100 years ago in the Inland Northwest: Safecrackers escape with $4,400 from bank in Spangle

The yeggmen (safecrackers) who blew open the side of the vault in the State Bank of Spangle escaped with about $4,400.

“It was learned yesterday that the robbers went first to the bank at Rosalia and tramped about the building, but were chased away by D.O. Bain, who ran up to the bank with a sawed-off shotgun,” said the Spokane Daily Chronicle.

Then the bandits apparently checked out a bank in Plaza, before deciding to head for the Spangle bank.

Police had “no definite clues” about the current whereabouts of the robbers.

From the sledding beat: The city’s first snowfall prompted Spokane leaders to designate a number of official “coasting” (sledding) hills.

The city barricaded several streets, including South Jefferson Street and Cowley Street on the South Hill, as well as the hills at Downriver Park. The goal was to make sledding safe after a number of bad accidents in previous years.

From the animal beat: The Spokane Daily Chronicle ran a front-page photo of the rabbit drive at Warden, Washington, in which “125 Spokane sportsmen participated.”

“The hunters formed in battle front, swept across stretches of sagebrush land and closed in (around) the hundreds of rabbits, when they proceeded to slay the pests which are bringing ruin to farmers of sections of the Big Bend,” said the caption. “The Spokane hunters went down on a special train. Thousands of rabbits were killed and brought back to Spokane for distribution to the poor.”

It is worth pointing out that today, one sage-dwelling species, the pygmy rabbit, is in danger of extinction. Only about 100 pygmy rabbits remain. Wildlife officials are working hard to keep the species alive.