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100 years ago in Eastern Washington: Ferry County’s disgraced sheriff vowed to get his job back after a Prohibition conviction

 (Spokane Daily Chronicle archives)

Ferry County Sheriff Thomas Barker wanted to continue in his job despite his conviction on liquor charges – but the state attorney general said no.

Attorney General John Dunbar ruled that Barker was disqualified from holding that office, despite his insistence that he was innocent. A new sheriff, Mike Moran, was duly installed.

Moran was a former Ferry County sheriff, and had the support of the “dry” (pro-Prohibition) faction in the county. They believed Moran would work to curb the rum-runners operating over the Canadian border.

Barker certainly did not have support from the “drys,” especially after he was convicted of aiding and abetting bootleggers.

Barker was sentenced to two years at the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, but vowed to continue as sheriff pending his appeal.

From the fossil beat: A “remarkably fine specimen of fossil leaf” was discovered on Five Mile Prairie.

The curator of Spokane’s public museum said a North Central High School student found a leaf of the ginkgo tree, thought to be a million years old. It was only the third ginkgo fossil found in the Spokane vicinity, and this one was especially well-preserved.

The curator, Professor T.A. Bonser, said he planned to take his high school fossil club to the Five Mile Prairie to search for more.

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