During the 1920s and 1930s, Spokane's Riverside Avenue was more than a bustling hub of downtown commerce—it was also a shadowy stronghold for the Ku Klux Klan. Behind unassuming office doors, the "Invisible Empire" quietly orchestrated its activities, embedding itself within the fabric of the city's political and social institutions.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Hyde Building on W. Riverside Avenue served as the headquarters for Spokane Ku Klux Klan. This building, located in the heart of downtown, also housed offices for the U.S. District Court in Spokane. The Klan used official letterhead with this address and held private meetings there to expand their influence not only in the Spokane area, but throughout Washington as well.
 
The Ku Klux Klan experienced a resurgence in the United States during the post-World War I period, and Spokane was no exception. At its height within Washington, the Klan boasted 40,000 paid members (approximately 1 out of 10 eligible native-born men in the state between the ages of 21 and 79).

According to a July 1921 article in Spokesmen-Review, the KKK distributed a printed copy of their creed, promoting the values of "white supremacy, limitation of foreign immigration, a closer relationship of pure Americanism, freedom of speech and press.” Nationally, the Klan capitalized on fears about immigration, changing social norms, and religious diversity, professing to uphold and defend “Americanism.”

Locally, the group targeted immigrants, Catholics, and African Americans. One of their largest public events in Spokane was a rally in 1923 on Five Mile Prairie, where a 40-foot flaming cross was lit following a parade of over 200 cars. The Spokane Daily Chronicle reported that 50 new members were initiated during the event.
 
Prominent local figures played leadership roles in the Spokane Klan, as well as the statewide Klan. Reverend C.A. Rexroad of Corbin Park Methodist Church was the “Exalted Cyclops,” or head of the Spokane Klan, during the early 1920s. His public position as a pastor helped recruit new members. In the late 1920s, E.B. Quackenbush, a Spokane attorney, rose to the position of “Grand Dragon” for the entire Klan in Washington State. These two men were well acquainted. Coincidentally, in a 1924 lawsuit, Quackenbush represented Rexroad in a civil suit. Quackenbush’s influence extended beyond Spokane; in 1929, he was honored with a ceremonial key to the city of Bellingham by the town's mayor. These leaders used their positions to strengthen the Klan’s presence and influence throughout the region.

The Klan’s activities in the Spokane area included inflammatory speaking events at local high schools, rallies, and initiation events, as well as more covert forms of intimidation, such as threatening letters. One such note was sent to Black residents in 1921 warning them to leave the city. The Klan publicly denied responsibility in the local press, but incidents like this contributed to their reputation for spreading fear and division.
 
Spokane’s African-American community actively resisted the Klan’s influence. Anchored by churches like Bethel African Methodist Episcopal and Calvary Baptist Church, the community organized to protect their rights. Political groups such as the NAACP and the Spokane County Colored Republican Club provided additional support. In one notable case, when a local drugstore denied service to Black patrons, the community challenged the discrimination in court and won a ruling affirming their right to equal treatment.

Additionally, the Spokane Chronicle reported in July 1921 that "colored citizens of the city will meet to form the 'colored citizens protective community.' Rev. T. F. Jones of the Bethel A. M. E. church was quoted in the article, declaring "we consider this action necessary because of rumors that a branch of the KKK is being formed in Spokane. We believe we must present a united front if the rights of the colored population are to be protected."
 
The Klan’s efforts to expand were challenged not only by the African-American community but also by local officials and media. Spokane’s newspapers reported critically on the Klan’s activities, while some city leaders worked to prevent the group from gaining more political influence. Indeed, in a 1921 editorial published in the Spokane Press, an anonymous author wrote "Why should any person who intends to behave lawfully join the Ku Klux Klan...We don’t want any Ku Klux Klan!" The Klan’s tactics often backfired, as public backlash grew against their extremist behavior – especially with the statewide defeat of a 1924 initiative targeting Catholic schools in Washington.
 
By the early 1930s, the Klan’s power in Spokane began to decline. National scandals surrounding the organization, internal corruption, and the economic pressures of the Great Depression weakened the Klan. Membership dropped sharply by the World War II era, and their public activities in the Pacific Northwest became less frequent. In Spokane, the combination of organized public opposition (especially from local marginalized groups) and shifting public priorities limited the Klan’s reach.
 
The story of the Ku Klux Klan in Spokane reveals how hate-fueled organizations manipulated societal anxieties to gain social influence and political power. At the same time, it highlights how the resilience and unity of those who opposed them demonstrated the enduring strength of compassion and community in overcoming fear.

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Sometimes the law comes swift and unfairly as with the African American sex workers of downtown Spokane in the early 1900s.

Beginning early in the year of 1905, Chief of Police Leroy Cotman Waller unleashed a campaign against all “vagrants” designed to round up as many perceived undesirables as possible and place them in the city jail. As the war on crime progressed into the spring, police attention turned to the Black prostitutes in the downtown area, who Waller blamed for almost all the robberies in Spokane. On May 8th he officially announced that all Black women “engaged in unlawful occupations” were to leave town immediately or be arrested. Eight women had already left and four more were slated be jailed if they did not quickly follow. Two weeks later, police jailed seven women of color believed to be pickpockets. Some plead guilty and were fined $50 while others chose to fight their cases. Some had been charged with theft previously, but all were acquitted when witnesses did not show up in court.

After the May arrests police efforts to expel the women from the city slowed down. The newspapers still warned of the suspected roaming pickpockets, but there was no mention of further round ups.

This was not the first-time Black sex workers were forcibly expelled from Spokane. Two years prior twelve Black prostitutes were told to leave town immediately, and when they refused, five were caught and arrested by the police for vagrancy. Two had previous theft charges, so they left town on the advice of their lawyer N. E. Nuzum, while the others plead not guilty. Nuzum argued that of the 80 known prostitutes in Spokane, only the ten Black prostitutes remaining were facing charges. He threatened "if the rank discrimination continues against them I shall proceed in demand that the entire 'burnt district' be cleaned." The same day the five posted bail, three of the women were jailed a second time. Despite Nuzum’s best efforts, five were charged and fined, while the other five entered negotiations to leave town for Lewiston, Idaho, where the Chief of Police there said they would be arrested again.

Vagrancy was the charge brought against the sex workers in 1903 and likely would have been for the women in 1905. Vagrancy laws are designed broad intentionally, and make it illegal to be poor, suspicious, and idle in public or private spaces. Unsurprisingly, the law was used on the poor and minority groups lavishly until the 1960s when such laws were dismantled by the civil rights movement. Other charges such as disorderly conduct, loitering, and general misdemeanors were commonly used to punish "undesirables."

As 1905 pressed into late summer, Chief Waller remained the center of attention, but not likely in the way he anticipated. Waller and Deputy Assessor, Fred Leghorn, were brought before a grand jury for embezzlement. Waller and Leghorn were collecting fines from sex workers and pocketing the cash. The Judge explained that if they turned in the money, the courts would not have a case against the two men. It seemed they followed this advice as no further developments in the case were ever released. By October, Chief Waller was avoiding the subject of prostitution entirely and the previously expelled women slowly began to return to Main Avenue.

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Following the 1915 release of DW Griffith’s racist film “Birth of a Nation,” the NAACP mobilized across the country, including Spokane, to protest the film.

In 1915, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was a fledgling organization fighting for racial equality in the United States. The release of Birth of a Nation that year galvanized the young organization. The film was a landmark in early cinema but was also virulently racist. A historical melodrama, Birth of a Nation cast the Ku Klux Klan as heroic figures, and portrayed southern Blacks in racist stereotypes. Worst yet, the film sparked a revival of the KKK and increased racial violence against African Americans.

The NAACP petitioned the National Board of Censorship to ban the film, and when that effort failed the organization continued petitioning for the most outrageous and inaccurate scenes to be removed. Throughout 1915 and 1916, activists protested scheduled showings of the film in their towns, including Tacoma, Portland, Los Angeles, and Spokane.

When Birth of a Nation was scheduled to be shown in Spokane local activists challenged its arrival. They called for the newly added ‘race prejudice’ clause in Spokane’s Censorship Ordinance to be applied to the film, as it was likely to incite racial hatred or rioting in the city. JC Argall, a member of the censorship commission, had expressed distaste for the film and like-minded works and advocated for censoring or banning the showings.

In 1915 the NAACP said their efforts in Spokane had so far been unsuccessful. "Despite protests," read an article in The Crisis, "the play is running ... without the elimination of any of the objectionable scenes." The article reported that the most offensive scenes had been removed from the film before it showed in Chicago and Boston.

In one case, protestors used violence. When the Clemmer Theater hired actors to dress as mounted Klansmen in front of the theater to promote the film in 1916, a mob of men pulled the faux Klansmen from their horses and beat them. “Rocks and sticks flew, yells were given, horses frightened, and a large crowd assembled,” reported the Spokesman-Review. The paper noted that “attacks had been made on the riders before.”

The NAACP continued its fight against the film into the 1920s as it continued to make rounds in the country without much official intervention. The NAACP’s publication The Crisis followed the situation closely, reporting on protests in many major US cities and tracking the progress made towards censoring the film. Efforts to ban the film succeeded in Portland and New York City, but it took years of campaigning and raising awareness by NAACP activists.

Opposition to The Birth of a Nation sparked the founding of the Spokane NAACP in 1919. The chapter continues its work today.

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Around the turn of the last century numerous African Americans migrated from the deep South to Spokane in hopes of building a freer and more prosperous life. In which some of them achieved this with the creation of the Deer Lake Irrigated Orchard Company.

Founded by Peter Barrow in 1910, the Deer Lake Orchard Company consisted of 140 acres of farmland meant to provide an opportunity for Black workers trying in hope of to build their place in the Northwest. With the combined efforts of 45 investors from across the country, $18,000 dollars was raised, $15,600 of which was used to purchase the 140 acres that sat across the lake from Barrow’s homestead.

Barrow's father, Peter B. Barrow escaped to fight with the Union Army during the Civil War. After his military career, which saw him reach the rank of sergeant. Barrow went on to serve in both chambers of the Mississippi state legislature. The racial violence of the Jim Crow South eventually forced him and others to seek more opportunity in the Spokane area where he and his wife helped to found the first Black church in the city.

While Spokane was preferable to the South, it was still not welcoming to Black migrants. The Barrow family like other Black pioneers would have experienced discrimination and limited job opportunities. And like many American Blacks in the Jim Crow era, they turned to entrepreneurship, founding their own businesses. The younger Peter Barrow started his orchard on farmland that had been claimed by his father.

A 1910 Spokesman Review article about the opening of the orchard illustrates how Barrow and early Black Spokanites were received at the time. The article applauded the project but only in its ability “To give work to the idle negroes now about the city and to eventually rid the city of the riff raff population of the colored race.” Barrow was well aware of how public perception affected the opportunities of African Americans and took inspiration from Booker T. Washington who championed the use of skills and labor as tools to advance the Black community. The Deer Lake Irrigated Orchard accomplished this if only for a brief period of time.

The orchard successfully contributed to the growing apple industry that Washington State is known for today. It grew to employ as many as 100 African Americans and eventually reached a net worth of over $175,000, but that success did not last.

The company was only in operation for about 10 years. A combination of monetary and transportation issues challenged its viability, but other regional factors also influenced its fate. One of which was the Arcadia Orchards. The 7,000 acre mega project located near Deer Park briefly dominated the region as the largest apple orchard in the world before it also closed down in 1924.

