Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Joe Rudersdorf, Spokane’s dogcatcher and “humane society” officer, announced a plan to prevent the abuse of horses by wagon drivers going up the South Hill near Cannon Hill.

He said he planned to create a fuel yard for home-heating fuel (presumably fuel oil or coal) near Cannon Hill so that horses would not have to haul fuel up the steep slope.

“We have constant complaints from residents on the hill who are forced to see horses abused and witness their falls on the steep slopes” Rudersdorf said. “In one case, a woman changed her residence from a Cannon Hill apartment house because of this.”

He said the new fuel yard would prevent cruelty to horses as well as save consumers in fuel transport costs.

He said he was arranging for the fuel to be hauled up the hill via the streetcar lines at night, when the tracks were not in use, and then stored in the new Cannon Hill fuel yard. Then horse-drawn wagons could take the fuel to houses without having to negotiate any steep hills.

Rudersdorf probably didn’t know it at the time, but the days of horse-drawn wagons were numbered. It would not be long before all such deliveries were made by motorized trucks.