Goose Lake hosts swim party in 1941

E-mail from Cheryl

Facts from the past gleaned from the Moses Lake Herald, Columbia Basin Herald and The Neppel Record by Cheryl (Driggs) Elkins:

From the Columbia Basin Herald on Aug. 14, 1941:

Watch us grow

Moses Lake is growing and will continue to grow for a great many years. It is not booming however, as some mushroom towns have in the past, later to become ghost cities and towns. It is a slow, steady and healthy growth which will step up in volume as developments occur in this section. Located in the very heart of the East Irrigation project, and one of the first units to be developed, many people from all sections of the United States are eying us with a great deal of interest and anticipation.

Home seekers, who eke their living from mother earth, are vitally interested; business men and women, who are looking for better locations in a country that is advancing steadily, where there will be steady payrolls, good crops and wonderful living conditions are interested. In fact, Moses Lake, with its wonderful prospects for the future, is destined to become one of the “hot sports” of the Pacific Northwest. Its future is assured and those who are quick to see its possibilities and take advantage of them will surely reap a harvest of success and contentment in a country that recognizes no classes, where opportunity smiles upon rich and poor alike, and where success is not measured by dollars and cents alone, but through achievement and character.

From the Columbia Basin Herald on Aug. 22, 1941:

Dennis note: So, I was a little confused by the dates of the first few editions of the Moses Lake Herald, now the Columbia Basin Herald. The first edition was published on July 31, 1941, a Thursday. Then the next two editions were published on Aug. 7 and 14. The following edition was published on Aug. 22, a Friday. What?

In publishing, a masthead is a list which includes the names of editors, writers, and owners, as well as the title of the newspaper. The masthead for Aug. 14 states, “Published every Friday.”

Perhaps the first three editions of the MLH were published on the incorrect day, a Thursday instead of a Friday. Or perhaps those three editions were published on a Friday, but had an incorrect date for the paper.

Hold it, just reread the Aug. 14 edition, which has Moses Lake Herald, Thursday, August 14, 1941 at the top of the paper and “Published every Friday” in the masthead. The mystery continues.

Establish general offices

Public Utility District No. 2 of Grant County has established general offices in the Bell Block in Ephrata and will soon be ready for business, with manager William Long in charge of the county wide operations of the district. Plans are underway for an extensive development program in the near future.