The company's treasurer, Charles Parker Stewart cut his botanical teeth while working at the orchards and would go on to become a Professor of Botany at Howard University. With the plant samples he had collected still being used today. The legacy of Barrow himself lived on with his son Charles who co-founded the first Black newspaper in Spokane. While Charles' daughter Eleanor, who would marry the first Black mayor of Spokane James Chase. So while the Deer Park Irrigated Orchard Company was not a permanent institution, it had a lasting impact on the Black community in Spokane.

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The Wednesday Art Club of Spokane was much more than an art club. The African-American women-lead organization gave back to a city that did not always recognize them.

The Wednesday Art Club was founded in July of 1913 in Spokane Washington. The organization was lead by African-American women, who not only held art shows but strived to better the Black community in Spokane. The art shows that were held highlighted African-American artists from across the nation.

In 1936 the organization held what historian Dwayne A. Mack called "the clubs greatest connection to the broader black art world." The art exhibit was held at the Grace Campbell museum which highlighted 28 prominent Black artists such as Teodoro Ramos Blanco, Malvin Gray Johnson, Aaron Douglas and William Arthur Cooper. Their works were diverse, from oil paintings to bronze statues. This type of event was done yearly by the club, Mayme Lee was often the women who chaired these exhibits.

The Wednesday Art Club also hosted a charity ball. The first was held a year after the club was founded in 1914, and raised money to provide a fund for “needy colored people of the city may be aided this winter." The club also held meetings with the community that centered important topics such as American citizenship or the role of churches on the home front. Cultural festivals were held as well, in 1972 the club hosted a “Negro Week," which featured performances and speakers such as Spokane civil rights leader Carl Maxey. They also hosted more lighthearted events such as comedy shows, that featured an all women cast.

The Wednesday Art Club featured a program that taught Black history to the public, while also having a “Tiny Tim” fund in which gave college scholarships to students. Tuberculosis was on the rise in the early 1900s, so The Wednesday Art Club helped make Christmas seals to raise money for treatment.

The Wednesday Art Club connected with other women-led groups throughout the community. The club had prominent members like Mrs. Eleanor Chase, wife of James Chase the first African-American mayor in the city. The members of this organization had a deep history, club member Marie Maley descended from one of the first black families in Spokane. She was the granddaughter of freed slaves and born on a slave plantation. Though the Wednesday Art Club seemed to disband somewhere in the 1980’s, their legacy in the Spokane community is still seen today as an organization that wanted better for all.

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Black service members who served their nation in Spokane have faced racial discrimination, including one particularly heinous incident that occurred at Geiger Air Force Base in 1946.

In June 1946, the semi-finals of a Golden Gloves boxing tournament occurred at Geiger Air Force Base. There were 7,000 soldiers in attendance to see the match between a white and Black soldier. After a great showing in the first round, the Black boxer forfeited due to fatigue.

The decision caused immediate controversy. The two hundred Black soldiers in attendance piled around the ring, as no one was sure as to why the match was called. After it was revealed that the Black opponent had forfeited, those in attendance would claim that “someone had tampered with the African American boxer's mouthpiece.” Outrage by the results of the match grew among the crowd. On the way back to their segregated barracks, Black soldiers angrily threw stones at the white barracks and cars. Military police soon arrived to assess the situation and to de-escalate the fight that broke out between the soldiers.

Later that night, Private Samuel Hicks was found miles away from the barracks with a serious skull fracture. He was taken to the base's hospital but died shortly after. The local military officials who investigated the incident failed to find any suspects. Hicks was believed to have been a spectator at the boxing match earlier that evening. The investigators found no leads as to what had occurred at the end of the match that would lead to Private Hicks's death. Colonel Eric Dougan, commanding officer at Grieger reported to local media that the incident was “not a race fight between white and Negro soldiers.”

Journalists at Spokane Daily Chronicle invented a story claiming that hordes of Black soldiers improvised weaponry and attacked white barrack buildings. This inaccurate reporting stoked fear and racial tensions.

The events of this night spread across Spokane and caught the attention of other organizations, such as the Spokesman-Review and the Civil Rights Congress of the Spokane Chapter. The Spokesman-Review took a more sympathetic approach to the story, reporting on the poor conditions Black servicemen experienced on the base and the treatment by the other soldiers. This led to increased pressure on the base by activists to improve the conditions of Black barracks.

Spokane has a long history of Black Servicemen being treated poorly. Racial segregation in the military only ended with Executive Order 9981 in 1948.

The murder of Samuel Hicks was never solved.

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On June 21st, 1964, one black and two white student activists were killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Only three weeks later, three lawyers from Spokane, Washington, two white and one black departed for Mississippi during the historic 1964 Summer of Freedom.

Sponsored by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the 1964 Freedom Summer was set up as a voter registration drive amidst the tension of civil rights activism which had grown in frequency across the South. James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were the names of the student activists who were killed before the northwestern lawyer's arrival, at first described by authorities as only missing. Carl Maxey, appointed in 1963 as the Chairman of the Washington State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights by President John F. Kennedy went with his colleagues, Samuel Fancher & Thomas F. Lynch to help assist protestors and activists who required legal representation.

Maxey called Mississippi “the tail end of America” and said his work was “conducted in the most hostile environment imaginable”. He noted that “hundreds of angry Ku Klux Klan members, including the man later convicted of killing Medgar Evers, surrounded the courthouse.” Maxey helped to represent some of the 111 arrested protestors, including Stokely Carmichael and 13 freedom summer volunteers. During the three weeks he spent in Mississippi, Maxey met the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Despite the turmoil and danger, Maxey would later recall the time as “one of the finest summers I've ever had. And I feel it was a reflection of America. It was the first time both black and white worked hand-in-hand in a humanitarian concern—the right to vote and the right to live.”

Spokane followed Maxey’s lead the following year, black and white working hand-in-hand. In 1965, Gonzaga students, mostly white (though including African Americans such as Sam Minnix and his sister Verda, pictured) marched in front of Spokane’s courthouse to show support for those marching from Selma on March 21st.

There were two Spokanites there in the march for Montgomery as well, Mike Kobluk and Chad Mitchell, after being invited by acclaimed musician Harry Belafonte. Although such displays highlighted the solidarity between the two regions in their respective fights for civil rights, the march by Gonzaga students would be the last form of public civil rights protesting in Spokane during the 1960s.

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In October 1963, in downtown Spokane an exchange student at Gonzaga University from Liberia went into a barbershop to ask for a haircut. In a few minutes, Jangba Johnson experienced what it meant to be a second-class citizen in the United States of America.

Jangba Johnson was humiliated by the barbershop owner John W. Wheeler for refusing to service the young Black man saying that he did not cut “colored hair”. Johnson complained to his fellow students at Gonzaga about his mistreatment. Some students, mostly whites asked Wheeler to promise that such an incident would never happen again. When Wheeler refused the students picketed Wheeler’s barbershop, a protest that was reported in the national news media. They also went into Spokane’s local NAACP office and filed a complaint against Weeler’s barbershop, on the grounds of racial discrimination in what would turn out to be Spokane's most defining civil rights case of the 1960s.

The lawyer who took the case was Carl Maxey, Spokane's leading civil rights attorney who broke down several barriers for people of color in the city. Maxey took Johnson’s case pro bono and filed a complaint on his behalf to the Washington State Board Against Discrimination, arguing that it was illegal for a business that serves the public to refuse service based on race.

The case quickly divided the city and attracted national attention to Spokane. On one side was Carl Maxey representing the student Jangba Johnson and the other was Michael J. Hemovich representing the barbershop owner John Wheeler. Hemovich and Maxey traded blows against each other. Maxey argued that since a “barber’s license is a privilege and not a right. A barber cannot, under the law arbitrarily refuse service to a customer based on their race.” Hemovich argued that forcing Wheeler “to perform a personal service constituted to what amount as involuntary servitude.” Each side gave as good as they go in front of a packed audience.

It took the Board of Discrimination three minutes to give out a judgment on the case. They ruled against John Wheeler, ordering him to serve all races in his barbershop. Wheeler appealed to the State’s Supreme Court and lost. Rather than serve African Americans in his barbershop, Wheeler decided to close shop and retire.

This case was just another win for Maxey, for the city and people of Spokane it was something else. Spokane was a city with a small African American population, and the case of Jangba Johnson and John Wheeler brought the topic of both segregation and racism to the front of discussions in the city.

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The Davenport’s “Matador Room” did not actually feature bullfighting, the Desert Hotel’s “Mirage Room” could only offer such hallucinations as alcohol provided, and the Coeur d’Alene Hotel’s “Donkey Room” did not feature any live burros. The Hotel Sillman’s Monkey Room, however… well, gibbons aren't technically monkeys, but they were close enough for Spokane's nightlife in the 1950s and 60s.

There’s nothing terribly notable about the Chevron station on the corner of Monroe Street and Third Avenue. A person fueling up their vehicle might admire the elegant Brotherhood of Friends building across the street, or perhaps notice the Steam Plant’s smokestacks in the distance. But back in the 1950s, they would have looked across the intersection to see happy people coming and going from a five-story hotel, its facade blazing with a neon sign that advertised a cocktail lounge called the Monkey Room.

The Sillman Hotel was a brick building on the corner of Monroe and Third Avenue, built by George and William Sillman, a pair of brothers who had come to Spokane in 1897. They constructed hundreds of early Spokane homes and buildings, some of which are now on the historical register. The Sillman brothers announced the hotel’s completion in late 1909, and a fifth floor was added in 1910. Brother George operated the hotel from its opening until 1945, when he retired and sold the hotel and associated properties for an estimated $250,000.

After several changes of ownership, the Sillman eventually landed with the Cardinal Investment Company in 1950. The Cardinal era was the heyday of the Sillman Hotel, and it also coincided with the 1950s cocktail boom. The Sillman originally tried to get into the cocktail lounge game with its “Cardinal Lounge,” but the impulsive acquisition of two gibbons by a manager of the hotel gave them the opening for a truly distinctive nightlife spot: The Monkey Room.

The Monkey Room advertised itself as having baby gibbons imported "direct from Siam" by Sillman Hotel management. The gibbons, named Benny and Fuzzy, lived in a glass cage in the cocktail lounge. Their habitat was decorated with branches and leaves, and the lounge was decorated in a matching tropical style. The pair entertained many guests over the years, and were heavily featured in the Sillman’s advertising.

Although they were much beloved and brought joy to many, a glass cage inside a cocktail lounge was not an ideal habitat for these intelligent and social animals. Nor was Spokane full of resources for gibbon owners in need: when Benny caught pneumonia, he was taken to Northwest Seed and Pet (then called Northwest Seed and Insecticide) for observation by its owner, Harry Gross. Gross did sell various primates as pets and operated the Jungle Town zoo within his store, but he was not a veterinarian. While Benny recovered from his pneumonia, he passed away a few years later in 1955. The Sillman brought in another gibbon named Farfel to keep the grieving Fuzzy company.

In 1958, the Monkey Room finally acquired actual monkeys. A pair of capuchins, sometimes called “organ-grinder monkeys,” took up residence in the glass cage. (The gibbons were no longer present, although it's not clear precisely when and why they were removed.) Spokane’s mayor, Willard “Duke” Taft, chose the names Monkey See and Monkey Do in a naming contest. Monkey See and Monkey Do were thought to be a father-and-son pair until they unexpectedly produced a third capuchin. This newcomer was dubbed Banana Face.

