For nineteenth-century pioneers like James Glover, falling water represented power - the power to grind flour, to saw logs, and to build a city. These were the fundamental industrial activities in a region still rich in timber and already rich in grain and they would draw people to the village of Spokane Falls. The mill business, though lucrative, was also volatile. Owners made their profits then quickly sold out and moved on. As this doggrel from The Spokesman-Review put it:

"There was Simon, who built him a mill,

And dressed dudish sufficient to kill

On the banks of this stream

Ah it seems like a dream.

He's departed, but it's with us still."

But mills were also literally volatile. Flour and sawdust were both explosive and flammable. This spot was the site of the Spokane Mill Co., which survived the Great Fire of 1889 only to partially burn in 1892. To trap logs coming down the Spokane River, the mill companies filled the southern channel with earth.

Electricity in Spokane began in 1885 with a single generator in the Spokane Flour Mill. Demand grew rapidly, and four years later local investors formed Washington Water Power and built a power station near Monroe Street. The company ran electric streetcars to encourage residential expansion and grow the market for electricity. By 1920, Washington Water Power had electrified the Hillyard rail yards, built a 100-mile transmission line to the mines and constructed three dams along the Spokane River. Electrification brought enormous social and economic progress, but the dams that generated that power permanently altered the landscape and the fishing traditions of the Plateau tribes.

Harnessing the river defined Spokane as a community before, during and after the mining and railroad booms. In 1897, The Spokesman-Review asked its readers to celebrate the Spokane River in verse, and even the most satirical poems lauded the manifest and majestic power of the falls.

As years of European-American settlement passed into decades, the edge of the river became encrusted by businesses that depended on its power and water. Spokane was enriched by its namesake river, but only sometimes remembered it.

MAC 100 Stories: A Centennial Exhibition is told on the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture campus in Spokane's Browne's Addition, with additional highlights at 15 sites in Spokane and eastern Washington. The exhibit experience (February 22, 2014 - January 2016) weaves stories and programs about Inland Northwest people, places and events by capitalizing on the MAC's extraordinary collection. www.northwestmuseum.org

Spokane Historical presents 15 regional and city tours in partnership with the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture and its 100 Stories exhibition.

For more (including 9 images) view the original article

Before the Lilac Garden, this area was part of the Manito Zoo from 1905-1932, where buffalo roamed. One of the larger and more famous of the buffalo was King Ranger. When he died, his body was stuffed and given to the Cheney Cowles Museum in 1915. The park board wanted a new buffalo, so in 1917 they accepted one from the park commission of Portland, OR and in 1920 they accepted one with the help of Senator Miles Poindexter and Colonel N. M. Brett from Yellowstone National Park.

The first lilacs entered North America in the 1700s. Spokane was introduced to them in 1906 by one of the city founders, J.J. Browne, when he planted two lilac bushes in his yard. John W. Duncan brought lilacs to Manito in 1912 with 128 cultivars from Rochester, NY. Lilacs became so popular that city leaders encouraged gardeners to plant lilacs throughout the city. The first Lilac Festival was held in 1938 and soon after Spokane became the Lilac City. Duncan designed a landscaped lilac garden and presented the plans to the park board in December 1941. The Spokane Lilac Club donated 40 shrubs to the Spokane Park System in 1942 some of these are in Manito.

A hybrid lilac was created in 1999 specifically for Spokane called the Syringa Spokane Lilac. In 2008 several plants had matured enough to be planted in the Lilac Garden. This two-toned magenta flower opens bright and ends in a lighter pink-silver-white as it matures. The highlight of lilac season is May and June and visitors to the park are hit with the amazingly sweet and fragrant smell of lilacs.

Other lilacs in the Lilac Garden include syringa vulgaris (wedgewood blue), syringa x prestoniae, syringa oblata (Cheyenne blue single), syringa oblata dilatata (pink single), and syringa yunnanensis (purple single).

For more (including 4 images & 1 audio file) view the original article

The Davenport Hotel was the brainchild of restauranteur/entrepreneur Louis Davenport. Davenport was not a Spokane native, but he found himself in Spokane shortly after the great fire of 1889. Davenport lent his hand to the cleanup and reconstruction efforts, and was able to set aside some money in the process. Soon Davenport opened a small restaurant in a tent, which he would later replace with a more permanent waffle factory at the eastern end of the block where the Davenport Hotel stands today.

Davenport wasn't satisfied to stop with the restaurant, and began to make plans for the hotel. Along with architect Kirtland Cutter and Gustav Albin Pehrson, Davenport set about designing a hotel for the Inland Northwest that would impress travelers from all over the world. When completed in 1914, the Davenport Hotel was truly impressive with its opulent Spanish, Italian, French, and Elizabethan interiors. It featured many modern touches, such as air conditioning, a central vacuum, and an electric sign which shone down brightly upon passers by.

Time took its toll, and after the death of Louis Davenport in 1945, the condition of the hotel continued to decline until it closed in 1985. The hotel was finally restored in 2000 after being purchased by the Worthy family. It now stands open for business, with much of its original architecture still intact.

MAC 100 Stories: A Centennial Exhibition is told on the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture campus in Spokane's Browne's Addition, with additional highlights at 15 sites in Spokane and eastern Washington. The exhibit experience (February 22, 2014 - January 2016) weaves stories and programs about Inland Northwest people, places and events by capitalizing on the MAC's extraordinary collection. www.northwestmuseum.org

Spokane Historical presents 15 regional and city tours in partnership with the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture and its 100 Stories exhibition.

For more (including 6 images & 1 video) view the original article

The Spokane River gorge has undergone many transformations in the last century. Don't be distracted by the roar of the falls; look at the riverfront. Until 2011, the trees, shrubs, and concrete remnants you see here were the former YMCA headquarters. While that is not long ago, they are part of a story that began at the turn of the 20th century.

In 1914, the Board of Parks Commissioners hired the Olmsted Brothers, sons of journalist and landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted, to outline a plan for the city's parks. Their report called for four large parks to help calm the "continual strain of the nerves" among urban dwellers caused by the "multitudinous harsh noises and the vivid and eye-tiring sights" of the city. The centerpiece was a proposed Gorge Park, where in the face of continuing industrial construction, the brothers urged the city to "preserve what beauty and grandeur remains of its great river gorge." Unfortunately, their ideas would be buried under another fifty years of commercial development.

By the mid-1960s, the Park Board and Plan Commission began to call for "appropriate riverfront development, including landscaped areas, vistas, commercial recreation, cultural facilities, public buildings, parks, zoos or zoolets, river drives and paths, and encouraging appropriate offices and business establishments and apartments" along with "the removal of railroad trackage" from the riverfront and Havermale Island. At the same time, the YMCA of the Inland Northwest purchased land and built a new home on the northern edge of the island.

The vision of both the Park Board and the YMCA soon merged with the urban renewal plans of Expo 74. Its theme: "Celebrating Tomorrow's Fresh New Environment." The six-month festival brought 5.6 million people to Spokane, and its physical legacy includes Riverfront Park, the Spokane Convention Center and the INB Performing Arts Center. Expo '74 also restored access to Spokane's falls and gorge, breathing new life into the 1908 Olmsted park plan and reflecting a national trend of rediscovered urban waterfronts.

When the exhibitors left, the Park Board transformed the Expo grounds into the natural and artificial landscapes of Riverfront Park. The YMCA building had worked double duty as the fair headquarters and was now surrounded by saplings and lawns.

