Medical Lake's historical artifacts to get new home on the web

Medical Lake residents who want to view artifacts that detail the city's history, but do not have the time to go to the library, will be able to look at them from their own home.

In 2014, the Medical Lake Public Library received a Washington Rural Heritage grant from the Institution of Museum and Library Services. In collaboration with the Medical Lake Historical Society, the library is photographing and scanning items from the city's past and posting the images on the WRH's website.

According to its website, the mission of WRH is to enable small and rural libraries to create digital collections of historical items that highlight and tell the stories of their communities and make them accessible online to a wide audience. It also provides long-term storage and preservation of digital masters created by WRH participants.

"Medical Lake has such a rich history," Patrick Roewe, Spokane County Library District deputy director of library services, said. "At one time, it was a destination where up to 3,000 people would come every weekend to visit the healing waters of the lake"

Roewe added that Medical Lake is the first city to represent Spokane County on the WRH project. Some artifacts, which are a mix of physical items and photographs, are already on the website, including a 1916 photograph of a fourth-grade class.

Alex Fricks, a Spokane Falls Community College graduate who is planning to transfer to Eastern Washington University, is the intern working on the project. Her tasks include retouching old photographs, scanning and realigning items. She also conducts research and is working with Evan Robb, project manager and digital repository librarian.

"There's a little bit of piecing things together on my part," Fricks said. "Sometimes I'll have to go through and identify people in photographs."

When she started this project, Fricks didn't know Medical Lake had such a rich history. Someone she's enjoyed learning about is Theo Hall.

"She was the post-mistress and taught Sunday school," Fricks said. "She was very active in the community and was all over the place."

One of the artifacts Fricks recently found was a bottle of mineral water with liquid still inside of it.

"All of this information is becoming available and so many people are going to get a chance to learn about it," Fricks said. "It's nice we are going to document all of it."

Roewe said the goal is to have 100 items on the WRH website by August. He added that the library will collaborate with the historical society and others to add more information about the artifacts.

"This is not just a static project, it can change and grow over time," Roewe said.

Al Stover can be reached at [email protected].