The surprise arrival of Banana Face in 1961 is the last newspaper mention of monkeys in the Monkey Room. That year saw the introduction of something even more appealing to Spokane’s party crowd: a hot new dance craze called “the Twist.” In fact, the Monkey Room was the venue that introduced this dance to Spokane. It offered live music and on-site dance instructors to teach dancers the new moves.

At first, Twist Night was only a one-night charity event. Then, Twist Night was twice a week. Within a few months, every night was Twist Night at the Monkey Room. Sillman mainstays Chick and Gene rebranded themselves as “Chick and Gene’s Monkey Twisters” to provide the tunes. The Monkey Room also shifted from a cocktail bar to the newly-trendy tiki lounge style in this era. A menu from its tiki phase offers such enigmatic delights as the Passionate Monkey, the Shark’s Fin, and the Missionary’s Downfall.

Despite such appealing beverage offerings and the unquestionable draw of Twist Night, the Sillman was in dire financial straits by 1963. Bankruptcy threatened, and Cardinal sold the Sillman to James P. “Pat” Purvis, a well-known Spokane developer. The new management was apparently not interested in tying its branding to exotic animals, and renamed The Monkey Room to the Tahitian Room. A visitor to the new Tahitian Room, writing about his experience in the Spokesman in 1963, did not mention any non-human primates on site.

Pat Purvis had ambitious plans to remodel the Sillman into a motor hotel. Unfortunately, Purvis himself was in a difficult financial situation: after being shorted funds for his work on the Century 21 Expo in Seattle, his construction business was no longer bondable and his assets were seized. It would be 1988 before the courts declared that he should be repaid his original expenses, plus relief for the loss of business. Better late than never, but it was far too late to save his business, and far too late to save the Sillman. Despite a defiant newspaper advertisement in 1968 saying that the Sillman was “here to stay,” the building was demolished in 1969.

The lingering mystery of the Monkey Room lies in the fate of its monkeys and “monkeys.” Did they die young, like Benny? Both capuchins and gibbons can live fifty years or more in captivity, given appropriate care. Were they taken in by Sillman management, or passed along to Jungle Town to become some of the many exotic pets kept in private homes during the era? Perhaps they even found their way to a zoo or wildlife rescue that could offer them expert care and an expansive, enriching habitat. Strange to think, but it’s possible: decades after the Sillman and the Monkey Room were gone, Fuzzy, Farfel, Monkey See, Monkey Do, and Banana Face could have been living out quiet retirements, reminiscing from time to time about their strange careers as nightclub entertainers.

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Cheney has lent its young men and women to every American conflict since the founding of the town. Not all of them returned.

As young men returned from the first World War, monuments sprang up around the country to honor them, and their fallen comrades. Groups like the Women’s Relief Corps, that had supported the soldiers during wartime with care packages, turned to fundraising for memorials, hoping to honor those who’d given their lives in service.

The Cheney War Memorial stands in the center of Veterans Memorial Park, sandwiched between EWU Campus on one side and the fire station on the other. The stone obelisk is raised up on a three tiered stone block base, larger than life, surrounded by four concrete and glass benches, one for each face of the monument. Though the monument itself is from the 1920s, the memorial park has been around much longer.

Erected “In Memory of our Heros” by the Women’s Relief Corps No.8, in 1924, the monument reads “Lest We Forget, Freedom is Not Free, All Gave Some, Some Gave All” around the top of the obelisk. Each side honors veterans of a war, from the Grand Army of the Republic (1861-1865),(the Union side in the Civil War), the Spanish War (1898 - 1899), both World Wars, Vietnam, Korea, to far more recent wars, including Iraq and Afghanistan. There are eighteen names listed on the monument, most of them victims of the second World War.

One of those names is Staff Sergeant Chad A. Caldwell, Spokane local and Cheney High School graduate, who’s recognized for his service in Iraq and Afghanistan, and tragically lost his life during his tour of duty in 2008. SSGT Caldwell had a multitude of achievements, notably being awarded with both a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Although he is no longer with us, his name won’t be forgotten.

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How did Eastern Washington's most inaccurate historical marker come to be?

The Columbia Plateau was torn by warfare in the late 1850s. One of the significant battles that took place was the Battle of Four Lakes, where Native American tribes including the Yakama, Palouse, Spokane, and Coeur d'Alene fought against the United States. Kamiakin, a chief of the Yakima tribe, was the most prominent of the Native leaders. A total force of around 500-700 Natives fought, Colonel George Wright commanded approximately 500 United States soldiers.

Wright sought to avenge Colonel Steptoe, who earlier that summer was defeated in a battle by the Indians and narrowly escaped with his life.

The battle unfolded on September 1, 1858, Colonel Wright, upon reaching the battlefield, observed a few Native American troops positioned on a hill. Friendly Nez Perce scouts informed him that the main force awaited on the other side, attempting to lure his troops into an ambush. Wright still decided to push up the hill. Then, instead of charging closer as the natives planned, Wright used the superior range of his new weapons, most notably the Springfield Model 1855 rifle-muskets, to shoot from atop the hill. With a final charge from his dragoons, the Native force scattered and Wright won the battle with not a single man lost.

Following the Battle of Four Lakes, Colonel Wright and his troops rested at the site before encountering the Native force once again in the Battle of the Spokane Plains. Despite facing a larger Native American force, Wright's advanced weapons ensured another devastating defeat for the tribes, with no casualties on the side of the U.S. Although the war was effectively over, Wright felt that his mission was far from complete. His men continued to march along the Spokane River, taking sometimes murdering Native prisoners and destroying farms and dwellings. During their march, they encountered a large herd of animals being led by a group of Natives, this included around 1,000 horses. Wright decided to keep only 130 horses and ordered the slaughter of the rest, in an event known as the Horse Massacre.

On October 20, 1935, the Battle of Four Lakes Marker was dedicated in Four Lakes. The dedication involved the Four Lakes Grange, Spokane County Pioneer Society, and the Medical Lake Commercial Club, who all played a part in its creation. The monument received a ceremonial christening with water from all four lakes, and the governor at the time, Clarence D. Martin was scheduled to give a speech titled “The State of Washington Encourages and is Committed to Mark and Perpetuate Washington’s Historical Spots.” While the dedication ceremony was significant, it appears that no one verified the accuracy of the facts engraved on the monument, or possibly even willingly left it incorrect.

The major discrepancy is how the monument states that Wright's men of 700 soldiers routed 5,000 Native forces, which was wildly incorrect. Furthermore, the wording on the monument incorrectly labels the Native Americans as "hostile," despite it being the U.S. forces that were invading their lands. These inaccuracies perpetuate a narrative of white heroism overcoming overwhelming odds and can be seen as racially biased. However, despite the inaccuracies, the monument remains unchanged. As there has been no substantial movement to reimagine or correct the monument as it echoes the ideals of the past.

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Past the northern trailhead of Indian Canyon Trail towards Mystic Falls, a large metal sign marks the last campsite of Spokane Garry, whose epic life including many of the most dramatic events for the Spokane Tribe.

Spokane Garry, whose Spokane name was Sough-Keetcha, lived a long life. Born in 1811 at the confluence of the Spokane and Little Spokane Rivers, he was sent while still a boy to a missionary school at Red River. The idea is that he would be converted to Christianity and taught the ways of the white man and upon his return spread both among his tribe while serving as a cultural intermediary between whites and Natives.

Garry utilized the lessons learned from his unique position and upbringing to fill various other roles including trader, teacher, and respected sub-chief. In his life, he interacted with fur traders and missionaries, miners, and soldiers, always defending the interests of his people to the best of his abilities.

In 1883 his farm was stolen by Joseph Morscher, a German immigrant. Unable to get justice in the white legal system, Garry was forced to move as many Indians did to this rugged canyon west of the new city of Spokane. Soon known as Indian Canyon, this area was a refuge for Indians as they were forced out of the city at the turn of the 20th century.

As an old man in the 1880s and 90s, Garry was both a local celebrity and sometimes a figure of pity or even ridicule to the whites who had stolen his lands.

Edith Boyd, who had moved to the burgeoning city in the late 19th century, witnessed the eviction of Garry and other Native families. Years later she recalled seeing:

“Old Chief Garry on his lean white horse, piled with a huge bundle, was picking through the debris. Led by a strap around her head, his wife Nina, stumbled after them among rocks and obstacles. They were on their way to Indian Canyon. A boy standing by me shouted ‘You old brute! You get down from there and let her ride!’ He did not know that Garry was too lame to walk and Nina was blind.”

Their camp became a curiosity to tourists, who would travel to the clearing where Garry and many others had made their home. A painted glass negative photograph from the turn of the century captures the scene, depicting a clutch of tipis huddled close together in the snow. Native peoples continued to live in Indian Canyon until at least the 1920s.

In the late 1970s, a group of Boy Scouts constructed an initial sign at the site of Indian Canyon. This was replaced with the metal sign that stands here now in 2019. The sign was a project of the Spokane Parks Department, working in consultation with the Spokane Tribe of Indians.

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"I began thinking of my mother who passed away in 1898 while I was yet a child. My thoughts naturally turned to my father who was left with the responsibility of rearing six children." - Sonora Dodd

A stone marker in front of a modest home at 603 S Arthur St commemorates the life of Sonora Smart Dodd, known for her creation of Father’s Day. Born in 1882, in Jenny Lind, Arkansas she was 5 years old when her family migrated to Spokane, Washington. She was the eldest of 6, when her mother died in childbirth, the children were raised by her father. To Sonora, her father was “a real disciplinarian, but he was also kind and loving parent who kept us together and happy.”

In 1899, she married John Bruce Dodd and the two had their only son in 1909. In her personal life, Mrs. Dodd was a painter, sculptor, and an avid member of several women's clubs in Spokane. Professionally, she was a published poet, worked for the Red Cross, and was the founder of the Father’s Day Association. She had a career as a faculty member at the Chicago Institute of Art, and later a founder of the Ball & Dodd funeral home.

Following a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909, Dodd realized what better way to recognize fathers than a holiday. With the help of Dr. Conrad Bluhm, her pastor, she spearheaded a petition that was brought to the Spokane Ministerial Alliance. By 1913, the holiday was celebrated in Canada, Germany, Hawaii, India, Mexico, and Sweden. In 1972, the holiday was officially adopted as a national holiday by Richard Nixon. In 1946 the first monument in Spokane for Father's Day was created. The monument was originally a plaque set into a two-ton granite stone.

Father’s Day was eventually commercialized with advertisements attempting to convince consumers to give fathers gifts on the day. Some feel this has impacted Father’s Day negatively, but the ads did not bother Mrs. Dodd as she saw nothing wrong with fathers receiving gifts. It was just one way to honor fathers, and she held a neutral and positive attitude towards the holiday's commercialization. Dodd states "at least I believe we've changed the sentiment of the country, and associate fathers with something."

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All but forgotten in a residential neighborhood, a granite marker stands in one of Spokane's most historic spots.

The Reverend Joseph Cataldo opened the St. Michael’s Mission in the 1860s. The simple log structure of that time was intended to be a school for both white and Indian pupils.

Born Giuseppe Cataldo in Sicily in 1837, this Jesuit missionary is sometimes called "the last of the black robes." He labored across what would become six states in the Northwest, preaching, teaching, and founding missions and schools. In 1858 he attempted to talk the Couer d'Alenes out of participating in the fights with the Army that summer. He became so close with some bands of the Nez Perces that in the 1877 war some whites accused him of siding with the Indians. And in 1887 he purchased the land along the Spokane River that would become Gonzaga University.