In 2006, as the YMCA prepared to move to a new location north of the river, they placed the building in Riverfront Park on the market. Developer Mark Pinch arranged to buy it in order to build a 14-story condominium tower, which he compared to San Antonio's Riverwalk. The city had right of first refusal but struggled to cobble together funding during the recession of the late 2000s. Proposals and counterproposals flew, ranging from turning the old building into a museum to using it as office space to allowing Pinch to buy it.

Finally, during the spring and early summer of 2011, fences surrounded the site and backhoes and jackhammers pounded concrete. The building wasn't being removed for office space, a museum, or a tower but for trees and shrubs to match those across the channel. Park visitors will one day be able to stand in a green tunnel opening to white water and black basalt.

MAC 100 Stories: A Centennial Exhibition is told on the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture campus in Spokane's Browne's Addition, with additional highlights at 15 sites in Spokane and eastern Washington. The exhibit experience (February 22, 2014 - January 2016) weaves stories and programs about Inland Northwest people, places and events by capitalizing on the MAC's extraordinary collection. www.northwestmuseum.org

Spokane Historical presents 15 regional and city tours in partnership with the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture and its 100 Stories exhibition.

For more (including 16 images) view the original article

In 1889, Frank Rockwood Moore and his wife Sarah Franicis Sherlock Moore began work on their residence in Spokane. Moore had made quite a name for himself in the local community. He was the first president of Washington Water Power, which would later become Avista Utilities, as well as an investor in mining and real estate. The site on Spokane's lower South Hill was one chosen for its commanding view of the young city and its popularity among the wealthy and well-to-do.

Moore commissioned architect Kirtland Cutter to build the mansion. Cutter's designs had gained him notoriety, and he brought his considerable talent to the task of designing the Moores' mansion. In the spirit of European countryside estates, Cutter designed a home that would look as though it had already been on the site for centuries. The result was a unique structure, one that was at once impressive, and yet was also the subject of a number of jokes told by the locals.

After Moore died in 1895, the house was purchased by Senator George Turner. Turner made the house and the gardens which attended it the centerpiece of many Spokane social functions. After Turner died, the house sat empty for a number of years until the bank which owned it had it torn down in 1940.

For more (including 5 images & 1 video) view the original article

In 1913, the east side of Spokane's downtown teemed with small businesses run by Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Greek and German immigrants. Their restaurants, laundries and baths, barber shops, hotels, groceries and pool halls mainly served the city's working-class residents. Japanese photographer Ryosuke Akashi captured the lives of Spokane's Japanese entrepreneurs in an album entitled Spokane Japanese Business Men and their Enterprises. Akashi carefully photographed each Japanese business and proprietor, as well as Japanese farmers, Japanese baseball players, and a Japanese cemetery. "We are always discriminated based on our race in this foreign place," he wrote. "I would like to share our story."

In the 1880s, downtown Spokane had a bustling international district. Known as Trent Alley, the four block stretch between Spokane Falls Boulevard and Main Avenue, contained a network of alleys filled with Chinese and Japanese businesses such as Kotaro Konishi Barber Shop, located where you are standing. The neighborhood attracted workers passing through to work for the various railroads and mines in the region.

Scattered with bars, gambling houses, opium dens and bordellos, Trent Alley started out with a bad reputation. Edith Huey describes Trent Alley as "a small but busy community living to a considerable extent apart from the rest of the city." As more families moved in and businesses grew, the area became a thriving international neighborhood. A 1912 newspaper article observed residents of Trent Alley celebrating Christmas "in true American fashion . . . all along the alley the rattle of ivory chips and dominoes could be heard . . . and the click of the cue ball was also in evidence."

During the 1930s, Trent Alley was hit hard by the Great Depression. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the neighborhood experienced a brief renewal, as many Japanese-Americans attempting to escape internment settled in Spokane. Through the 1950s and 1960s, most of Trent Alley’s Asian residents relocated into other parts of the city or passed away from old age. In 1972, the Spokesman-Review described the area as derelict: "Spokane's 'Chinatown,' centered along Trent Alley just south of Trent and east of Washington, is now a series of empty, boarded-up buildings. Gradually the old hotels and stores once occupied by Chinese [people] are being torn down." The one surviving building was the Hip Sing Association's headquarters, which hosted tea and conversation for a handful of elderly men who remembered Trent Alley in its heyday. In late 1974, the Hip Sing left Trent Alley for a new headquarters on the north side of town. Its headquarters and the other buildings of Trent Alley succumbed to urban renewal efforts over the subsequent decades. The last building associated with the Trent Alley area was torn down in 2009.

MAC 100 Stories: A Centennial Exhibition is told on the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture campus in Spokane's Browne's Addition, with additional highlights at 15 sites in Spokane and eastern Washington. The exhibit experience (February 22, 2014 - January 2016) weaves stories and programs about Inland Northwest people, places and events by capitalizing on the MAC's extraordinary collection. www.northwestmuseum.org

Spokane Historical presents 15 regional and city tours in partnership with the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture and its 100 Stories exhibition.

For more (including 8 images & 1 video) view the original article

You are standing where Teddy Roosevelt stood on April 8th 1911, reviewing the 500 heroic African-American troops of the 25th Infantry as they passed in review. The 25th Infantry had served with Roosevelt in the Spanish American War, and had been instrumental in the conquest of Cuba. Roosevelt's second visit to the fort was accompanied by speeches, music, and celebrations of all kinds. Dignitaries from the city arrived at Fort George Wright to welcome the president and a twenty-one gun salute augured in his arrival.

The citizens of Spokane were by no means entirely pleased by the racial makeup of the troops stationed at Fort George Wright. Racist 19th century ideas still persisted in the early 20th century and Spokane was not immune. Still Roosevelt regaled the spectators with tales of the heroism of the black soldiers at San Juan Hill and other battles in the Spanish-American War. With his characteristic political showmanship, he shook the hand of every child living on the base. The festivities were briefly interrupted when Major F.J. Kernan drew his sword, only to have his horse spooked by the torrent of camera flashes and throw him to the ground. The former President as always maintained his positivity and jovial attitude, merely remarking how well the Major had "recovered control of his mount". Roosevelt had previously visited in 1909 while still in office.

Marching, drilling, practicing maneuvers and other pomp are a way of life for a military base and Fort George Wright was no different. The parade grounds were used for all kinds of ceremony and practice routine. From basic drills to the welcoming of a president, the parade grounds saw heavy use, even serving as the site of musical concerts and other community functions.

While the area is today contains a modern road, you can still see the original tile brick designs at your feet. With each individual brick weighing ten pounds and placed by hand, the construction of the fort's sidewalks and patios was no easy task, requiring thousands of hours of backbreaking labor.

For more (including 9 images & 1 audio file) view the original article

Opening in 2004, the Washington State Archives Building was created to house both the Eastern Washington Regional Archives and both state and local government Digital Archives. It was the first archives building to be built from the ground up that would be able to house the new technology needed to take on such a large project.

The Secretary of State of Washington desired an archives center to preserve documents that have either legal, fiscal or historical value. GlassHouse Technologies, Inc. was hired to help create the digital software needed to test the new system and find anything wrong with it during the initial stages of development. The creators also wanted this system to be easily accessible and allow its users to find what they needed quickly and efficiently. The new system kept in line with all the legal requirements for "e-records" and can access the records when needed for a wide variety of agencies.

