50 years ago in Expo history: Sheep-shearing, gold-panning and other old-time fun was coming to the fair as part of a ‘prototype’ for the 1976 Bicentennial

A Folklife Festival was slated to occupy a 5-acre site at Expo ’74, and it would feature a wide array of old-time activities, including riverboat-building, gold-panning, sheep-shearing and quilting.

The festival was being produced in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institute and would serve as a “prototype” to a series of similar folklife festivals in every state during the 1976 Bicentennial.

Expo general manager Petr Spurney said the Folklife Festival would be the one major exhibit that will “change by the hour.” About 26 short-term “feature events” were being lined up to go along with the five or six long-running activities. For instance, there would be daily logging demonstrations.

The gold-panning site would have a gravel pile “salted with real gold” that visitors could take home.

From 100 years ago: Clarence Sutton, 12, was playing outdoors with his brother when he suffered a broken right thigh.

The problem was, he lived in the foothills of Mt. Spokane, 25 miles from Spokane hospitals. An “old physician” who lived nearby applied temporary splints, and then “the long trip over rough roads began.”

Clarence was lying in an “improvised litter constructed on the rear of a small truck” owned by a neighbor.

Upon arrival in Spokane, Clarence “gritted his teeth and tried to grin,” but admitted he felt tired and weak. He was taken to Sacred Heart Hospital.