50 years ago in Expo history: The fair was such a big deal that a helipad was planned at Gonzaga to give visitors aerial tours of the city

Two vastly different forms of transportation – buses and helicopters – were expecting boom times during Expo ’74.

The Spokane Helicopter Service received a permit to construct a “helistop,” or helipad, on the Gonzaga University campus.

The company planned to use two helicopters to carry paying passengers on sightseeing tours, giving them a bird’s-eye view of the fairgrounds and “a large portion of the city.”

Meanwhile, the Greyhound Bus Lines reported that it had already confirmed charters for 70 busloads of fairgoers from the Seattle area.

“And that is just a small part of the business we expect to generate from the exposition,” a Greyhound executive said.

He said charter groups would be leaving from nearly all of the 71 Greyhound terminals in the West, with others coming from points farther east.

From 100 years ago: Ferry County Sheriff Mike Moran tendered his resignation without any explanation other than, “I don’t like this job.”

No one could blame him for saying that. Being an anti-bootlegger sheriff in Ferry County was clearly dangerous.

Right after Moran’s appointment the previous year, a “notorious moonshine manufacturer” dynamited his house. Moran’s family narrowly escaped injury. Since then, Moran had been threatened repeatedly and had “narrowly escaped death at the hands of would be assassins on several occasions.” He had been shot at more than once.

Moran took over as sheriff the previous year when his predecessor, Sheriff Thomas Barker, was convicted of aiding and abetting bootleggers and was sent to a two-year term at McNeil Island.