The archives building was planned in 2000 and was approved for the 2001-2003 Capital Budget which gave the Secretary of State the power to fund such an expensive project. There were some alternate locations discussed during the initial surveying but according to the Washington State Digital Archives Feasibility Study printed in 2004, the other alternatives did not meet the legal requirements, could not ensure against loss of electrical archiving records due to natural disasters and other catastrophic events, as well as keep the project cost effective. When the building was finally completed in 2004, the first records to be housed at the Archives building were marriage records from Snohomish, Chelan, and Spokane counties as well as Historic Census and Naturalization records from the State Archives and State Library.

The Eastern Washington Regional Archives, which houses hundreds of thousands of paper records, is on the first floor and the Digital Archives is housed on the second. The building boasts a research room with computer work stations, a classroom fully equipped with the latest technology as well as a state-of-the-art data center. Currently, the archives building houses state and local government documents and is starting to help other states develop their own systems of digital archiving.

In October 2009, a plaque was installed commemorating the 5-year anniversary of the dedication of the building. The State Archives Building was dedicated and named after Secretary of State Belle Reeves. Reeves was appointed to be the interim Secretary of State after the current title holder Dr. E.N. Hutchinson died in 1940. She was the first female appointed to such a high political station in Washington State and was elected to the same position in 1944.

For more (including 10 images & 1 video) view the original article

On this spot, bordered by Eleventh and Cedar Streets, stands Eastern Washington University's newest residence hall, snyamncut. This location used to serve as a parking lot for residents of Streeter, Morrison, and Louis Anderson Halls, but on April 2, 2012 ground was broken and construction of the new residence hall began. As the first built in over 40 years, the hall was slated to be mostly completed by June 6, 2013 and completely finished by August 19, 2013.

This new five story residence hall contains 172 rooms with a total of 356 beds. Room sizes vary to include traditional doubles, CA singles, and some triples. Floors two through five are dedicated to housing residents, and on each floor there is a central "core" that includes a social lounge, community kitchen and laundry facilities, and the elevators. The ground floor includes the main entrance and lobby, office space, a common room, and a terrace that will be accessible by residents of snyamncut as well the general student populace.

This new residence hall is a marked departure from the traditional idea of a dorm room. The corridors in the building are designed to be 8 feet wide to create a sense of openness and interaction, as well as allowing occasional seating. The hall also has increased flexibility in floor layouts due to utilizing movable pieces of furniture and efficient room layouts. Each floor on the hall has its own individual full kitchen, complete with stove, oven, and a full-sized refrigerator. The new washers and dryers possess technology to text students when their laundry is done to prevent the "laundry wars" that are a common occurrence in residence halls now. Each floor has two sunrooms that featuring floor to ceiling windows. The new hall was also designed to facilitate social interactions between students and to build a community based around living together as well as being more technologically advanced than the other halls on campus. It hosts its own wi-fi network and is geared towards incorporating new and existing technology to best serve the new residents.

Naming the new hall has been a long and frustrating process. Initially, the university was going to name it after the first donor who donated a million dollars towards the project, but so far, no one has stepped forward and the university was forced to look elsewhere for a name. According to Josh Ashcroft, Chief Housing Officer, the naming process looked for names from the Salish language to honor the history and legacy of the region. Three prospective names were picked and the new residents of the hall voted to choose the final name for the hall. This was the first time in Eastern's history that students helped name a campus building and it will usher in an exciting new era of growth for EWU.

"snyamncut" is the Salish name for "gathering." Since Salish words are not capitalized, the new residence hall follows that tradition. This new residence hall is meant to stand as a place of gathering and community for EWU students.

For more (including 5 images & 1 video) view the original article

The 24th Infantry regiment contained the famous all-black "Buffalo Soldiers" who had fought bravely in the capture of San Juan Hill during the Spanish American War. The regiment had endured many hardships. Only 24 of the 456 men of the regiment had not contracted Yellow Fever, and over 30 had died from it. When 107 tired men of the 24th arrived in Spokane in the spring of 1899 after a long train ride from Utah, they may have thought their troubles were over, but it was not to be. The citizens of Spokane were shocked that the first troops stationed at the base were African-American. Protests were made to the War Department to have the men shipped elsewhere. After a year of tension, and despite the exemplarity behavior of the troops themselves, the 24th Infantry was sent to the Philippines. When African-American soldiers of the 25th Infantry arrived in 1908, the population was less interested in the fort, and less inclined to stir up racial discontent. Some of the men even formed a successful minstrel band which played in Spokane to delighted audiences. Black soldiers of the 25th Infantry were present in 1909 and 1911 when President Theodore Roosevelt visited the Fort.

When the first structures were completed on the grounds of Fort George Wright in 1899, only officers were given permanent housing. It was not until the completion of these "Double Barracks" structures on November 28, 1906 that the common soldier had a solid roof over his head at night. Costing $66,914 these two-story red brick buildings housed veterans of the Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II. Their particular style of long verandas and white pillars can be found on many military bases across the American West.

During WWII, the buildings were used as part of a convalescent center for the Army Air Corps. Wounded veterans were nursed back to health in the barracks. After the war some of the buildings fell into disuse, with the base primarily being used to house non-commissioned officers from Fairchild Air Force Base.

Two of the "Double Barracks" structures are still in use on the grounds. After the fort was sold in 1960 to the Sisters of the Holy Name College, after heavy repair and renovation, the barracks were used as housing. In 1990 the Mukogawa Women's University opened up a branch campus on the spot, and converted the double barracks into dormitories.

For more (including 9 images & 1 video) view the original article

It was the night of August 14th 1916 and Edward F. Mayberry was on the run. Three witnesses had seen Mayberry murder 35 year old Native American woman Alice Vivian on the Colville Reservation near Keller, Washington. The heavily armed young man disappeared into the reservation that same night. He had apparently, according to witnesses, attempted to force the woman to come with him, and then upon being rebuffed, shot the woman in cold blood. US Marshalls were deployed to the reservation in force to track down the fugitive.

Mayberry was finally captured not by the authorities, but a posse of local farmers, who were greatly disappointed to learn that no reward had been posted. Mayberry was tried in federal court, due to the murder having taken place on an Indian Reservation, and was sentenced to death by hanging.

On April 21st of the next year, despite having received a 60 day temporary reprieve from President Woodrow Wilson, Mayberry arrived at the Fort George Wright guardhouse to be hanged. He appeared to be in good spirits, joking with his guards, thanking the police for a job well done, and even helped the guards adjust the straps on his legs. He was by all reports the calmest man on the gallows, reciting a short speech in which he claimed to be leaving the world with malice toward none. His calm demeanor unnerved those who had come to witness the hanging.

Capital punishment had been abolished in Washington State in 1913. All attempts to re-instate it had thus far failed. Mayberry would be the only Washingtonian to be executed between 1913 and 1919, when the death penalty was revived. Fort George Wright housed many prisoners in its guard house over the years. Originally built in 1898 with space for 24 inmates, it was expanded in 1908 to house even more prisoners. With so many young men with access to firearms present on the base, more than few murders occurred during its years of operation. The guardhouse today has been converted into student housing, which has encouraged many urban legends about tortured souls roaming the halls. Hanging was the execution method of choice in Washington until the 1990s and Washington is the only state with a currently active gallows. In Washington at least, the "justice" of the frontier lives on.