The chapel that once stood here was updated several times over the decades, Eventually, the Spokanes were forced to a reservation, and the purpose of the building faded. A framed chapel, built in 1882 and renovated in 1920, was eventually relocated to the campus of Fort George Wright, where it stands today.

Father Cataldo’s legacy lives through various monuments, including this one. The monument was built in May of 1936. No specific individual was credited with designing the monument, and only the sponsors of the memorial are recorded in both the monument’s engravings and any newspaper reports.

The monument is a rectangular granite slab atop a concrete foundation. The exterior of the slab is roughly textured, but facing northwest, the front is a smooth, engraved side. As of recently, the monument contains growth and staining from weathering. The engravings of the monument describe the life and legacy of Reverend Joseph Cataldo and credits the people and organizations that sponsored the development of the monument.

This monument once stood out in the open of Palmer Rd, where the St. Michael’s Mission resided for a time. It once stood in front of the St. Michael’s Mission chapel, until the chapel was removed. The monument was left behind and now sits aside a private residential area.

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In 1982, Eastern Washington University set out to find a notable commencement speaker to celebrate their 100th anniversary.

Invitations to participate in the centennial celebrations went out to notable alumni, state and federal congressional representatives, prominent writers, artists, and political leaders. Eastern was able to get former President of the United States, Gerald Ford, to deliver the “Founders Day” address on campus, setting the bar extremely high for whoever would be the commencement speaker. EWU found exactly what they were looking for when Dr. Kurt Waldheim agreed to come to Cheney to give the address.

Born in Vienna in 1918, Waldheim served his home country of Austria in several political roles, including as the fourth Secretary General of the United Nations, making him one of the most respected diplomats in the world. Eastern Washington University was excited to host someone so prominent on the world stage and began advertising his arrival in The Easterner, the university newspaper.

At Eastern, Waldheim delivered a powerful commencement speech where he spoke to the recent graduates about preventing the current political tensions around the world from turning into another world war, “I do not believe that any government has any intention of letting us drift into a third world war, but unless we are prepared to learn from the past and to make our international political institutions work as they were intended to work, that danger will always exist.”

In addition to his rousing speech at the commencement ceremony, Waldheim took part in planting a ceremonial tree next to a plaque created in his honor that read, “Austrian Pine Commemorating EWU’s Centennial Commencement. June 11, 1982, Planted in Honor of Kurt Waldheim, 4th Secretary General of the United Nations.” Waldheim helped break ground with a painted golden shovel that he autographed while pictures were taken of the momentous occasion and the tree was planted. Overall, inviting Kurt Waldheim to take part in Eastern Washington University's centennial commencement had been a smashing success, or so everyone thought.

Just as plaques and monuments tarnish over time, so do people’s legacies. In 1991, The Easterner published an article titled “Waldheim Plaque to be Removed.” This decision, made by EWU President Marshall Drummond, was due to recent discoveries which uncovered that Kurt Waldheim was no longer permitted in The United States because he was suspected of committing war crimes as a Nazi during World War II.

Waldheim had always claimed to have served in the regular German army, the Wermacht, at the start of the war, but after being wounded on Russian front he had spent the rest of the war in law school. This was not true. Although there wasn't concrete evidence of Waldheim’s direct involvement in committing genocide, archival and eyewitness accounts prove that he was a Nazi intelligence officer attached to a unit that deported around 60,000 Greek Jews to Auschwitz, as well as committed atrocities in The Balkans. As evidence accrued over the years against Waldheim, his story continued to change up until his death in 2007.

Despite there being a large amount of EWU documentation surrounding the planning of the 1982 centennial commencement, there is nothing aside from The Easterner article that addresses President Drummond’s decision to remove the plaque, the whereabouts of the tree that was planted, what was done with the plaque, or how the University intends to handle the knowledge of Waldheim’s disturbing past. In fact, until recently the story of Waldheim's visit appears to have been concealed. Meanwhile, on campus there is still an autographed shovel, autographed invitations to a dinner gala, and a tree planted by former Lieutenant Kurt Waldheim of The Wehrmacht. As for the plaque, it almost assuredly lies dormant somewhere in the same memory hole that the rest of this story has hidden in for the last 30 years.

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The American Legion Cenotaph reflects the development of Armistice Day and the honoring of WWI veterans.

This cenotaph was created in order to memorialize and honor the Americans who gave their lives fighting in WWI. It was officially unveiled on Armistice Day, a national holiday commemorating the end of WWI on November 11th, 1919. Armistice Day was enshrined by Congress as a national holiday on May 13, 1938. Later on June 1, 1954, Congress officially renamed it Veterans Day to commemorate American veterans of all wars. The creation of the cenotaph is thus representative of the wider history of Armistice Day and the Veterans Day movement. Cenotaphs are monuments that commemorate fallen veterans that are buried elsewhere. In this case, the cenotaph memorializes American soldiers whose remains were still interred in Europe. The cenotaph was designed by architect Henry Bertelsen and carved by stonecutter J.M. Simonson. The construction of the Cenotaph cost $6,700 which was raised by Post 9 of the American Legion. The American Legion’s physical influence on Spokane’s architecture can also be found in their funding of the American Legion Building on Washington and Riverside by acclaimed architect F. Lewis Clark.

The American Legion was founded in Paris by veterans of the American Expeditionary Force in 1919 and soon developed into an influential national non-profit organization. Since its inception, the American Legion has advocated for Veterans' rights, promoted patriotism in the youth, and faithfully served the financial and educational needs of veterans. The organization’s founding came directly after the end of WWI which demonstrates the significance of WWI to the organization and the nation. Membership was initially restricted to those who had served in the First World War. The American Legion now boasts a national membership of two million, a membership that has included eleven US presidents and numerous other US politicians. The American Legion played an important role in pushing for the passing of the GI Bill in 1944 which greatly expanded education opportunities for veterans nationwide. In fact, a former Commander of the American Legion, Harry W. Colmery, was the primary drafter of the GI Bill.

The occasion of the cenotaph’s unveiling on November 11, 1930, was said by the Spokesman-Review to be “the largest celebration of Armistice Day in Spokane History”. The unveiling of the cenotaph corresponded with the simultaneous unveiling of the Abraham Lincoln Statue, located on Main Avenue and Monroe Street. President Hoover himself was involved in the festivities through telegram. The accompanying parade was said to include more military units than any previous parade in Spokane’s history. This touching dedication is indicative of the solemn reflection and honoring of Veterans that characterized Armistice Day celebrations. The crowd for the Armistice Day celebration as a whole was expected to be over 20,000 strong, with a crowd of approximately 500 said to be present for the unveiling of the Cenotaph.

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“I have faith to believe that we have only just begun to see the development of this wonderful section of the United States and I am proud indeed to have been able to add my mite in bringing about these remarkable changes.” - Frederick V. Hoyt

If you look just west of I-90 on Sunset Hill you will see a brick smokestack standing taller and older than the trees around it. On the stack, white bricks proudly spell out “Hoyt,” the last name of the two brothers that founded the greenhouses on that spot; Frederick V. Hoyt and William S. Hoyt. Frederick first visited Spokane in 1882 when the population of the city was 1200. He was a pastor who built several churches while he lived here intermittently. William moved to the area later after being asked to run a flour mill on Havermale Island. In 1894 both brothers joined forces and “Hoyt Brothers Floral Co.” was born.

The business grew slowly but steadily. The first greenhouse they built was in 1900 followed by several more, eventually reaching 6 in total. They produced enough flowers to merit a dedicated shop that they ran on Post and Riverside. In order for the flowers to survive all four of Spokane's seasons, the greenhouses required heating. This was done by heating water with a coal furnace and pumping it through pipes that ran beneath the soil. A few smokestacks were made for this purpose but the largest one, and only one that still stands today, was built in 1916. The Hoyt brothers worked to supply flowers for the ever increasing number of weddings, funerals and other large events that signified just how fast the town was growing.

After managing the greenhouses for 40 years the brothers sold the company in 1929 to the Moncalvos, a family of Italian immigrants who had worked in the greenhouses. But the greenhouse's legacy did not stop there. In the first half of the 1900s the Spokane flower industry grew beyond just filling the needs of Spokanites. The well developed railroad industry allowed Spokane florists to provide flowers for the entire region. In 1940, Spokane even became the 4th largest producer of flowers west of the Mississippi with 20 acres of flowers under glass. Many of the 35 greenhouses that contributed to that number were owned by Italian immigrant families just like the Moncalvos.

Severino Moncalvo ran the business until his son, Rudy, inherited it in 1970. It continued to produce flowers until it was sold in 1983 to Rothrock, a development company. The complex was dismantled soon after with the smokestack left as the only marker of its existence. The stack now stands alone, surrounded by highways and residential areas. Its eroded top still reaches far into the air, a waymarker inviting people to appreciate the deeper history of Spokane.

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Unnoticed by many as they pass by on the Centennial Trail, "Moon Crater" by famous sculptor Glen Michaels is part of the many art installations at the World’s Fair Expo in 1974.

Spokane is the birthplace of Glen Michaels, who lived here until he was drafted into World War II in 1945. His love of art began at a young age when he began drawing and painting at the Spokane Art Center, a program of the New Deal during the Great Depression.

After the war, Michaels life trajectory was in music; he was exceptional at the piano. He got his education at the Yale School of Music from 1950 to 1952. After redirecting his passion to art, Michaels received his B.A. in Art Education (then Eastern Washington College of Education) in 1957. For two years, he taught in the Spokane area. He attended and received his Master's degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where he later became a faculty member.

Teaching at Cranbrook, Michaels developed an interest in sculpture. He created and distributed art across the United States.

One of his many commissions is the tall abstract bronze sculpture found today on the Centennial Trail, close to the Balazs Lantern and the Performing Arts Center in Spokane. The "Moon Crater" is nine feet tall, and the bronze is 4.5 to 5 feet. The sculpture weighs 950 pounds. It has some green discoloration from weathering. The design is shaped into a square, with rigged textures and smooth features. It’s one of nine moon crater sculptures Michales built, an addition developed by Mrs. Eric Johnston as an attraction for the Expo 74.

Moon Crater draws inspiration from the Apollo moon landings of that era. In 1969 Apollo II landed two men on the moon, it was followed by five additional moon missions extending to 1972. The lunar explorations captured the publics imagination in everything from TV programs to magazines, to art pieces like this one.

The Expo 74 held in Spokane, and the theme was Celebrating Tomorrow's Fresh New Environment. The sculpture was part of the Theme Stream area; near the Spokane River. Which inspired Glen Michaels' design. In a newspaper article in the Spokesman-Review, shortly after the installation of The Moon Crate. Michaels explains the intent behind the sculpture. He states, "The piece is designed to take on the mood of Spokane, the mood of the basalt rock here. Things in the atmosphere will turn the color of the bronze somewhat. The sculpture has the feeling of the whirlpools I used to see when I'd drive over the (Monroe Street) bridge…also... a rock from the moon, which I saw displayed in Michigan."

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A remarkable figure in aviation history, Nick Mamer soared to new heights as an accomplished pilot whose achievements captured the world's attention.

The Nick Mamer Memorial Clock, located in Felts Field, Spokane, Washington, stands as a tribute to the aviation pioneer. This rectangular, concrete clock is about 40 feet tall and is a symbol of Mamer's contributions to aviation and his impact on the Spokane community, as well as his tragic death in 1938. During its time, it was an essential part of Felts Field because it was a way for pilots to adjust and correct their watches as they took off and landed. It is still in use and can be found in its original place west of the Skyway Cafe.

