would have to be done with water colors be­ cause of the 15 mile wide flood.” That’s just how much water there was.

The mill went out in the fall of 1958 and the spring of 1999. No one could believe they were going to tear it down. A lot of people were leaving the community when this was happening.

Some went to work at the Diamond Mill in Newport.

People who didn’t want to leave the community drove back and forth to Spokane or Newport. The population dropped, but others have come in since then.

Cusick was named for Joe Cusick who home­ steaded the lands on which the town is now located. It became an incorporated town in the middle 1880’s.

I chose to do my report on Cusick because my fam­ ily used to live there and I wanted to learn more about it.

My resources were, The Big Smoke: 1973, Pend Oreille County ­www. historylink.org), and guest speakers Mrs. McClenny, a historian from the Pend Oreille County Historical Museum; Tony Bamonte, Pend Oreille County historical author; and Kris Cornelis, History Depart­ ment, Spokane Commu­ nity College.

This makes the kind of brick that has a proven track record of long-term durability and olden day charm to keep the mud from sticking to the brick forms, just like you would dust a loaf pan with flour to keep bread from sticking.

Then they throw the mud into the brick shaped mold, really hard, to break any air bubbles. The bricks need to be dried slowly before they are fired in a kiln up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. This makes the kind of brick that has a proven track record of long-term durability and olden day charm.

Mrs. McClenny explained to our class that the clay was dug from a hillside between Newport and Priest River with horses pulling big scoops called fresnos.

Bill Piper wrote an article about Pend Oreille County brick making in the 1999 issue of The Big Smoke. He said it was hard to find information about the brick plants, especially about the brick plants near Metaline Falls.

Newport’s brick company was located across from Seebers Pharmacy and Owens Grocery and Deli, next to where the Newport Museum is now.

An article in the Spokesman Review newspaper said the brick factory here was making up to 6,000,000 bricks a year. That is probably why Newport and other local places in Pend Oreille County have so many brick buildings. I think you can tell the old brick buildings from the new ones. When you drive down main street in Newport, you should look up at the design and beautiful color or the old hand made brick buildings, … and maybe you’ll see a naughty, bad, mean wolf trying to get down a chimney.

airstrip: Hangar built in 1932 From Page 9A

was supposed to build industry, getting the economy going and to develop employment with a public works program.

Pilot, R.R Shackleton founded Newport airways.

He also taught students how to fly planes. His school lasted until the beginning of World War II. In 1932, the Newport Airport had a hangar built so planes weren’t out in the open.

Sadly, in the winter of 1968­69, the snow built up a lot on the hangar roof and collapsed the hangar, resulting in three private planes being destroyed and one dam­ aged. The hangar lasted about 40 years until it was destroyed.

There were also two other airports in the county, one in Cusick and one in Ione. The Newport and Cusick airports were not very busy in the late 60’s and they closed down due to Ione getting most of the flights. The Ione Airport is still in use today.

After that, it wasn’t long before the airport was dis­ banded and sold. The land was used for school build­ ings. The old runway is now known as Grizzly Stretch; the road from the Newport High School passing Strat­ ton Elementary.

flood: 95 houses damaged in Cusick From Page 9A

today, which is around 2.5 times Pend Oreille County’s current budget.

To help pay this amount, the “Pend Oreille Flood, 1948” report said that the Reconstruction Finance Corporation gave Cusick, Usk, and Calispell Valley low interest loans. They were not the only organiza­ tion to help Pend Oreille County out, Red Cross gave $35,000 to the county as well.

In my mind, the flood of 1948 was disastrous in many ways: it damaged many houses (95 in Cusick alone) and businesses, spread over a wide area of land, had a long peak, point when the water is at its highest, and, as stated by the Spokesman Review on April 15, 1997, was very sudden.

There were also many things that made it worse, (manmade and natural) such as diking and lots of precipitation. When water levels receded to normal, all was not well, for people still had to repair every­ thing that was damaged. But, Pend Oreille County rebuilt and overcame all the challenges of the flood of 1948.