For more (including 6 images & 1 audio file) view the original article

In 1883, orphan May Arkwright moved to Idaho from Ohio where she worked as a saloon cook and opened up her own boarding house, where she quickly gained a reputation as the "best cook in the Coeur d'Alenes". In 1887 she met Levi Hutton, a locomotive engineer, and the two soon married. They were able to save enough money to buy a stake in the Hercules Mine where they are reputed to have spent their spare hours working together.

The two were politically active in local labor associations and were sucked into the violent protests by Idaho workers in 1899. Held at gunpoint, Levi Hutton drove a train filled with dynamite that would be used to sabotage the non-union sites of the Sullivan Mine and Bunker Hill. Though Levi was never convicted, he was arrested and lost his job with the railroad.

In 1901 everything changed for the Huttons, the Hercules mine finally struck a rich vein of silver and lead leading to a profit of nearly 2 million dollars. The sudden change in wealth and status, proved difficult for May Hutton. Known for her outrageous sense of style and outspoken nature, it was hard for members of high society to accept her. Over the next few years, Mrs. Hutton began to educate herself became heavily involved with the Woman's Suffrage Movement. Having won the vote in Idaho, May Hutton ran for State Senate in 1904, but was not elected.

Unlike Idaho, Washington State did not recognize women's suffrage, and when the Huttons moved to Spokane in 1906, May Hutton lost her right to vote. Again taking up the suffrage fight, she became the vice-president for the Washington Equal Suffrage Association. The association's president, Emma Smith DeVoe, and May Hutton and frequently butted heads. May accused DeVoe of using tactics that aroused antagonism. According to Hutton, DeVoe's western faction of the association spread scandalous rumors in an attempt to expel her from their ranks. Although there is no supporting evidence, rumors that Hutton was once "Bootleg Mary" who ran a whorehouse in Idaho, to this day the rumor remains. After the State's passage of universal suffrage in 1910, May Hutton claimed to be the first Spokane woman to register.

Although May Hutton was not always a welcome member of high society, she and her husband were known to have served President Theodore Roosevelt coffee at their home in Wallace in 1903, and were hosts to civil liberties lawyer Clarence Darrow and national suffragist leader Carrie Chapman Catt, who later headed a campaign for the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. May Hutton also served as a delegate to the State Democratic Convention in 1910 and the Democratic National Convention in 1912.

May Hutton also supported many charities with both time and money including the Florence Crittenton Home for Unwed Mothers and Spokane Children's Home. She was well known for playing matchmaker to the many unwed mothers she became acquainted with. At Christmas, the Huttons would host a party for children at the nearby orphanage. The couple even provided a home for several children, though the couple never formally adopted any of them.

The Huttons lived on the fourth floor of this building until 1914 when they moved to a mansion on 17th Avenue and Crestline. The Huttons donated a part of the land to the city for a park. Suffering from poor health due to obesity and Bright's disease, a kidney condition, May Hutton passed away in 1915 at the age of 55.

For more (including 5 images & 1 video) view the original article

This building once housed one of the many popular brothels in the city of Spokane. One young prostitute, by the name of Abbie Widner, worked in this location that was then known as The Colonial Hotel.

The Colonial was a three-story brick building with the first floor occupied by hairdressers and the next two by a popular brothel. Between drug use and the visits from her "clients," Widner spent her remaining time writing to her boyfriend in Seattle. She wrote of how she missed him and how she despised the way that she was living. Sometimes she would brag about a large amount of money she had been making, but this was immediately followed by her saying that every time a man touched her she "wants to stab him in the heart."

Spokane's incredible early growth (which dwarfed other west coast cities) was due to the abundance of natural resources in the area, which brought miners, businessmen, railroad workers, loggers, and farmers to the city. This influx of population was largely young working men looking to spend their hard-earned money in the city. This polarization of males and females created a large market for prostitution. When these men were not spending their money in brothels and saloons, they frequented hotels, clothing stores, and restaurants. For this reason, prostitution was vital in the initial boost of Spokane's population and economy.

The city profited directly from sex work as well. Spokane levied fines up to ninety dollars on working women, in addition to a heavy tax on prostitution.

In recent decades, historians have changed the narrative around sex work in western cities. "Prostitutes of the American West were far from fallen women—many were savvy entrepreneurs," writes historian Erin Blakemore. "Often, sex workers saw the West as a place of opportunity, one where they could work their way out of the profession entirely due to high demand and high revenues." Historian Paula Petrik's study of Helena sex workers called them “Capitalists with Rooms." Many sex workers left the profession, married, and settled into respectable lives. Others used the capital they raised to start small businesses or to buy real estate.

Certainly, that was Widner's plan. "Kid, I am tired of this life I am living," she told her boyfriend in one letter. "I won't always be a sport, so help me God I won't, if I have to wash for a living... Sweetheart, some day we are going to be happy." Did she achieve her goal?

In 1906 an Abbie Widner was married in Spokane, to W. A. Wyer. She was 26 and he was 40. When Abbie Wyer died in 1964 at the age of 84, her occupation was listed as "housewife." Abbie's story has a happy ending.

The fine system ended in 1910 after the business community finally stopped pushing for its resumption. This made it possible for the prostitutes to be prosecuted instead of simply fined and it eventually brought an end to an era of open prostitution in Spokane.

For more (including 5 images & 1 audio file) view the original article

The Cheney Historical Museum traces its roots to the Tilicum Club. This women's social and service club was organized in Cheney in 1903. In 1935, during the club's annual Pioneer Tea, a group of early settlers asked the Tillicum Club to preserve some items and stories from the early days of the Cheney area. These artifacts were the first items in the museum's collection. By January 1958, the Tilicum Club opened a year-round exhibit in the basement of the 1913 high school.

The museum was closed from 1972-1974 after the school was demolished, but reopened in another Cheney School District building as part of the Expo '74 celebration. It eventually moved to Cheney's Wren Pierson Community Center, remaining there until January of 2009, when heavy snowfall caused the building's roof to collapse. In October of 2009, the museum moved to its current location at 420 1st Street, in downtown Cheney.

This building has a long history of its own, opening in 1890 as a general mercantile store. It also housed a jeweler, a newsstand, a grocery store, and a computer repair shop.

For more (including 2 images & 1 audio file) view the original article

In the 1920s, Episcopal Bishop Edward Makin Cross endeavored to create a successor to the All Saints Cathedral, which stood Downtown. He contracted the services of congregation member Harold C. Whitehouse. Whitehouse, a veteran architect responsible for many of Spokane's buildings, toured Europe doing a study of cathedral design. For St. John's, he settled on an English Gothic style with some French influences.

Bishop Cross selected a vacant lot upon which famous Spokanite Francis Cook's house used to stand. The first section of the Church to be built, the Nave leading to the high altar, was completed in late 1929. Ten days after the first mass was held at St. John's, the stock market crashed, sending the country into a long depression. This put an end to the construction for nearly two decades, when the tower, sanctuary and transepts were finally added.

The cathedral's stained-glass windows each tell a different story, from the Book of Genesis to Revelations. To the right of the high altar, the baptism of famous Native American resident Spokane Garry is depicted. The ceiling of the main crossing consists of a pattern of Stars of David, embedded in a material of compressed corn husks. The cathedral's pipe organ stretches from one end of the 257 foot room to the other.

The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist has become a Spokane landmark. Its Gothic tower looks down on the city from the south hill, its style contrasting greatly with the surrounding buildings. After almost a century of construction, the building is still incomplete. Plans for new windows and additions make it certain that this Spokane landmark will continue to grow and evolve.