Mamer, born in Hastings, Minnesota in 1898, achieved numerous aviation records during the early 20th century. He served in the U.S. Army Air Service during World War One where he shot down three German planes and survived being shot down himself. After the war, Mamer returned home and became a barnstormer in a flying circus. Participating in death-defying aerobatic tricks performed on stunt planes. He then made his way to Spokane in 1920. He then started the Mamer Flying Service and Mamer Air Transport where he carried mail, flew passengers, and looked for forest fires. He survived another crash doing a photo delivery from Seattle to Salt Lake City in the desert where he walked 30 miles to the nearest city. He pioneered mountain routes to multiple Northwest cities and taught the Air National Guard pilots how to fly at Felts Field.

Mamer is best known for his flight, the Spokane Sun God in August of 1929 when he and a mechanic by the name of Art Walker broke the endurance record for sustained flight. Remaining airborne for an astonishing 120 hours and 23 minutes with the pair not sleeping for 5 days straight. In the article “Nick Mamer and Art Walker, take off from Spokane's Felts Field” by Laura Arksey, she states “they set a record in nonstop mileage (more than 7,200 miles) and achieve the first transcontinental refueling flight, first night refueling, and first refueling at an altitude above 8,000 feet,”. The flight entailed a round trip from Spokane to New York without ever landing. Mamer's feat captured the world's attention, and he became a celebrated figure in aviation history.

In 1938 Mamer was piloting a small passenger plane from Seattle to Chicago when the plane crashed in Bozeman, Montana. All 10 people on board died on impact. The memorial clock was built the next year costing about $5,000. On May 30th, 1939, a dedication ceremony that thousands attended, and even the governor at the time, Clarence Martin attended and gave the main tribute. Martin was quoted saying “never felt safer on the ground than I did with Nick Mamer in the air.”

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Beginning as a group of active librarians, the Spokane Walking Club evolved to become the Spokane Mountaineers

For over one hundred years now, the Spokane Mountaineers club has had a sizable impact on recreational sports and environmental stewardship in Eastern Washington and beyond. Founded on September 19th, 1915, by well-known public librarian Ora Maxwell, the organization was originally chartered as the Spokane Walking Club. The original fifteen or so members consisted solely of women librarians, joined together with a passion for long and challenging walks. A year later, in 1916, a contested vote would allow male members to join what had previously been an all-woman’s club. By 1921 they would change their name to the Spokane Mountaineers to reflect the increasingly ambitious adventures undertaken by those within the club. It was recorded a year later in 1922 that the club had sponsored over three hundred walks and that their membership was around fifty individuals strong (Kershner). In the following decades they would incorporate as Spokane Mountaineers Inc. (SMI), establish a members’ newsletter “The Kinnikinnick”, and continue to sponsor members in increasingly challenging summits (Spokane Mountaineers).

In 1939 the Mountaineers joined the Spokane and Selkirk Ski Clubs in purchasing over 500 acres of Mount Spokane for recreational facilities (Arksey). A ski shack built on the mountain in the ‘30s would be replaced in the ‘50s by the ski chalet that stands there today. Situated on forty acres, the chalet was built by the Mountaineers themselves. The female members continued to be a driving force in the club, contributing manual labor to the chalet’s construction alongside male club members (Burge). The ski chalet is still in regular use today and is available as a perk of membership for ski trips and mountain getaways.

Continuing to expand its reach, the club established biking activities and began its own Mountain School in 1939, a program focused on outdoor education, safety, responsibility, and stewardship that continues to this day in their many educational programs. While that year marked their official outdoor school opening, SMI has been focused on educating its members since its very earliest years. This focus can be traced back to prodigious mountaineer Elsa Hanft, who joined the club in 1921. A guide for Mt. Rainier at the time, Hanft had summited over 50 times and was instrumental in teaching technique to the early generations of Mountaineers (Burge). This legacy continued in 1937 with the first-ever Climbing Class, a six-session course that would eventually grow and evolve into the Mountain School that exists today. In addition to advancing the sport of climbing, the Spokane Mountaineers club has focused its efforts on preserving the natural resources its members enjoy. Members heavily lobbied for the founding of the North Cascades National Park and contributed to joint efforts in the management of the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. Some notable ongoing clean-up efforts have been active in Sun Lakes State Park, the Centennial Trail, and SMI-adopted lakes and trails around Stevens Peak in Idaho. In the present day, a portion of membership proceeds go towards continuing conservation efforts in the Inland Northwest. Current estimates put this at around $2000 a year (Burge).

Throughout its years of operation, the Spokane Mountaineers has produced many notable members and sponsored historic firsts throughout the outdoor sporting world. Climbers John Roskelley, Chris Kopczynski, Kim Momb, and Dr. Jim States pictured here were the first team to complete an American ascent of the Himalayan peak Makalu. They did so without Sherpa support or oxygen tanks, and their accomplishment was heralded by the American Alpine Association as “a seminal moment in Himalayan climbing history” (Mazur). Throughout SMI’s history there have been members like these four who distinguished themselves as climbers not only on a local level, but on the world stage.

Club membership did see a decrease over the Covid pandemic with membership rosters dipping to around 250 total. However, due to the lifting of restrictions and the resumption of the SMI Mountain School they have seen their numbers skyrocket to over 600 members this year (Burge). Club Historian Chic Burge, a member since 1984, says of the Spokane Mountaineers, “The club has always been a nurturing element in the community; it’s always been a family organization that promotes outdoor recreation..” In 2015 the club celebrated its 100th anniversary, and it shows no signs of slowing its forward momentum.

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In a time when distractions were less a part of our daily lives, outdoor recreation was a top priority for most folks in the Spokane area. Ice skating was one of the most popular activities outdoors, and the Little Spokane River valley was the destination of choice.

Before Wandermere Golf Course was even in existence, the lake on the property was known for its winter pastime of ice skating. As far back as the late 1800s when Francis H. Cook owned the property and continuing through the ownership of Benjamin Laberee, the ice at Wandermere was a destination for wintertime recreation. Eventually, with the facility's purchase by Robert C. Ross and A. L. Doran, the soon-to-be Wandermere Golf Course, continued the traditions of the past. Ice skating was the business's first revenue generator as the clubhouse construction was ongoing for the newly planned multi-sport activity center north of Spokane.

In the fall of 1930, ice skating was all the rage in the Spokane area, as well as nationwide. It was a different era, before other distractions, such as the television, and easy access to the automobile and other forms of recreation. People ventured outside year-round and what better way to spend an afternoon or an evening than to ice skate in the great outdoors? Recreational skating was not hard to come by during this era. Most all major lakes and ponds in the Spokane vicinity froze over, and before long the ice was filled with people of all ages. Liberty Lake, Cannon Park, Manito Park, and Newman Lake were all popular destinations. As far back as the late 1800s, Spokane residents enjoyed ice skating activities. Liberty Park was one of the first city-run ice rinks that boasted an eight-acre pond to be used for winter recreation and according to the Spokesman-Review in 1889, “Properly cared for by the city, it will be a better skating pond than the young people of Spokane were ever able to get in this vicinity before. A pretty little rustic house will be erected near the lake and provided with a large fireplace. Here a caretaker will be in charge next winter, and the skaters come to do their skates or rest from their exertions.”

Around the area of the Little Spokane River, ice skating was not uncommon. At one point in the early 1930s, there were three outdoor rinks within a two-mile radius. Wandermere competed with Greenleaf Park (present Pine River Park) and Silas Cook’s outdoor rink just to the north of the golf course property. All three of these facilities needed to stay ahead of the others in amenities and condition of the ice. Skating was a very competitive business to gain customers that hopefully returned for seasons to come. Night skating, music, the size of the rink, and concessions were big draws, and all three venues did their best to accommodate their clientele.

In September of 1930, with the purchase of the property on the Little Spokane River, the first order of business at Wandermere was to construct the clubhouse. To generate revenue during this time, Ross and Doran continued to operate the skating facility on the man-made lake. During the first winter of operation, skating was the main business. Advertisements in the local paper boasted Wandermere as the “finest rink in the Northwest.” On New Year’s Day of 1931 skaters could enjoy sandwiches, a heated clubhouse, and music as they twirled around the ice for an admission price of twenty-five cents, day or night. The Rose Bowl was even broadcast over the P.A. system so that people could listen to the Washington State Cougars play in their first Rose Bowl game against the Alabama Crimson Tide.

On Christmas day of 1931, Wandermere hosted a winter carnival that brought multiple events to the ice. Skaters were able to use the clubhouse to change shoes and grab a light lunch before heading out to the activities slated for this winter sports extravaganza. The list of events included races from a quarter mile for kids up to twelve and a mile race for kids fourteen to eighteen years old. Adults could participate in the open mile race for men and the open half-mile for women. “Fancy” skating exhibitions and a barrel jumping contest rounded out the day’s activities. Judges for all the races were W. J. Kommers, chairman of the Spokane Figure Skating Club, John T. Little, owner of a prominent sporting goods store in town, and businessman, Claude LaLone. After the day’s events, spectators and participants were encouraged to gather at the clubhouse to enjoy the fireplace while listening to music on the radio.

The Christmas day carnival was such a success that the crew at Wandermere repeated the activities on New Year’s Day. This time high school team relay races were added to the program, with a silver trophy cup donated by Bill Hatch Sporting Goods as the grand prize for the winners. Listed on the carnival program were prizes including skating socks, candy, cigars, New Year’s dinner tickets, and other awards.

Winter recreation on Wandermere Lake continued into the 1970s when the activity seemed to fade away from interest. Occasional snowmobile races and hockey practices by the Spokane Comets, Spokane Jets and other winter activities dotted the calendar over the years, but the frozen pond at Wandermere had seen its heyday. Coupled with the increased liability and the competition with other activities, the business of skating ceased. Although ice skating is still a popular attraction in Spokane, the lakes and ponds around the area gradually prohibited public skating, and the interest turned to indoor rinks and modern refrigerated facilities.

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After Colonel Edward Steptoe's defeat by local Native tribes, Colonel George Wright was sent to avenge the U.S. military. Wright's murderous rampage resulted in a street sign memorial in his name. Prof. Margo Hill contributed to a protest that resulted in renaming the street in 2020 as Whistalks Way.

In 1858, tensions between the white settlers and the native population grew in the Palouse. In May of 1858, Col. Edward Steptoe led an expedition meant to end at Fort Colvile. His plan was to suppress Indian resistance. Steptoe and his men were ill equipped for battle, though, being small in number and carrying outdated weapons. He and his soldiers encountered an overwhelming force of warriors from local tribes, which ended in his retreat to Fort Walla Walla, Washington. After his defeat at the Tohotonimmee battlefield, at the present-day Steptoe Butte, Colonel Wright was sent to restore order.

Colonel Wright's invasion of the Spokane Valley was so forceful and extreme that the Native resistance was immediately overwhelmed. On September 8, 1858, Wright slaughtered hundreds of Indian horses and demolished the tribe's food supply and economy. During his crusade, Wright also destroyed crops and food stores. He pronounced judgment
upon and hung many Indians whom he considered to be insurgents. Wright's battles against the Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, Palouse, and Yakama tribes culminated in a final victory at the new Fort Spokane, which was formally renamed Fort George Wright in 1899.

In Spokane, Washington, a street running alongside present-day Spokane Falls Community College was named Fort George Wright Drive in commemoration of Wright's military accomplishments. Margo Hill, a lawyer, Eastern Washington University Urban Planning professor, and member of the Spokane Tribe of Indians, became a spokesperson and contributed efforts to change the street name. In 2020, Hill united with African Americans, Asians, Muslims, Natives, and whites to conduct a protest march. On December 14th, 2020, the Spokane City Council unanimously approved the change and the street was officially renamed.

