This day in history: KKK membership was growing in Spokane; study said Spokane Valley zoo could become one of top in nation

From 1975: A new economic feasibility study “shows that Spokane’s ‘Walk in the Wild’ zoo project could become one of the nation’s top three zoos.”

At least, that’s how the head of the Inland Empire Zoological Society interpreted the study. He said it received that rating partly because of its promising location near Mirabeau Park.

Armed with this favorable study, the society requested approximately $30,000 from Spokane County to pay for the zoo’s master plan. The society had already received $20,000 in private donations.

Walk in the Wild never did become one of the nation’s top zoos, or anywhere near it. It closed in 1995 after years of financial and public relations problems.

From 1925: More than 600 Ku Klux Klansmen jammed the Knights of Pythias Hall in Spokane to listen to a speech by Judge John A. Jeffrey of Seattle, “imperial lecturer for the Klan.”

His topic: “Ideals of the Klan.”

One of those “ideals” was that “we believe America was created for the free white race, and that it must be preserved for this race.”

“We have no quarrel with others, for they have their place, but Americans must control their own country,” he said.

More than 100 new applications for membership were received at the meeting.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1345: The conjunction of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn is thought by scholars at the University of Paris to be the “cause of the plague epidemic” known as the Black Death. The actual cause was the bacterium yersinia pestis spread by fleas, rats and other animals.