Here was a heady event in 1906 Spokane: The week the streets flowed with beer.

Thirsty men in Cannon's Addition (the lower South Hill) reported what seemed like a mirage. City street sprinkling wagons, used to keep road dust under control, were rolling through the streets and spewing beer over the edge of the Hangman Creek bluff.

"Beer foamed from the loose top of the receptacles and percolated in rich creamy streams from the sprinkling machines on the ends of the wagons," reported the Spokesman-Review.

The spectacle was of "more than passing notice to the masculine part of the public living in Cannon's addition."

It was no mirage. The old Hieber Brewing Co. needed to get rid of a large volume of spoiled beer. They apparently contracted with the city's sprinkler wagons to help dump it.

If they thought nobody would notice, they were deluding themselves.

"It is said that men have been seen almost to weep as the sprinklers passed by," noted the S-R.

No use crying over spilt beer.