The name accepted by all of those concerned was Whistalks Way. The name honored the daughter of Chief Polatkin and the wife of Qualchan. Whis-talks was a Native American warrior that fought in combat in 1858. She "rode alongside her husband into battle and carried the medicine eagle feather staff into the U.S. military post to parley," Margo Hill wrote later. After Qualchan was hanged, Whis-talks and Lokout, Qualchan's half-brother, escaped Wright's grasp. They lived out their lives as domestic partners near the Spokane and Columbia rivers . Not only was the name change meant to honor the Native American warrior, but to honor Native American women in general.

After the successful change of the street name, Margo Hill wrote the article that exhibits her belief that the actions of George Wright in 1858, were hate crimes against Native American people. She explains, in her article
that the city resolution pronounced Wright's name a "continual stain" because of his acts of terrorism and genocide. In her opinion, Wright went beyond his duties as a general by murdering Indigenous peoples and destroying supplies that led to the disruption of their economy. Hill believes Wright intentionally engaged in terrorist acts against the Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, Palouse, and Yakama tribes.

Because of the successful efforts of the Spokane Tribe of Indians and other protestors, the city of Spokane now “honors the history of the original inhabitants, the Sp̓oq̓ínš, and their relationship to their sacred place. With ‘Whistalks Way,’ we honor women warriors and tell their story; we sing the songs of our ancestors and work to empower the next generation of Indigenous people,” Hill wrote. If you are driving near Spokane Falls Community College and see the street sign, remember the history and the struggles for change that resulted in Whistalks Way.

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Susan Crump Glover moved to Spokane Falls with her husband, James, in August 1873. Even though there is much historical information about James—the Father of Spokane—there is a curious lack of knowledge about Susan.

In 1846, three-year-old Susan Tabitha Crump (1843-1921) and her family moved westward. The family arrived in the Oregon Territory near Salem. Susan lived with her family until marrying James Nettle Glover on September 1, 1868.

In 1873, Susan’s husband James—a restless entrepreneur looking for the next score—visited the Washington Territory while she stayed home. He visited the Palouse region of the territory, looking for his next project. A shrewd businessman, he spent a night near the awe-inspiring Spokane Falls. Besides appreciating the beauty of the falls, he saw a financial opportunity. He bought the local sawmill near the falls, many acres of land, and returned home to collect provisions and his wife, Susan.

It is difficult to say how Susan felt about leaving behind her family, friends, and the comfort of a familiar place. She didn’t keep a diary and did not seem to have written many letters. It is easy to imagine that she felt despondent as she and her husband packed up and traveled to the land where she would live for the next few decades.

On August 19, 1873, Susan and her husband arrived at Spokane Falls. They made their home in a rough log cabin for a short time. Soon after, James built a store. The building also included two small apartments, one of which Susan and James occupied. Even though the apartment was tiny, Susan and James hosted many get-togethers.

In 1883, James’s youngest sister Louisa Culver offered to send her daughter Lovenia north to keep Susan company. Susan and Lovenia shopped, called on friends, and hosted gatherings. In June of 1885, Lovenia returned home to Oregon. After that, Susan appears to have faded into the background of public life in the Spokane Falls region.

In 1888, James purchased land on Eighth Avenue. He commissioned Kirtland K. Cutter to build a home. Including furnishings, it was reputed to cost close to $100,000. The house consisted of 22 rooms and had indoor plumbing. James and Susan moved into the home shortly before the Great Fire of August 4, 1889. Beyond the bits of information found in letters and reminiscences collected by Susan’s biographers, there is little historical documentation of her life in Spokane Falls. This absence seems significant.

In August of 1891, Susan and James decided to separate rather than suffer the public humility of a divorce. James purchased Susan a comfortable home in Salem near her sister-in-law Louisa, as part of the separation agreement. Additionally, he agreed to provide her with a horse and carriage and a monthly allowance of one hundred dollars. Once separated legally from James, Susan bolted to Salem with little besides her personal effects. Only three months after his separation from Susan, James found a new woman and decided to pursue divorce. He alleged that Susan was infertile and that the couple was unsuitable as life companions.

On March 31, 1892, James claimed he had experienced cruel treatment from Susan. This “cruel treatment” claim waived the one-year “cooling off period” set for divorce proceedings. The divorce hearing was held. Susan was declared guilty of charges because she did not attend. All properties were awarded to James, who remarried two days later.

For unknown reasons, Susan returned to the Spokane Falls region. She purchased a home at 316 South Ash and moved there In June 1899. The house no longer stands today. The land serves as a Grocery Outlet parking lot. Apparently, Susan neglected to make payment for her home purchase. The property owner resold the home, removed Susan’s belongings, and put them on the street. When Susan returned and found her belongings outdoors, she became confused and emotionally distraught. She was eventually taken into custody by the police.

During a court hearing, Susan’s ex-husband and others provided testimony about her mental instability. Each received $2.20 in exchange for their testimony. After determining she could not care for herself, Susan was sent to Eastern Washington Hospital for the Insane on July 3, 1899. She lived there until, senile and suffering from pneumonia, she died on October 11, 1921. She was buried in the hospital cemetery with only a small concrete brick bearing the number 734 to represent her body’s resting place.

In 1979, Susan’s grandnieces and others placed a memorial marker in the Greenwood Memorial Park, Spokane, WA. Several online ancestry sites mistakenly identify this memorial as Susan’s final resting place.
When Susan’s ex-husband James later published his recollections of his life in Spokane Falls, he did not mention Susan. But then again, he didn’t mention his second wife, either.

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“Airway Heights celebrated its 50-year history June 14, 2005 and has Carl M. and Flora K. Lundstrom to thank for early city-building. The Lundstrom’s were the first to plat the land, donate parcels for initial city building and worked towards incorporation in 1955. Carl M. and Flora K. Lundstrom had worked in real estate in Seattle and Electric City in the early 1940s and owned Rocket Investment Company. Discussions with officials at Galena Air Depot (which later became Fairchild Air Force Base) showed the need for local housing”.

Airway Heights was incorporated in 1955, but fourteen years before the small town became ingrained, the Geiger Air Force Base was formed. The Geiger Air Force Base was established in 1941. During the Second World War it was used as a training base for bombers, aircraft maintenance, used by technical service command etc. During the Second World War many Americans from different racial classes were fighting for the United States. But even though they were fighting as one for the same country, people of color we not treated equally. According to historian Dwayne Mack, he states how African Americans soldiers were being treated “The white community did not embrace black soldiers, but considered them troublemakers,” Dwayne said. “Blacks lived in segregated barracks”. Another instance from a local newspaper explains that African American soldiers were segregated at Geiger Air Force Base and forced to sit in sections of the post theater. Though a representative states that these statement are wrong. Though it is hard to believe that during this time in history, soldiers would lie in this situation. Though this one section that contributes to Airway Heights racist past, this is not the only reason why the town was known as a sundown town.

The Lundstrom’s, both Carl and Flora M. Lundstrom are celebrated as the town founders of Airway Heights Washington for being the amazing people who established the small town we know of today. But this is far from the truth. Carl M, Lundstrom is a name that is seen in several racial covenants in the Airway Heights area, but who was he and what did he do? Lundstrom was the president of Rocket Development Company a land developing company which is attached to racial covenants in the soon to be Airway Heights area. In later years, he was elected as the first mayor of Airway Heights, while running unopposed. The actions of Carl Lundstrom can be one of the main defying reasons of why Airway Heights became a sundown town.

In the Racial Covenants made by Lundstrom under Rocket Investment Company, they often featured this statement “No persons of any race other than the white race shall use or occupy any building upon these premises, except that this covenant shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of a different race domiciled with owner or tenant”. In these racial covenants, those who were making them knew exactly what they were doing. We see this similarly in 1948, under the Supreme Court case Shelley vs Kramer. The Shelley’s a black family move into a home which had a racial covenant attached to it, claiming that this covenant violated the fourteenth amendment. This case later won, with the Supreme Court claiming that racial covenants cannot stand, which of course was a great achievement to see during this time period. About twenty years later, the Fair Housing Act is passed, which prohibits discrimination in terms of the sale, rental, and financing of housing. Which once again was a great victory to see. Though with these amazing things being done, the history of what has happened beforehand still lingers, and the effects of what was done still are seen to this very day. Neighborhoods in Airway Heights due to these racial covenants became white populated areas, and completely altered the history of Airway Heights.

But the history does not end there. Airway Heights has white population of 67.8 percent, while the African American population sits at 4.6 percent, the towns claims to have a 99 out of 100 diversity score. In the years 2020 and as recent as 2022 Airway Heights had a problem with racist flyers being posting around the town. The man responsible for these action was Raymond Bryant, a self-proclaimed Nazi and member of a white supremacist organization. Bryant, 46, was arrested at his Airway Heights home in February 2021 and later sentenced to seven months behind bars for defacing the Temple Beth Shalom Synagogue in Spokane with swastikas. In 2015, Airway Heights mayor Patrick Rushing compared former First Lady Michelle Obama to “monkey’s and gorillas”, and after these disgusting statements the former Airway Heights mayor resigned from his position. There are several more articles involving the town of Airway Heights, and racism quite often still to this very day. 

The history of Airway Heights and its secret past of being a sundown town should be recognized. But in many ways it is quite obvious, with the certain acts that have been done in the town recently, specifically targeting African Americans. Once again, it all goes back to the racist ideals the town was founded on, without the racial covenants it is easy to say that the town could look completely different if this point of the towns history would have never happened. The evidence of Airway Heights being a sundown town is there, but instead of ignoring their past as if it never happened, the town should be aware of the harm that has targeted African American’s decades ago, and how this effected not only these marginalized groups but the growth of Airway Heights as well.

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How one prominent Spokanite used racial discrimination to promote his real estate empire.

One of the most prominent families in Spokane’s history is that of the Cowles. William H. Cowles, Sr. came to Spokane in 1891 with a vision of starting his own news company. By 1894 he was the majority owner of the Spokesman-Review, which is still in print and owned by the fourth generation of Cowles. Over the last 130 years the family has taken on many other business ventures. They include investments in the timber industry, KHQ Inc., and several real estate companies.

Born on July 23, 1902, William Hutchinson Cowles, Jr. was raised to understand the empire his father started. At the age of 16, the young man began working for the newspaper. The circulation, the advertising, and the reporting were all very fascinating to him. After graduating from Yale in 1924, he would return home and help grow the family business. One of his first jobs after college would be director of the Inland Empire Paper Company. After his father died in 1946, he took over the reins and further expanded the various business ventures, including becoming more involved in real estate.

A piece of land on the South Hill near where 29th Avenue meets High Drive was owned by the Cowles family. Cowles, Jr. decided in 1953 to divide up the land and sell it off. There were a total of almost 200 homes built across his five subdivisions and they all have one thing in common. Of the 150 or so homes that remain, all of them contain a multiple page document titled “Declaration of Protective Covenants,” which contained a section that restricted homes from being sold to people of color. The third clause of the document states that “No race or nationality other than the white race shall use or occupy any building on any lot, except that this covenant shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of a different race or nationality employed by an owner or tenant.” William H. Cowles, Jr. intentions were to create an all-white subdivision on the South Hill.

