This Week in Odessa History

Odessa’s excellent train service ended abruptly in early 1929, with the opening of the Great Northern Railway’s Cascade Tunnel.

With shorter operating time, the railroad eliminated several stops for its express trains. From then on, Odessa was left with only local service, one west-bound train in the morning and the other east-bound in the afternoon.

The Record reported the changes which were taking place in its issue of January 31, 1929:

Odessa will be one of the towns that will have no reason to rejoice over the Great Northern Railways’ great engineering feat in boring an eight-mile tunnel through the Cascades in less than three years.

With the company’s announcement of the opening of the tunnel for train service comes a new time table which goes into effect next week. This just “shoots all to pieces” the train service of Odessa and a lot of similar towns that have heretofore enjoyed good service from the railroad.

Under the new schedule which cuts the running time between Spokane and Seattle by nearly two hours, none of the Great Northern’s express trains, numbers 1, 2, 3 or 4, will stop here, and the only passenger service that will be given this community will be the “dinky” an accommodation train that has heretofore served the small stations between Spokane and Leavenworth.

Under the new schedule, this “dinky” will make connection with another one that is run out of Seattle. The discussion of the new train schedule occupied considerable time at this week’s meeting of the Odessa Commercial Club. It was shown the towns between Spokane and Wenatchee affected by the change will be Harrington, Odessa, Wilson Creek and Ephrata. The proposed change affects not only the passenger service but also something more important from the business standpoint, that of express and parcel post, which will all have to be handled by the “dinky.”

The new schedule, prevents businessmen from telephoning rush orders for goods to Spokane and getting them back the same day. First class mail service will not be affected, as fast trains will take that on the fly.

With the change, to go to Spokane to do any business one would have to leave Odessa at 6:30 p.m., stay overnight in the city, do his business the next day and then remain in Spokane another night before he could return by train to Odessa.

The change is so radical that some have expressed the opinion that the Great Northern had decided its cross-country business was more valuable than local, and was deliberately trying to drive away local business, thus enabling the company to reduce its station force expenses.

100 Years Ago

From The Odessa Record

February 2, 1912

Davenport, Jan. 29-- Abolition of the office of justice of the peace, of which there are in Lincoln county nearly 40, is urged by Prosecuting Attorney James S. Freece in his abstract report to Governor M.E. Hay. Reversals of the rulings of the justice courts by the higher ones, as in a majority of cases, has brought the matter before the governor.

The report says, “I hope to see the day when justice courts will be entirely abolished and in their stead a court of inferior jurisdiction created in each commissioner’s district, the presiding judge to be an attorney. Let him handle civil cases up to $500 and criminal matters punishable by fines up to $250. It would not be less difficult to get a criminal before such a court than to have matters handled before a justice of the peace under present conditions, and it would result in a saving to the county.

75 Years Ago

From The Odessa Record

January 28, 1937

A blizzard, blowing steadily on Wednesday morning, made it necessary to close the schools for the remainder of the week.

Driven ahead of a strong wind, a heavy snowfall banked the roads and streets during the blizzard.

Climaxing a long period of severe winter weather, marked by zero temperatures and continued snow fall, a threatened “chinook” swept inland over Washington, sending temperatures up to 20 degrees in less than 12 hours, only to reverse into a strong east wind bringing a heavy blizzard which blew through Tuesday night and Wednesday, piling the snow high in drifts.

Mail carrier Stanley Klima, carrier in the north country, did not complete his route on Wednesday.

50 Years Ago

From The Odessa Record

February 1, 1962

Starting last Wednesday the cold wave was leaving this area, to be replaced with bright, sunlight weather and warm temperatures. Snow has been disappearing and the ground is drying.

Odessa firemen are arranging to exhibit the new fire truck here on Saturday. It, with the old truck, and the early hose cart that served a pioneer community will be parked on the main street from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The new self-contained gas masks which the department is buying for chemical fire fighting will also be displayed, together with the department’s inhalator and lake rescue equipment.

25 Years Ago

From The Odessa Record

January 29, 1987

Odessa School District patrons in parts of the three counties next Tuesday will be asked to consider a maintenance and operations levy request by the district’s board of directors, a request $30,000 below last year’s overwhelmingly approved $291,000, and far less than the state’s mandated maximum – the levy lid – of nearly $385,000.

10 Years Ago

From The Odessa Record

January 31, 2002

Expansion plans for the Odessa Industrial Park were announced this week by the Odessa Public Development Authority, which reported that two new businesses wish to locate there.

The two firms, one a manufacturer of decorative tiles and the other an agriculture-related business, yesterday were to have committed to partnering with the OPDA in applying for a $700,000 grant/loan from the Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB) of the Washington State Office of Community Trade and Economic Development.

The proposed expansion program follows by less than two months the dedication of the Odessa Industrial Park, attended by Washington Governor Gary Locke, who called it a model of redevelopment and revitalization for rural communities of the state to follow.