For more (including 9 images) view the original article

The Great Crash in December 1929 left a lasting impact on the American economy--and on Spokane. Plans by Fox West Coast Studios to build a theater had been part of Spokane gossip since 1927. The million dollar project began in 1930, early in the Great Depression, and provided 200 jobs for out-of-work citizens, helping Spokane stay afloat during economic decline. Movies were hugely popular during the Depression, providing a cheap distraction from daily life. Movie studios were producing more films, as more visitors attended their showings in theaters.

Upon its completion, Spokane's citizens were shocked to see the stark concrete exterior of the Fox. The Spokesman-Review referred to the building as "unusual, so bizarre and so futuristic . . . certainly Spokane has seen nothing like it before." Its sleek concrete exterior, designed by John C. Reamer looked nothing like the drawings of an elaborate Italian-Spanish theater the Spokesman-Review published years earlier. The modernistic exterior with plain art-deco detailing signaled the dawn of a new modern era in Spokane. The theater's interior, designed by Anthony Heinsbergen, was filled with elaborate art-deco detailing. The theater also featured modern conveniences like air conditioning and smoking parlors near the restrooms. The Fox was the first motion picture theater built by a major motion picture company in Spokane.

As more movie theaters began to pop up in the city, the Fox Theater began to decline in popularity. In 1975 the theater divided its upper balcony into two smaller theaters in the hopes of competing with larger suburban multiplexes. The splendor and beauty of the facility faded and the theater's old age began to show and in 2000, the theater's doors finally closed. Rumors began to surface in 2000 that the Spokane Club was planning on buying the theater site to construct a parking plaza. Fortunately the Spokane Symphony purchased the Fox with the intent to restore it and make the theater the symphony's permanent home. In 2001 the theater was added to the Spokane Historic Register, and underwent a $31 million dollar restoration, which required $5 million in fundraising.

In 2007, the Fox Theater reopened its doors as the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox in recognition of the charitable donation made by Myrtle Edwidge Woldson in the name of her father, Martin Woldson, Scandinavian immigrant and successful pioneer-turned businessman. The theater today has been converted back to its original configuration and hosts many events for the community on top of its Spokane Symphony performances.

MAC 100 Stories: A Centennial Exhibition is told on the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture campus in Spokane's Browne's Addition, with additional highlights at 15 sites in Spokane and eastern Washington. The exhibit experience (February 22, 2014 - January 2016) weaves stories and programs about Inland Northwest people, places and events by capitalizing on the MAC's extraordinary collection. www.northwestmuseum.org

Spokane Historical presents 15 regional and city tours in partnership with the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture and its 100 Stories exhibition.

For more information about the Fox and events at the Fox, visit www.foxtheaterspokane.com.

For more (including 9 images) view the original article

Felts Field is not only the oldest airport in the Spokane area but is also one of the oldest federally designated airstrips in the country.

Located near Rutter and Fancher and along the banks of the Spokane River, Felts Field was originally known as Ed Hoisington Field when one-thousand acres were first leased from the city by the Northwest Aircraft Company in 1919. Throughout the 1920s, other private firms also leased the field for commercial aviation. The Washington Air National Guard set up at the airstrip in 1924, which was the region's first Air National Guard unit.

Symbolic of the rising increase in the use of commercial aviation, United Airlines purchased the old Northwest Airlines builiding to be utilized as their new terminal. Decorated in the popular Art Deco style of the 1930s (this can be seen in both the basic design of the building, as well as the bas relief moldings which decorate the building), the terminal was used by United Airlines also housing the region's weather bureau. Hoisington Field was renamed Felts Field in 1927 after James Buell Felts, an Air National Guard pilot from Spokane died in a plane crash that May.

On August 15, 1929, pilots Lt. Nick Mamer and Art Walker took flight on a record-breaking journey across the country from Felts Field. Staying in the air for 120 straight hours, the two men flew fom Spokane to New York and back again, returning on August 20th after their grueling 7,200 mile trip. This was the first transcontinental refueling and was a world's record for nonstop mileage. In 1938, Lt. Mamer and nine others were killed in a commercial plane wreck and in 1939 a clock tower memorial was built in Lt. Mamer's honor. The clock tower is still in use today and can be found directly west of the Skyway Cafe, behind the main parking lot.

In the 1940s and with the onset of World War II, Felts Field was quickly becoming too small for the large influx of both military and commercial planes which seemed to be constantly flying on and off the runways. In order to more efficiently support the Spokane aviation industry, the Spokane International Airport was built just west of Spokane in Geiger Field. By 1949, all military and most commercial aviation activity was moved to the bigger and more suitable airport.

Although Felts Field lost most of its traffic in 1949, it never failed to continue running as an airport. To this day, Felts Field is still an active and popular airstrip for many of the region's pilots. Hobby pilots, the Experimental Aircraft Association, commercial charter pilots and Med Star are all operating at Felts Field and at just about any given time of day, airplanes can be viewed from any part of Spokane, either taking off or landing at the airstrip.

For more (including 8 images & 1 video) view the original article

Life as an orphan out on the western frontier was full of hardships. Without parents, orphans bounced around from distant relative to distant relative. It was a lonely life for most, who were often treated like servants in the homes they occupied. According to Levi Hutton, life with his uncle was so unbearable he ran away to fight Indians at age 15, only to return on account of his empty stomach. But by 18, he had headed out west to make it on his own. In 1887, Levi married fellow orphan May Arkwright, and moved to Wallace, Idaho seeking fortune. After investing all they owned in Wallace's Hercules mine, the Huttons struck it rich in 1901.

Though their lives were changed by wealth, they never forgot their orphaned pasts. Having moved to Spokane in 1907, the Huttons were actively involved in community charity organizations.The two were very involved at the Florence Crittenton Home which housed unwed mothers and their children, and often took groups of orphans to the circus and other events. Having no children themselves, the Huttons even provided a loving home for several children under their temporary care.

After May Hutton's death in 1915, Levi Hutton, who often recalled the hardships of his childhood, began planning a home for children who have been abandoned, orphaned, or abused. This home, according to Hutton would provide a loving home that fostered self-reliance and confidence in the children it housed. In 1917, Levi Hutton had established the Hutton Settlement on over 300 acres of land. The settlement was designed to provide a "Happy Home" for children while teaching them skills through working on the farms located on the site. The Settlement is privately funded through a carefully organized trust funded by the Hutton fortune, and was intended to be self-sufficient by using the crops grown on the property for food. In addition to the 9 buildings on the site, there is a barn, vegetable garden, and land for farming.

Upon his death, Levi Hutton secured the future of the Hutton Settlement by giving almost all of the Hutton fortune to to the project. Levi Hutton believed bequeathing his and his wife's fortune to the home was the right thing to do. To this day the Hutton Settlement continues Levi Hutton's vision of providing a home for children. It continues to focus on providing a home and family for those who have none. The Settlement's continued commitment to the well-being of children is a standing testament to the Huttons and will continue to be for years to come.

For more information on the Hutton Settlement please visit their website: http://www.huttonsettlement.org/

For more (including 5 images) view the original article

When Levi and May Arkwright Hutton struck silver ore in 1901 at the Hercules Mine, the couple's lives dramatically changed. Both from humble beginnings, the pair met while working on railroad in Idaho. Upon striking it rich, the two moved to Spokane in 1906 and built the Hutton building the following year. Originally built as a 4-story building, the Huttons moved in to the penthouse apartment on the top floor while their mine and other business headquarters were housed below. The over-sized foundation allowed for an additional three stories to be built in 1910 making the building what it is today.