In many communities across America, restrictive covenants were often written into property deeds in order to keep people who were not white from living in certain areas. For many years, these covenants were enforceable and those who violated them could lose their property. A case named Shelley v. Kraemer went before the United States Supreme Court in 1948 stating that these racial restrictive housing covenants could no longer be legally enforced.

Why was Mr. Cowles writing racially restrictive covenants several years after the Supreme Court ruled them unenforceable? Even though they were now invalid, private parties were still able to add the language into the deeds. They were meant to tell the potential buyer what type of neighborhood they were moving into. It was not until 1968 that language like this was outlawed completely from all deeds due to the passing of the Fair Housing Act. However, the majority of the original racial covenants still remain in the property records today.

The Comstock Addition and the racial covenants within the property records have been in the spotlight in recent years. In 2016, several homeowners became aware of the covenants and began the process of removing them. However, many other parties have pushed back from having these records erased. They claim that the covenants should be left alone because they are a valuable teaching tool from our past and can be used moving forward. Homeowners who have a home with a racial covenant are now able to file a request through the county auditor to legally get rid of the offensive language from these records. William H. Cowles Jr. passed away in 1970 and the next generation of Cowles took over. Since his passing the family put out a statement disassociating with the covenants. They stated that “such racial segregation is offensive and in no way represents our company or family values.”

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One of the early hostelries for visitors to Spokane Falls was the Hotel Emery, a two-story brick building on Riverside between Washington and Bernard that opened in 1892. The building's first owner is generally given as F. Lewis Clark, although the obituary of Clark’s father, Jonathan Clark, indicates that he was the formal owner of the property. 

The source of the Emery's name is not recorded, but it may be based on the Emery Hotel in Cinncinnati. The practice of borrowing names from well-known East Coast hotels was relatively common among Spokane hotels in this era, presumably as a way to evoke positive associations for potential guests. A hotel of the same name also operated in Medical Lake at this time, although in this case, it was named after the proprietor, W. W. Emery. 

The Emery was a small hotel, with an office on the ground floor and several guest rooms on the second floor of the building. In 1906, a ‘light, airy, large, clean, and cool’ room at the Emery was $2 to $4 a week, or 50c to $1 if reserved per day. Like many hotels in Spokane at the time, the Emery’s primary clientele was miners, railroad workers, and farmworkers. Newspaper advertisements indicate that it also served as a base of operations for mesmerists, stockbrokers, hypnotists, and practitioners of "magnetic massage." Throughout its lifespan, the Emery appeared regularly in newspapers as the site of brawls, thefts, scams, and scandals. Some of the most notable are discussed below. 

Politicians Behaving Badly (1893)
One of the Emery’s earliest appearances in Spokane newspapers was in September of 1893, when it was cited in a divorce suit against state representative Cornelius F. Westfall. Westfall's wife alleged that he committed adultery in the Hotel Emery on July 2nd and 3rd. Cornelius was far from the last to be accused of using the Emery for extramarital activities, but he was certainly the most prominent. 

Where Is Herbert? (1899)
In 1899, a piano tuner from Chicago named C. E. Herbert was staying at the Hotel Emery with his wife. The Herberts were en route to Chicago from their hometown of San Francisco, a trip intended to allow C. E.’s parents to meet his bride. Because of high water further east, they stayed for a few days in Spokane. C. E. kept busy during their stay by tuning and polishing pianos around town. All was uneventful until he returned to the hotel room one day wearing a suit that his wife had never seen before. When she asked him about it, he made a strange statement to the effect that it was "well enough to change once in a while to throw people off." The next day, C. E. left, taking with him all their valuables in a suitcase. He was never seen again. Citizens of Spokane collected funds to help Mrs. Herbert return home. History does not record whether or not Mr. and Mrs. Herbert met up a few miles outside of town to split the profits from this endeavor.

Saving the Sinful of Spokane (1900)
At the turn of the century, the Hotel Emery hosted an enthusiastic young man named William Morrison. A Yukon miner, Morrison had never previously been particularly faithful until one day he heard a voice informing him that he was a missionary now and his home state of Kansas was the most sinful place in the world. This made sense to Morrison, who set out immediately.

En route to Kansas, Morrison was struck with the revelation that Spokane should be his destination, and changed his travel plans accordingly. After settling in at the Emery, he barged into the downtown office of one Dr. C. P. Thomas and “reeled off a lot of information in a disconnected way,” including thoughts about his mission and about crimes he had apparently committed. Morrison also noted during this recitation that everybody could read his mind, a fact he found troubling.

Dr. Thomas appears to have taken this in stride, but when Morrison returned the next day to give a repeat performance, Thomas discreetly summoned law enforcement. Morrison was taken into custody with a charge of insanity. After several months at the asylum in Medical Lake, Morrison was released on November 22nd of 1900. Records do not indicate whether he ever successfully reached the sinful Sunflower State.

Three Bold, Bad Men (1901)
In 1901, "three bold, bad men" engaged in a multi-hour crime spree in and around the Emery. These three men first arrived at the Emery around 1 a.m. in the company of a fourth man, Harry Darby. They were assigned Room 14 by the clerk on duty, W. M. Haynes. Soon, Haynes heard a disruption on the second floor of the hotel. He went out onto the street to look for a police officer, but finding none, went back inside to investigate.

When he opened the door to Room 14, Haynes found Harry Darby kneeling on the floor and pleading for his life as the other men aimed revolvers at him. Two of them quickly turned their weapons toward Haynes, while the third used the butt of his revolver to beat Darby unconscious. When Haynes protested, one of the bandits fired at him. The bullet passed through Haynes' coat and into the door next to him, and in Haynes' own words, "after that I had no comments to make, as I did not want any more bullets coming that direction."

Under orders from the bandits, Haynes locked the unconscious Darby into Room 14. The foursome then proceeded downstairs to the hotel office. The youngest one declared his intentions to murder Haynes but was stopped by the oldest one, apparently his father, who said "we have done enough shooting for the present." During this time period, Darby awoke upstairs, realized he was locked in, and crawled out through the transom of Room 14. When he went downstairs to the hotel office, he was caught by his assailants and promptly returned upstairs, where they ordered Haynes to lock him into a different room. Darby then passed out and did not wake up until the next morning, when police arrived to question him.

The bandits and their victim were then interrupted by Mr. Dopp, an owner of the Bliss & Dopp candy shop across Riverside. He had heard the disturbance and came to investigate, thereby becoming the second hostage. Dopp and Haynes offered the money from the hotel office to their captors, who declined, indicating that they were out for sport, not cash.

The trio took their hostages across the street to the candy shop and had Dopp let them into the back room. Over the next few hours, they forced their two victims to play cards, drink large amounts of beer, and to obey physical commands such as jumping onto furniture. After such a grueling night, Dopp and Haynes were surprised to find that their abductors lost interest in the games and simply decided to leave. Not long after the trio ambled away down Riverside, Haynes was able to finally find a police officer and report the incident.

Although Haynes, Dopp, and Darby were able to describe the perpetrators to police, none were able to provide names. Darby's assault and his intoxication eliminated most of his memory of his time with the trio, whom he had met only a few days earlier while traveling from Oregon to Spokane. The incident generated outrage, but seems to have generated few leads. If Spokane police looked further into this incident, the results of their investigation were not reported in Spokane newspapers.

Clairvoyant Crime (1906)
Mildred West was a practitioner of "scientific massage and magnetic treatment," Grant Chesterfield was the self-proclaimed "greatest living astral dead-trance clairvoyant of the ages." The two spent over a decade traveling from city to city together, plying their respective trades. Sadly, this productive partnership came to an end in Spokane in 1906.

According to Mildred’s version of events, Chesterfield had been “drunk all week” when the trouble began. He had run out of money and was living on her largesse. While they had lunch at White’s restaurant, only a few doors down from their hotel, he claimed to be ill and excused himself, rejoining Mildred some time later to resume their meal. When Mildred returned to her room at the Hotel Emery, she found her possessions disturbed and discovered that two diamond rings were missing. As everything had been normal when she left, and Chesterfield was in possession of Mildred’s room key when her diamonds disappeared, he was her prime and only suspect. She reported him to the police immediately.

When law enforcement officers caught up with Grant Chesterfield, he was in a downtown "shooting gallery" and had just pawned a diamond ring to the gallery’s owner for $60. The other ring was still on Chesterfield’s finger when he arrived at the police station, and the papers report that he attempted to slip the ring back to Mildred while in custody. It seems, however, that Mildred now saw herself as his victim, not his partner in crime, and was unwilling to help him conceal the evidence. A report on the arraignment notes that there was "no sign of mercy in her countenance."

As Chesterfield was thrown into a jail cell, the Spokane Chronicle jeered: "Why Didn't Grant Read His Own Palm (And Save Himself A Lot Of Trouble Over Diamonds)." If he did read his own palm, perhaps Chesterfield foresaw that this incident would present no more than a mild inconvenience and a measure of celebrity for him. While awaiting trial, he shared a cell with young Sidney Sloane, the Spokane teenager who earned national notoriety by murdering his own father with an axe. Chesterfield used his unique position to freely share anecdotes about Sloane with journalists covering the murder case. We have only Chesterfield's word that young Sidney chose to confide in his con-artist cellmate, but regardless of Chesterfield's trustworthiness, he became a key witness for the state’s prosecution strategy. Two weeks after Chesterfield gave his testimony in the Sloane case, his own charges were completely dismissed. He left Spokane promptly and resumed his career as a "famed seer," with his advertisements (and occasional arrests) appearing frequently up and down the West Coast. Although he would return to Washington State, he seems to have steered clear of Spokane. His visions may have warned him that such a lucky escape was unlikely to happen twice. 

The End of the Emery
Beyond these incidents, the Emery was also home to more prosaic property thefts, fights, and romantic assignations of both the compensated and uncompensated varieties. Although it changed hands several times, with new owners often outlining an ambitious plan to expand and improve the hotel, none of these visions came to pass. The Emery ceased operation as a hotel in 1910, although the signs on the exterior lingered for years afterward and citizens still referred to the building by the Emery name. After a stint as a plumbing company and a furniture store, the building was demolished in 1940. Its former location is now the small parking lot next to the Onion restaurant.

While there’s nothing left to see of the Hotel Emery, nearly all of the other buildings on the block are the same ones that residents of the Emery would have seen when they stepped outside the hotel. The Dessert Block, immediately to the right of the hotel’s former location, was actually built while the Hotel Emery was in operation. Blasting for its foundation damaged the Emery’s wall, pushing it out several inches and separating it from the stairway. Directly across the street are the Robertson Building and the Raznick Building, both built in 1912. To their right is the Morgan Building, which was built in 1909 and was a single-occupancy hotel during the Emery’s heyday. Perhaps next time you admire these buildings, you can spare a thought for their vanished friend, the Hotel Emery. True, it was never the classiest hotel in Spokane, or the safest, or the most structurally-sound... but it was also never boring.

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By the mid-20th century, racially segregated neighborhoods became common in Spokane. Some were segregated by the force of law.

Discrimination and segregation were common in Spokane much of the early-mid 20th Century. Segregated neighborhoods and even cemeteries existed as early as the 1920s. De jure segregation (government sponsored) supported racially restrictive property covenants in the city and across the United States at the time. Many believe de facto segregation (natural segregation) was the cause of such segregation and de jure segregation is a myth, however, scholars have proven the existence of de jure segregation. The period following the Reconstruction saw the prevalence of racial covenants across the country swell. Eventually Spokane followed suit with the rest of the nation.

