100 years ago in Spokane: Two teenage girls swim the Columbia

Miss Dea Holden and Miss Frances Tyler, both 17, accomplished a feat performed only once before, and never by a girl.

They swam across the Columbia River at Brewster, Washington.

“The distance is approximately one mile, and was made in 23 minutes,” said the paper. “Before they were able to reach the opposite shore, they were carried down by the swift water over one mile from where they started.”

Only one other swimmer, John Dyer, had ever made it across the river at that point.

Both girls were seniors in high school and “have been prominent in the athletic sports.”

The girls promptly announced their next feat. They planned to swim the Columbia from the mouth of the Okanogan River to Brewster, a distance of 2 1/2 miles.

From the Wobbly beat: The state of Idaho was reportedly making plans to deport hundreds of Industrial Workers of the World agitators.

The Spokesman-Review reported that a “stockade” large enough to hold 500 was being prepared at St. Maries.

Evidently, the governor of Idaho was ignoring a Wobbly ultimatum, which called for the release of all Wobbly prisoners. The ultimatum called for a general strike in the mines, lumber camps and fields unless prisoners were released within a week.