While Levi Hutton concerned himself with the mining business, May Arkwright Hutton became a passionate and outspoken political activist. Known for her eccentric character, May Hutton was a prominent figure in the statewide women's suffrage movement, and took every opportunity to promote her cause. Early on, before she and her husband gained wealth, May Hutton brought up women's suffrage in union meetings, and even ran for the Idaho legislature.

In 1896 Hutton finally succeeded in securing the vote for women in Idaho. Upon moving to Spokane, her political activism continued and caught the attention of many of Spokane's elite, as she was a ball of energy who loved to dress up frequently in mens attire. After helping to secure the vote for women in Washington, May Arkwright Hutton became the first woman in Spokane to register to vote.

May was an outspoken Democrat declaring that she believes "that the people should rule" in a 1912 Spokesman Review editorial on her political beliefs. In May of 1912, Mrs. Hutton joined the suffrage party's appeal to President Wilson on the vote, and was known across the nation for her activism in the suffrage cause. She was friends with three time presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, and was known throughout the United States for her work on women's suffrage. In addition to women's rights, the Huttons were concerned with labor unions and worker's rights. Before striking rich, May Hutton even wrote a novel based on their experiences in the mines, called "The Coeur d'Alenes Or a Tale of the Modern Inquisition". The novel focused on the mining strikes of the late 19th century and highlighted the labor unions in the mines.

The Hutton's penthouse apartment in the Hutton building allowed for May Hutton to host social events in their home, and gave the couple easy access to the many charities they were involved in. Upon May Hutton's death in 1915, her husband, Levi Hutton sought to establish a home for orphaned children as a lasting testament to their legacy. Having no children of their own, the couple was known to spend their money on worthy causes. The Hutton Settlement was no exception. Upon Levi Hutton's death in 1928, the entire estate was left to fund the children's home for years to come.

After the Huttons moved out in 1914, the building remained in the family estate until 1969. The building underwent a major renovation in 1989, after the building was acquired from the family estate twenty years earlier. Today it is the home of offices and local retail stores in downtown Spokane.

For more (including 4 images) view the original article

The Washington Cracker Company building, which still stands at the corner of Bernard and Pacific Streets, is one of the most visible reminders of Spokane's foray into the industrial world. Its high visibility is due in part to the painted signage that adorns the building, including not only the name of the company, but a unique advertisement for Snow Flake brand Crackers. Cookies, biscuits, and crackers were big business at the turn of the twentieth century, and Spokane's location amidst the rolling wheat fields of eastern Washington made it a natural hub for production and distribution.

Indeed, the Washington Cracker Company was no two-bit operation. By the first years of the twentieth century, it employed sixty people with annual revenues averaging $100,000, and was "one of the most important and growing industries in Spokane... contributing no small share to the prosperity of the city." This was also the era when powerful industrial trusts formed, reducing marketplace competition through fixed prices and outright coercion. In 1899 Herman Wittenberg, the president of the Portland, Oregon-based baked goods conglomerate that owned the Washington Cracker Company, sold out to the mammoth Pacific Coast Biscuit Company, becoming part of a "Pacific Coast Cracker Trust" soon to become infamous in Spokane.

In 1904, a trade war ensued between the Washington Cracker Company (backed by the Cracker Trust) and its nearest rival, the Inland Cracker Company owned by F.W. Friesling, a Washington Cracker Company employee between 1893 and 1903. Corporate trusts drew an aggressive political reaction in the form of the trust-busting movement of the 1890s codified in the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which was largely toothless until Teddy Roosevelt took up the cause and began to aggressively break up trusts in the early 1900s. The regional "cracker war" reflected this trend.

While trust wars, which tended to exert downward pressure on prices, could be a boon to consumers, they usually drove prices up in the end; this is exactly what happened at the end of the Spokane Cracker War. By 1906, the Washington Cracker Company and the Inland Cracker Company had declared "amnesty," each doubling their price for a box of crackers from $.05 to $.10. Interestingly, Samuel Wittenberg (younger brother of Herman) was one of the speakers at a 1906 Retailers' Association Convention, the members of which expressed their general agreement with trust-busting Teddy Roosevelt's plan to "fix and enforce reasonable railroad rates," no small feat of hypocrisy considering that it came more than six months before the end of the war with Inland.

For more (including 5 images) view the original article

When the territory of Washington became a state in 1889, the city of Spokane Falls was one of its largest and most successful cities. Attracting wealthy businessmen who had stakes in the nearby Idaho mines, Spokane Falls was a thriving young city with a prosperous elite, two newspapers, and a growing downtown. More permanent stone and brick buildings were quickly replacing the old wooden structures, marking the transition of an old trading post to a new modern city. Yet like all many cities at the turn of the century, wood frame buildings vastly outnumbered stone and mortar structures. And wood, as we all know, likes to burn.

You are currently standing at the site of the Pacific Hotel, one of the first buildings to fall in Spokane's Great Fire of 1889. Described by locals as "the most devastating fire that has occurred in the history of the world."

1889 was a year filled with devastating fires for the Pacific Northwest. Seattle, Ellensburg, Cheney, and the nearby Coeur d'Alene forest all succumbed to fire that year. Spokane was not exempt. On the evening of August 4, 1889, a small lodging house and restaurant caught fire on Railroad Avenue. Early attempts to extinguish the blaze were fraught with difficulty. Firefighters from the local volunteer fire department quickly gathered what they could to fight the fire, but their hoses lacked sufficient pressure. By all accounts, panic began to set in as the intense heat and shifting winds allowed the flames to quickly jump from the timber buildings to the stone and mortar buildings nearby.

As the fire moved north and east, it became evident that the city's business district was in jeopardy. In an effort to protect the main business area, Mayor Fred Furth ordered the demolition of several dozen buildings. By many accounts not only was it ineffective, the sound of explosions tearing down buildings only added to the sense of panic and fear. To make matters worse, the winds that had pushed the fire north and east suddenly changed directions, carrying the flames southward, destroying the Northern Pacific freight depot. Knowing the fire could destroy even more, officials quickly moved trains out of the fire zone to prevent even more damage and loss.

By the time the fire died, over thirty blocks had been burned, wiping out the downtown area and causing several million dollars in damages. After the fire, the city quickly blocked off the burned areas of downtown. Individuals who held property in the area had to obtain passes in order to enter the burn zone. Structures that remained behind as charred skeletons of what once stood, and were deemed public nuisances. Those who lost work due to the fire were hired on to clean up and rebuild the downtown area. Immediately after the fire, tents began to pop up for local businesses, selling goods and services. Some found new forms of investment in the area, including many Dutch businessmen who invested heavily in the reconstruction of Spokane Falls.

News of the fire spread nationwide, and tales of the disaster were quickly sensationalized. The dramatic tale of a prominent emerging city destroyed by flames caught the attention of many, prompting an out pour of aid. Relief packages were sent from cities across the country, including $15,000 from Seattle and food provisions from Portland. Tents, bedding, clothing and food came in by the train from cities all over. The quantity of food and supplies greatly outweighed the actual needs of those affected by the fire. Several accounts note that this excess of relief goods prompted several city officials and councilmen to bring home wagon loads of provisions. Public outrage over the scandal prompted a jury to indict two councilmen and a police officer for the misappropriation of relief supplies in December of 1889. However, no trial ever occurred and the men were never relieved of their positions. This incident prompted some to refer to the seated council for those years as the "ham council." In April of 1890, several members of the "Ham Council" were later expelled and suspended over charges of bribery.

