50 years ago in Expo history: Bustown USA? The fair’s many tourist lines certainly gave that impression

One inescapable sight around Expo ’74: Buses, buses everywhere.

About 90 bus lines – including Contintental Trailways, Greyhound and Pacific Railways – had been “chauffeuring passengers around Spokane, making the city seem like a giant terminal,” The Spokesman-Review wrote.

And that didn’t even count the city’s own transit buses. Numerous bus lines from far-flung places had converged on Spokane, including, for instance, the Oklahoma Transportation Company of Oklahoma City, which ran “an average of two buses in Spokane every weekend.”

Canada was well-represented on the clogged city streets, with the Vancouver Island Coach Lines and the Pacific Western Transportation Company of Calgary and Edmonton, to name just two.

Then there were all the charter buses, bringing in tour groups and performers.

The result? “The chances of a motorist driving through Spokane this summer without seeing at least one bus have been almost nil.”

From 100 years ago: The “mystery woman” whose photo had been on the front page of The S-R the day before was finally identified.

She was Viola Dearing, a widow from Clarkston.

Or was she?

A certain Mrs. Kignor from Clarkston called police and said that she recognized the photo, and that Dearing boarded at her home in Clarkston.

Kignor said Dearing had left the house Tuesday to look for work and have lunch with friends, and she hadn’t heard from her since.

She had been “thought to be suffering from some kind of stupor or nervous disorder.”

The identification was still not 100% certain.

Friends from Clarkston were planning to make the trip to Spokane to see the mystery woman in person.