African Americans have been in Spokane since the days of the Washington Territory. As their numbers grew in the early 1900s, so did racial discrimination against them, including property covenants limiting where they could live. The first were established in cemeteries. For instance, in January 1920 the “Inland Mausoleum Company” instituted a deed for a local crypt placed in the “Fairmont Cemetery” which included a racial covenant that stated the crypt could “be used only for the interment of the dead of the Caucasian race.” The Inland Mausoleum Company and Fairmont Cemetery established many more of these racial covenants in deeds for numerous other crypts in the cemetery throughout the 1920s and 30s. Segregated cemeteries paved the way for de jure segregation to be implemented in a number of Spokane’s residential neighborhoods.

East Audubon Park Addition was the first of Spokane’s neighborhoods to use racial covenants. In August 1928, a warranty deed was created by the “Union Trust Company of Spokane” for a new property in the addition for the homebuyer, Susan Smith. This property is located on “Lot Four (4) Block One (1)” of the addition plat map according to the deed. The document later states, “No part of said property shall ever be used or occupied by any person of the Ethiopian, Malay, or any Asiatic race.” East Audubon Park was the first of several prominent Spokane neighborhoods that had enforced racially restrictive covenants from the 1920s to 1960s.

The 1940s was the height of neighborhood segregation and racial covenants in Spokane. Several other Spokane neighborhoods such as the Rockwood Pines Addition and the Sunset View Addition implemented many racial covenants during this decade. Segregated neighborhoods were developed in nearby Airway Heights, WA around this time as well. The 1940s saw more racial covenants emplaced in neighborhoods across Spokane (and the country) than any other decade. The people of color affected by these restrictive property covenants were stripped of many opportunities such as where there could live and go to school. Despite popular belief, the federal government encouraged this practice.

The most disturbing part of Spokane’s history regarding racial covenants is that these covenants were supported by the federal government through organizations such as the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The FHA discriminated against people of color at the time in Spokane and across the nation by rejecting many of their loan requests, burdening them with higher interest rates, conducting fraudulent tax appraisals on their properties, etc. Even after racial covenants were struck down as unenforceable by the Supreme Court in 1948, people of color in Spokane still had difficulties securing home loans, obtaining fair interest rates, and more.
Redlining was used in Spokane to determine the demographics and other attributes of their neighborhoods and ultimately generate a rating for each neighborhood. The ratings, created by the FHA, were developed on a scale from A to D (A was the best, D was the worst); these ratings played a significant role in determining property values. Ratings were generally best for newer, white neighborhoods and they were the worst for low-quality, colored neighborhoods. The FHA is partially responsible for the racial covenants that existed in Spokane.

As Jim Kershner explains in his article entitled “Breaking Down The Barriers Segregation Is An Ugly, Not-So-Well-Known Part Of Spokane’s History”, the history of segregation and racial covenants in Spokane is largely unknown to many and it must be brought to the light. The magnitude of the racial atrocities that occurred in the city’s past must be acknowledged and recognized by its people. However, one must remember that most neighborhoods and other areas of Spokane never had property documents that contained racial covenants. Although this is true, the effects of the racial covenants that existed in the city wreaked havoc on the people of color in Spokane and the wrongs of the past should not be overlooked. Only after the JFK administration and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 did racial covenants and segregation in Spokane finally abate.

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In 1968, two powerful men squared off in a series of debates that would help to shape Spokane

In 1968, the United States was at a turning point. Debates about segregations had led to Washington Senate Bill 378, which specified that in Washington a real estate agent would have their license revoked if they were found to be discriminating against buyers on the grounds of race. The Washington Association of Realtors, many of whose members practiced racial discrimination as they sold real estate, backed initiative to overturn the new law, Referendum 35.

Carl Maxey led the charge for fair housing. Born in 1924, Carl Maxey was orphaned when he was young and faced discrimination at children's home due to the color of his skin. This treatment would influence him for the rest of his life. After graduating from Gonzaga in 1950, where he received a boxing scholarship. he would continue the fight in a different arena. In 1951, he was the Chairman of the Washington State Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights.

Maxey was debating James S. Black. Born in 1925, Black became a real estate agent in Spokane and a member of the Washington Association of Realtors where he would be elected president of the association. He would also create the NAI Black Real Estate Company in 1958. Black was against Senate Bill 378 as he felt that the bill "makes it impossible for the real estate agent to serve the owner." Stating that it was not the fault of the real estate agent if the homeowners did not wish to sell to minorities around Spokane. This led to a debate in 1968 between the two men about the right to pull licenses and what would best serve the people of Spokane.

The debate took place at the Kiwanis Club of Spokane. The two men, both respected in their circles, debated about Senate Bill 378 and the right for licenses to be revoked from real estate agents for discrimination practices. Maxey stated that if this practice continued, the country itself was in danger of losing the democracy that the US was founded on.

Black likely made the same points others did while arguing in favor of racial discriminatory housing. Black stated that it was not the responsibility of the real estate agents to ensure that the homeowners were willing to sell to anyone. That it was the right of the homeowners to choose who would be able to buy their homes. It can be determined that Black, like many in his position, supported Referendum 35.

Newspaper coverage of the debates was sporadic as there was little in terms of coverage. Only one newspaper covered the events daily. Spokane's leading newspaper, The Spokesman-Review, was owned by Williams Cowles Jr., who also was a real estate developer who practiced racially discriminatory housing. He had recommended for the readers of The Spokesman-Review to vote for Referendum 35. While the outcome of the debate might not be known, the impact it had on Maxey's career was clearly seen, as he became the face for the civils right movement in Spokane. The reputation of being a fighter would follow Maxey for the rest of his days. After the debate, Maxey would continue to champion for the rights of African Americans in Spokane until his death in 1997. The impact that it had on Black is unknown, however, he would continue to work in real estate until his death in 1984. His company, NAI Black still exists to this day being active in the real estate business.

The impact of the debate can still be felt in Spokane, even with the lack of records of the minutes. Many people refer to it when talking about racial covenants and the redlining, an actions that was taken by individuals to segregate people, that took place in Spokane. Despite the lack of clarity about the final verdict, many people agree that this debate helped to move Spokane into a new age of change. With the Fair Housing Act of 1968 being signed into law in April, Referendum 35 became useless in the November election later that year. However, many people in Washington would vote in favor of Referendum 35. While the minutes and the final verdict of the debate have yet to be uncovered, this debate is often referenced when speaking about Carl Maxey and the impact of Racial Covenants in Spokane.

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Before 1920, Spokane neighborhoods had no formal policies segregating housing by race. Successful Black Spokanites erected fine residents all over town, many of which still stand today.

A 1908 article in the Seatle Republican, an African American newspaper, cast a spotlight on Spokane, “A Group of Beautiful Homes of Negros in the Northwest.” It showcased five houses owned by Black Spokane businessmen. Frank L. Wilson, a caterer, owned a house at 1003 W. Cleveland Ave. Reverend S.J. Collins owned the second house. It is unknown where Collins's house was located in Spokane. A. C. Nevelle, a well-known barber, owned a home at 2401 E. Nora Ave that rivaled those of the Spokane elite during that time. Mathew Stafford was commemorated for building such a marvelous house at 959 E Hartson Ave. while working odd jobs to earn a living. John Byron Parker was also a well-known barber who had a house at 2826 W. Dean Ave. All still stand today.

As Spokane developed in the early 20th century, Hillyard and East Central became the destinations for new Black residents. Between 1900 and 1920 the highest population of Blacks in Spokane was 727 which accounted for 0.7% of the total population in 1920. The black population decreased in 1930 and 1940 to just over 600 people. The population then steadily increased from 1950 to 1990. There were 376 Black residents in 1900, which increased to 727 in 1920. African Americans left -significant cultural contributions in East Central and Hillyard.

These were bustling areas for working-class families. Their locations provided easy access to street cars which ran downtown and up to the South Hill. This made it especially attractive to Black workers and families that commuted to these areas for work, most of whom worked in the domestic and personal service industry.

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and Calvary Baptist Church were erected within East Central in 1890. These churches included important members of the Black community. One such figure was Reverend Peter B. Barrow who moved here from Mississippi with his family. Reverend Barrow was the first Black man to buy land in north Spokane where he started an apple orchard that employed African Americans. He also owned a house east of Liberty Park. Reverend James Gordon McPherson, the editor and publisher of Voice of the West, and the Negro News Bureau, lived half a mile away from Liberty Park. McPherson was also 4 blocks from Harston Townsend, a group of residences between Conklin Street and Harston Avenue. Harston Townsend housed some very important members of the community including the Flowers family, and Emmett Holmes who instituted a civil rights suit against the Washington Waterpower Company for their refusal to serve him at one of their restaurants in Natatorium Park.

(Reader Discretion: Although the addresses of the houses mentioned in this story are provided, we ask that you do not visit uninvited as these are people's private residences. Thank you on behalf of Spokane Historical.)

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The East Central is a primary example of the ways that raciallly restricted housing policies altered a neighborhood.

Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue. From the 1930s to the 1960s in Spokane, these colors dictated whether you could obtain an insured mortgage on a home. HOLC maps, or Redlining maps, were color-coded maps that separated neighborhoods by race, housing quality, and income level. The maps red areas were considered the worst and would not be insured. One way an area would become red was the presence of African Americans. Because of this, neighborhoods would deny Black Americans housing by using racial covenants, which could exclude certain races from purchasing, renting, or living in a home unless they were a servant.

East Central was a redlined neighborhood and had the most African American residents out of the districts in Spokane. The neighborhood surrounded Liberty Park, a park that once rivaled Manito Park but had fallen into disrepair as the surrounding housing became increasingly poor and maintenance of the park dropped. Of all the neighborhoods, Spokane chose East Central and several other poor areas to be split by the U.S. Highways Project in the 1950s. 18 acres of the 21-acre park, and many surrounding homes, were sold to the state to make way for I-90. The destruction displaced many families and separated the neighborhood in two. East Central fell into the pattern of demolition for freeways that plagued many previously red neighborhoods.

The loss of nearly all of Liberty Park and much of East Central affects the area to this day. The decreased tree canopy was one of the consequences caused by redlining and the installation of I-90. Due to redlining, the properties in East Central were uninsured, which discouraged house ownership and encouraged renting. Landlords would remove trees from their property because trees needed pricey maintenance, which decreased profits. Liberty Park was one of the few areas in East Central with many trees, but now it was practically gone. Both events hemorrhaged shade in the neighborhood, and in 2022, the East Central tree canopy covered 14-17% of the district. The most affluent neighborhoods boast tree canopy coverage of almost 40%.

A heat map created in the same year as the tree canopy map indicates the east central neighborhood among the areas in Spokane that could be considered a heat island. These areas of Spokane had up to a 13.9° difference in temperature compared to the coolest areas of Spokane. Unsurprisingly, the areas with the least amount of tree canopy were also the hottest areas of Spokane. Redlining's impact on the land it marked also affected the economic status of residents long after its abolition. 1990s maps depicting unemployment and where minorities tended to live showed that rates of unemployment higher than 20% overlapped neighborhoods where minority populations lived. In most of the U.S. as well as Spokane, rent was just too high for black residents and other minorities to save money to move. If they tried, they would be pushed back into redlined areas by neighborhoods that feared black people would lead to declining property values and more redlining.

With little hope of finding housing elsewhere, black Spokanites stayed primarily in East Central until the 1980s despite the creation of the Fair Housing Act in 1968. Gradually, black residents began migrating out of East Central and the Liberty Park neighborhood in the 1990s. While the scars of redlining in East Central and other districts like East Sprague remain, the integration of Spokane housing has diversified the entire city.

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