The fire drastically changed the ways in which Spokane Falls was rebuilt. Buildings were designed with fire in mind, adopting newer fire-resistant methods. Building upon the ruins of their old city, Spokane Falls thrived after the fire, attracting entrepreneurs, investors and businesses. Within two years of the fire, much of the city had been rebuilt and adopted a new charter under the name Spokane.

For more (including 12 images, 2 audio files, & 2 videos) view the original article

Fires on the scale of 1910's were not unheard of at this time. In 1825, upwards of 3.5 million acres in the settled Northeast succumbed to fires, while in 1871, Northeastern Wisconsin witnessed the obliteration of 1.5 million acres, 1,000 deaths, and 16 towns. However, what made the fires in Idaho, Montana, and Washington unique was the fact that they originated far away from civilization, thus making containment tactics much more arduous.

During the summer of 1910, multiple fires broke out, including: Bean Creek Fire, Big Creek Fire, Clearwater Fires, Forty Nine Meadows Fire, Iron Mountain Fire, Lakeview Fire, Loop Creek Fire, Lower Clark Fork Fires, Mineral County Fires, Placer Creek Fires, St. Maries Fire, St. Joe Fire, Setzer Fire, and Trout Creek Fire. The worst fires surrounded Wallace, ID. On August 20, gale force winds reaching 70 mph pushed the fires across the parched earth into one another, forming the "Big Blowup," also known as the "Big Burn."

This being a period of high immigration, many immigrants were recruited to combat the blazes. Men were pulled off the streets and out of saloons, and were even accused of setting fires in order to stay employed. The fire season was so severe many of the Northwest units of the U.S. Army were mobilized to help, along with mining and logging workers who were accustomed to fighting fires.

After the fire died out, official reports estimated 1,736 total fires burned more than 3 million acres of private and federal land. In comparison, wildfires throughout the nation consumed roughly 5 million acres in 1910 altogether. The 1910 flames scorched an estimated 7.5 billion board feet of timber and at least 85 people were killed. Several small towns were completely decimated, and one-third of Wallace was destroyed. Smoke from the fires reached New England and San Francisco, and soot traveled all the way to Greenland.

The Big Blowup occurred only five years after the establishment of the U.S. Fire Service (U.S.F.S.). Many of the men who were involved in the 1910 fires would earn high positions in the U.S.F.S. in subsequent years. This was the catalyst for U.S.F.S. wildland fire suppression policies, which still influence fire prevention and management around the world today.

For more view the original article

By the early 1900s, the rough and tumble frontier towns of America were dying off, slowly becoming gentrified and developed into respectable settlements. Taft, Montana was one town that wasn't going to go down quietly. Home to pimps, prostitutes and murderers, Taft earned the title, "the wickedest city in America" given by a visiting Chicago Tribune reporter. If a working man had an appetite for vice, he was sure to get his fill in Taft.

Taft started as an unnamed work camp in 1907. The town was home to men working for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, who wanted to extend their line through the Bitterroot Mountains. The name of the town allegedly came about after Secretary of War William H. Taft visited the work camp. Secretary Taft chastised the unnamed camp for being a "sewer of sin" and "a sore on an otherwise beautiful national forest." Either out of jest or spite, the townsmen named their community in honor of the future president.

As construction of the railroad began in earnest, Taft grew, the height of its population peaking somewhere around three thousand. Consisting of little more than a half-mile stretch of road, Taft boasted between 20 and 50 saloons. Along with men working the railroad, Taft was also home to many other men and women of ill-repute. The second biggest profession in Taft, right after railroad workers, was prostitution. A den to criminals as well as pleasure seekers, springtime in Taft often meant the discovery of dead bodies that were uncovered as the winter snow melted. During the final spring in Taft, as many as seventeen bodies were found.

The shanty-town quality of Taft made it particularly susceptible to fire, as it burned down at least twice before 1910. Taft was finally wiped clean in 1910, when forest fires ravaged much of northern Idaho and western Montana. Rather than answering the forest rangers call to fight the fires, most citizens of Taft put their energy towards draining the town of its remaining alcohol. Taft's inhabitants were evacuated by train, but the town itself wasn't so lucky.

Some futile attempts to raise Taft back to its infamous glory were quickly shut down by forest rangers. A few abandoned buildings survived until they were finally buried by the construction of I-90 in 1962. Now, all that remains of the once "wickedest city in America" is a freeway exit on I-90 and a staging area for snowplows.

For more (including 5 images) view the original article

"We didn't like the things they did and they didn't like the things we did."

Born in Meridian, Mississippi in 1927, Violet Noble came to the East Central neighborhood during the growth period of the 1940s. This was also a time when East Central was undergoing a dramatic demographic shift following a steady drop in property values during the 1920s and 1930s. Like others, Violet remembers it as "run down." By the 1960s, East Central was known as the predominantly black area of Spokane. Like many other American neighborhoods, there was a concurrent element of "white flight": as more African Americans moved into the neighborhood, whites moved up the hill or out of the area altogether. Those that stayed often lived separate lives from their African-American neighbors.

Violet's memories of the impact of the I-90 freeway are also representative of others. Because she lived higher up on the hill, neither construction nor the changes that followed it affected her daily life very much, but it undoubtedly affected some of her habits, albeit in more subtle ways. For instance, as businesses along Sprague closed after the freeway was completed, new ones began to sprout up the hill on 29th street. Where many of the residents who lived "above the bluff" would have traveled down the hill to shop before construction of the freeway in the 1960s, it was less trouble to go the other direction once the I-90 barrier was in place. Thus began the spiral that would sink the lower part of the East Central neighborhood deeper into poverty by the 1970s and 1980s, from which it is only now beginning to emerge.

For more (including 5 images & 1 audio file) view the original article

Every spring, many of the meadows of the eastern Washington and northern Idaho are dotted with the blue flowers of the camas plant, cammasia quamash. To the Native peoples of the Columbia Plateau these flowers indicated food, marking the nutritious root bulbs that were the staff of life.

For thousands of years camas and other roots made up approximately 50% of the Native diet. Indians in this area did not practice agriculture in the European style; the fish and roots that nature provided were food enough.

Camas digging and cooking were the honored work for Native women. Women would gather root with digging sticks made of fire hardened wood, or deer antler. Sticks were long, and a perpendicular handle allowed the women to dig out the roots more easily. Up to 50 pounds of camas could easily be harvested in this manner in a day.

Harvesting camas required perfect timing. Camas root reaches its biggest size when the flowers have just withered in mid-June. To maximize it as a food source the women had to be in the fields to harvest at this time. Plant knowledge was required, because another type of camas, called death camas, which is far less nutritious was often growing along side the healthier version.

Regular digging of camas actually improved camas patches. The women would only keep the larger roots, returning the smaller roots back to the soil to ensure next year's harvest. Fire, in the shape of spring or fall "cool burns," was also used to ensure that that the open meadows required for camas growth stayed that way.

Camas bulbs need to be cooked to make the carbohydrates more digestible. Cooking was usually done in a pit oven. For long-term storage camas in baked again and made into loaves, a staple item of trade on the Plateau.

Camas harvests decreased with the arrival of the white farmers. Hungry pigs rooted up camas patches that had been nurtured for generations, while others were destroyed by the plow. As Natives were forced onto reservations they had to adopt much of the diet of the invaders, many native foodstuffs were replaced by the "white devils" of flour, sugar, and salt. The harvest of camas never completely stopped however, and today a revival of native food ways is causing an increase in camas in the diet of many native families.

