Spokane, Washington

Welcome back to the road.  Today we are heading east into Washington to visit Spokane.  I love mountain towns.  I’m not really sure what it is about them, but there’s something comforting about coming down out of the hills to civilization.  Spokane is more than just a town, but it certainly has that feel.

Today Spokane is the second largest city in the state of Washington, but it’s beginnings as a simple trading post were quite humble.  The name was borrowed from the Spokane natives who call Eastern Washington their homeland.  The descendants of the Spokane still live in Northeast Washington to this day.

The city owes a lot of its early growth to a gold rush in the late 19th century.  It was also about that time that the city experienced catastrophe.  In 1889 the great fire destroyed most of Spokane’s downtown business district.  A lot of what we see today was born of a building boom that took place after the fire.  I have noticed that many of America’s great cities went through these destructive fires and then were reborn. Sort of like a phoenix from the ashes.

Spokane has experienced booms and busts throughout its history.  When the mining industry dried up, the city went into a period of decline.  Later the city saw some growth in the lumber industry and some manufacturing, but even that fell off. 

By the 1960s things were looking pretty rough, so some of the business community started an effort to revitalize the downtown area.  They were able to move some railroad infrastructure to create a lovely park around the falls, and even managed to host the worlds fair in 1974.  I believe Spokane is the smallest city to have hosted a Worlds Fair.  Since then the city has experienced more ups and downs as it has attempted to adapt to the decline in manufacturing.

The downtown is beautiful, and while it has some of the typical signs of hardship that have become so common in big cities, it is still a nice place to see.

Not far from downtown is the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.  At the time of our visit they were hosting an incredible exhibit from DreamWorks animation studios.  I know them through their popular works.  Believe it or not, Kung Fu Panda is very popular in China.  I have even seen him on popular brands of instant noodles at the supermarket there.

There is more here of course, a lot related to the history of the area.  I had no idea that the area had so much agriculture.  An exhibit with flour sacks that went all over the world from here is an example of how far reaching that agricultural industry was, and probably is to this day.

I have seen a lot of tree ring exhibits.  When you know how old some of the trees were, it feels sort of a shame to cut them down.  Maybe there are trees today that will still be standing that far into the future.

Outside the museum there is a bit of real history to explore in the form of the Campbell House.  The house was built in 1898 for the Campbell family who owed their success to the mining industry they were part of.  The museum has worked hard to restore the home to its original glory.  The furniture that originally filled the house was sold long ago, so they have made great efforts to find similar furnishings from the time based on photographs.

Our next stop takes us to Manito Park.  This is a very large park at 90 acres.  It seems a lot of cities at the time put aside large tracts of land to be used as park space.  I am not sure what inspired the creation of such a large park, it has been suggested to me that central park in New York was the source, but in either case I am glad they did.

This is a great place to get away from every day life and enjoy some sculpted nature.  The park is famous for their lilac bushes, and I am sure it is a lovely site when they are in bloom.

Manito Park is not the only large park Spokane has to offer.  As mentioned earlier, Spokane hosted the 74 Worlds Fair, and this is where it happened.  The city has been left with this incredible riverfront park around the falls.  Its amazing that this exists in the middle of a major city.

The park is full of great walking trails from which to take pictures.  It feels like a strange middle ground where I am both in the city and in nature at the same time.  

I hope you enjoyed this visit to Spokane Washington.  The city has seen ups and downs over the years, but the people here always manage to get their footing back and turn it around.