Coulee Recollections

10 years ago

Lake Roosevelt boys won their Raider Nation basketball tournament with a lopsided win over the visiting Lapwai, Idaho Wildcats, 78-47. Matt Pleasants had his way under the basket much of the night with a total of 28 points. The two teams won the right to play in the championship game by both winning over a visiting team from Australia on Friday.

20 years ago

Local man Scott Hunter, editor and publisher at the Star newspaper, bought the company from the Grand Coulee Associates for an undisclosed amount, becoming the sole owner.

30 years ago

Two rock climbers were injured in the Grand Coulee last week, falling near the Devil’s Punch Bowl. Both climbers, aged 17 and 18, had sustained injuries in their separate 50-foot and 150-foot falls. The youth were taken by ambulance to Coulee Community Hospital where they were treated and released.

40 years ago

James VanNostrand, a senior at Lake Roosevelt, accepts an award for placing first in the Voice of Democracy Contest in District 13 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He received a medal and a $50 savings bond for his essay on “My Responsibility to America.”

50 years ago

The Grand Coulee Tigers defeated the Coulee City Rams 57-54 in a non-league conflict. High point man for the Tigers was Earl Cole with 18 points. Also scoring were: John Hotchkiss, 12 points; Pat Warner, 10; Larry Horton, 9; Bill Roberson, 7; and Roger Schreiber, 1.

Pioneer Couple Observes 65th Anniversary: Mr. and Mrs. Roy R. Rankin of Grand Coulee were honored guest at a reception given at their home. Both natives of Iowa, the Rankins were married on Christmas Eve, 1902 in Almira. They took out a homestead the following spring in the Delrio area which they farmed until their retirement.

60 years ago

Funeral services for Sally Iswald Keller, an Indian woman reputedly 112 years old, were held. She had lived at Keller most of her life, but usually spent the winters at Nespelem.

Six Indian boys ranging in age from nine to fifteen years were discovered burglarizing the Coulee Dam Stores shortly after 1 a.m. on Dec. 24; approximately $200 worth of miscellaneous merchandise looted from the various departments was recovered when the youngsters were apprehended by police officers.

Four Montana youths were apprehended by local state patrol and police officers during an attempted robbery of W.A. Worley’s Mobil service station on Grand Coulee Heights. Two of the suspects ran from the building and were intercepted in a nearby vacant lot. The other two youths were discovered hiding in a car bearing a Montana license, and a P38 automatic, fully loaded and cocked, was also discovered nearby.

Three Nespelem teenagers were trapped and drowned in a two-door sedan about 6:30 a.m. when the car in which they were riding skidded through a bridge rail and overturned in a pool on Nespelem creek, just below the mill pond. The boy driving the car managed to escape by partially lowering and breaking the front window on the driver’s side, but was unable to release the others.