Ace Concrete Gravel Pit

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MONDAY, January 18, 2021 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY 2021 More than 4,500 still without power Avista: All service should be restored sometime Monday

By Emma Epperly THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Crews worked around the clock for the ﬁfth day straight Sunday to restore electricity to the Inland Northwest after a windstorm last Wednesday left tens of thousands without power and toppled hundreds of trees. As of 5 p.m., a little more than 4,500 Avista Corp. customers were still without power, according to the util- DAN PELLE/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW ity’s website. That was down Kiantha Duncan, recently elected president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, stands in her hallway with paintings by Sam The Artist. from 7,300 customers late Sunday morning, and down from the storm’s peak outage of 70,000 customers without power. NEW NAACP PRESIDENT’S Shortly after the storm, more than 100,000 house- holds in the Inland North- west were without power. An estimated 133 trees fell in city parks, with more potentially MLK DAY IS FULL OF HOPE hazardous leaning trees. Initial assessments from Avista the day after the storm suggested power might not be Kiantha Duncan draws inspiration from King’s dedication to all of humankind returned to some South Hill neighborhoods until Sunday By Maggie Quinlan that he focus on issues at home, Time maga- “If America’s soul becomes totally poi- evening. In a statement Sun- THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW zine reported. soned,” King said, “part of the autopsy must day, the utility said some cus- In his 1967 speech “Beyond Vietnam,” he read Vietnam.” tomers would need to wait Kiantha Duncan, president of the Spokane pointed out a “cruel irony,” that soldiers were Duncan, inspired by King’s dedication to until Monday for service to be chapter of the NAACP, said she believes in ﬁghting for justice in Southeast Asia that all of humankind, international and domestic, restored. The“brutal Spokesman-Review solidarity.” - 01/18/2021was not realized in the American South, and uses the phrase in another context. Avista called in addition- In 1967, before Jim Crow laws were abol- that in the war Black and white soldiers who She said, to her “brutal solidarity” means al crews to help with hun- ished and at the height of the Vietnam War, could not attend the same schools at home recognizing and valuing every person’s dreds of power outages, some the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. took an an- stood in “brutal solidarity” against vulnerable ti-war stance, despite many allies’ preference and poor Vietnamese families. See DUNCAN, 2 See POWER, 2

THEN AND NOW ACE CONCRETE GRAVEL PIT

By Jesse Tinsley THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Ice-age floods left the Inland Northwest with vast deposits of clean gravel and sand that have been used to build highways and roads, buildings and bridges for more than a century. The Spokane area has several large gravel pits emptied by mining. The pit bounded by Park and Thierman roads and Sprague and Broadway avenues in Spokane Valley is one of the largest. It was mined by Ace Concrete and Acme Concrete over several decades. JESSE TINSLEY/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW Swedish immigrant Fred E. Backlund, a Present day: A 44-acre “lake” remains building contractor, founded Ace Sand and after decades of sand and gravel mining Gravel in the 1920s at 303 N. Park Road. at the former Ace Concrete and Acme He began selling ready-mixed concrete Concrete pit mine, bordered by Park and changed the name. In 1946, he sold Road, Thierman Road, Union Pacific Ace Concrete to John Cowan and George railroad tracks on the south side and Krause, who sold it to Lloyd Borjessan in Broadway Avenue on the north in THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW PHOTO ARCHIVE 1951. Each of the new owners ramped up Spokane Valley. Acme Concrete bought 1956: At the bottom of this photo, sand and gravel operations, likely by Ace Concrete, activity at the Park Road pit. Hecla Mining out Ace Concrete in 1976, eventually have already begun on a parcel near Park Road and Sprague Avenue in Spokane bought Ace in 1959. controlling the whole site. Because Valley. Materials were in demand by the new interstate highway system and general Fred Drollinger was a Nebraska native the water is actually the surface of the construction. Ace Concrete, later Acme Concrete, mined this area for decades until it who arrived in Spokane in 1912. He found- regional aquifer, the area can’t be filled in became a 44-acre pool, part of the region’s aquifer. Though refilling the giant pits was ed Acme Sand and Gravel in 1927. or used for recreational purposes in order once required by state law, large gravel pits that have penetrated the aquifer water In the late 1930s, Drollinger also turned to prevent contamination of the source of table are now fenced off and left for wildlife habitat, in order to protect the region’s to pre-mixed concrete. the region’s drinking water source. source of drinking water. Fred Drollinger’s son, Warren, was Ac- me’s general manager who also operated ing, Donald Herak. He would run the busi- in 2018 at the age of 94. crete. But rules have changed to protect Spokane Sand and Gravel. In 1957, War- ness for more than 40 years, eventually as In 1999, Acme Concrete was purchased the region’s aquifer, the source of the wa- ren was killed when the bulldozer he was president of the company, and a partner. by Central Pre-Mix, which is now part of ter filling the largest pits. While they seem driving rolled down a steep bank in a grav- In 1976, Herak bought Ace Concrete from CRH, an international conglomerate that like man-made lakes, the water is part of el pit. Hecla Mining. owns dozens of construction-related busi- the region’s water supply, which must be Fred Drollinger left the business a few Herak was a devout Catholic who do- nesses across the Northwest. fenced off and left only for wildlife. months later. He died in 1974. nated millions to Gonzaga, where he Until the 1970s, Washington state law Acme’s new manager was a 1945 Gon- served on the board of trustees for three required that old gravel pits be refilled Jesse Tinsley can be reached at (509) zaga University graduate in civil engineer- decades, and Catholic Charities. He died with clean material, such as broken con- 459-5378 or at [email protected]

JIM KERSHNER’S 100 YEARS AGO TODAY

A jilted man filed suit against his So he arrived in Spokane, prepared They received no satisfaction from former fiancée for $5,000 in an un- for a wedding. City Hall, but the Spokane Chamber usual breach-of-promise case. But Swantkoski had changed her of Commerce’s unemployment com- County clerks believed that “this mind. She refused to marry him. mittee expressed sympathy. was the first case ever filed in Spo- Woehl’s lawsuit claimed that he The chairman of the committee kane County where a man seeks spent a lot of money on “taxi rides, said that a survey showed that 532 damages from a woman for breach of theaters and dinners.” Moreover, the married men in Spokane were with- a marriage promise.” entire incident made him a “nervous out work, and they had a total of 797 Emile Frank Woehl said he be- wreck.” children. came engaged to Verona Swantkoski From the labor beat: The “A large number of these children of Spokane and “showered his atten- “unemployed married men” who are hungry now,” said the chairman. tions” and money on her. marched on City Hall a day earlier “I believe this organization can do a He was working a lucrative job in voted to form their own union. great deal toward getting work for Chicago, but she refused to marry The group was formed during a the fathers of these children and him unless he gave up his business meeting of 70 men in the city’s free thereby making it possible for them and moved to Spokane. employment office. to be fed properly.”

Contact Northwest Editor John Stucke at: (509) 459-5419; fax (509) 459-5482; [email protected]