For more (including 3 images) view the original article

The steel rails that still peek through the pavement here and there in Spokane remind us of the days of trolley cars. At one time, the tracks that lay before you carried Spokanites to work, shops, restaurants, and leisure. Residents even had a safe ride home from the downtown bars and theaters with night owl service.

The first trolley cars in Spokane began in 1888 and allowed the city to expand out of the downtown core. People had the option to live away from the hub of shopping, working, and sometimes rowdy downtown. Trolley lines were created by local real estate developers to entice people to buy lots outside of the city's core, thus many lines preceded the building of homes further west into neighborhoods such as Browne's Addition. The first trolleys in Spokane were horses-drawn cars between downtown and Browne's Addition, and opened for business in 1888. The fare was just a nickel.

Horses needed a significant amount of care and had trouble on some of Spokane's steep streets. Companies began experimenting with steam, cable, and electric cars as early as 1889. Because of Spokane's proximity to the river, electricity was cheap. Electric trolleys proved superior to the loud steam engines, and the lines were easily moved compared to cable cars. By 1894 all of Spokane's trolley lines converted to electric power.

The real estate companies were not interested in running the trolley lines after their lots were sold, so the various trolley companies were sold to either Spokane Traction Co. or Washington Water Power Co. by 1903. For Washington Water Power it was good business. The company had the ability to supply cheap electricity to the trolleys because of their operation of dams on the Spokane River, and then make an additional profit from ridership fees.

At their height, electric trolleys and interurban railways carried passengers all across the Inland Northwest. A rider could travel from Cheney to Coeur d'Alene or from 38th and Grand on the South Hill all the way to Francis and Howard on the north side. In 1910 Washington Waterpower's lines boasted 150 trolley cars and 24,000,000 riders!

The arrival of the first automobiles in Spokane in the 1910s signaled the decline of the trolleys. In 1922, Spokane Traction Co. and Washington Waterpower Co. joined to become Spokane United Railways. Ridership declined significantly in this period due to the availability of cars, Spokane's population stagnation, and the companies seeking cheaper transportation alternatives to trolleys. Busses proved far easier for public transportation routes because they required no rails or electric lines to be hung, the routes could be changed easily, and also the companies would not be responsible for maintaining the roads where the tracks lay. Because of these reasons the last trolley car retired in 1936. Spokane United Railways car No. 202 made its final journey to Natatorium Park in a parade where the wooden trolley was filled with bales of hay and lit on fire.

For more (including 5 images & 1 audio file) view the original article

[Note: This location is a private residence, not open to the public.]

This Spokane home has a Hollywood pedigree. It was built to promote the 1948 film, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. Seventy-three similar Blandings homes were built across the country. The homes were built by different contractors and the styles varied greatly by location. In contrast to the film these homes not only came worry-free, but also fully furnished and with all of the latest household gadgets.

The film Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House released to theaters in 1948 and starred Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. This comedy chronicled the Blandings family's move out of New York City to the countryside in Connecticut. The Revolutionary-era home they bought ended up being a tear down, just the beginning of their problems. The new home they decided to build was far more expensive than anticipated and the plot follows as everything goes wrong in the completion of the new homes construction.

Tours of this South Hill home took place over two weeks in September of 1948. In some locations a small fee was charged for entrance to view the home, but in Spokane entrance was free. The New England style farmhouse listed for sale for $75,000 came fully furnished by the Crescent and boasted three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, and a den.

The latest household gadgets that would have saved any housewife hours per day were included in the purchase price, those gadgets being a garbage disposal, clothes washer and dryer, and electric dishwasher. But there was also something for husbands, an automatic garage door opener in the two-car garage.

The Spokesman Review reported: "Visitors seemed most impressed by the luxurious master bedroom with its canopied bed and connecting dressing room and bath." The house still stands in Spokane's Comstock neighborhood, with few changes besides a paint job and the addition of a backyard pool.

For more (including 3 images & 1 video) view the original article

After hundreds of years of American oppression, American Indians gained the right to vote in the land they called home since time immemorial with the passing of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. Native Americans, new to the political scene worked to organize political coalitions. In 1925 and 1926 white business owners of Spokane leveraged this new position of local Native Americans to their advantage. They organized an "Indian Congress" to market Spokane.

The pageantry, and the over top manner in which the Native Americans were photographed and displayed in the middle of the city were ploys to spark attention from the media. Regional newspapers did not disappoint. They wrote stories, detailing the "Halloween parade" that included Natives in full regalia on horseback, and the display of "Indian curios" at local businesses.

Approximately, 3000 Natives came to Spokane for the event in 1925. They camped all over the city in large lodges or teepees; the most iconic pictures of the event being a row of Blackfeet lodges on the median of Riverside Avenue. Glover Field was filled with over seventy lodges. Beauty contests, parades, stick games, and teepee building contests were held all over the city.

After two consecutive meetings of the Indian Congress, it ended because Natives saw no point in continuing in a meeting organized as a marketing ploy that did nothing to further Indian rights. The Spokane Indian Congress has no connection to the National Congress of American Indians formed in 1944 in Denver, Colorado. NCAI.

For more (including 8 images) view the original article

Nestled in a cramped canyon seven miles from historic Wallace, are the decaying remnants of the once-booming mining town that was built to house the miners of the Hecla, Hercules, Tiger-Poorman, and Bunker Hill mines. Burke was "all length and no width," and its railroad tracks also served as Main Street.

Short on space but thriving as a community, proprietors had to build the Tiger Hotel over railroad tracks, a road, and a stream. The trains of the Northern Pacific Railroad actually ran right through the lobby. The hotel wasn't the only place where Burke residents had to be creative. Cars had to stop and wait for trains to pass through, and it is said that store owners even had to roll up storefront awnings whenever the iron giants rolled through Burke.

The tiny town faced other challenges. Starting in 1892, wage cuts provoked a strike against owners like Amasa Campbell of Spokane fame, and Burke was caught within the rising lawlessness more than once. The most famous of these occurrences was the hijacking of a Northern Pacific Railroad train in 1899. The takeover began in Burke, and after a few more stops in Wallace and Gem, the train was packed with more than 1,000 irate miners armed with dynamite and pickaxes. The wild ride culminated in the blowing up of the Bunker Hill Mine concentrator with 3,000 pounds of dynamite. One of these men fed up with the robber-baron mine owners was the infamous Harry Orchard, who would later assassinate Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg with an improvised explosive device.

Today, Burke is visited by few and home to even fewer. Mining declined over the next century and by 1981, the mines in Burke were closed. Suggestive remnants remain, though. Although the unique Tiger Hotel was torn down in 1944, visitors can still tour some of the looming mining structures of the Hecla Mining Company still standing today. Also, look at the steep hillsides and notice how the earth is scarred by terraces. This was how the town's previous residents created livable space. Now just a ghost of its former glory, Burke beckons you to drive through and be in awe of the tomb-like buildings.

For more (including 3 images) view the original article

Not all the wealth of Wallace came from the mines. Some came from bedrooms of the working women of the brothels like the Oasis or the Bi-Metallic. As the miners extracted the ore from the ground, the second wave of workers arrived to mine the wages of the miners and provide an escape from the dark underworld in which they worked. The majority of the men who came to the mines were young, single, and hoping to become rich. The women who came to work above ground were had the same aspirations.

Western prostitutes were not necessarily victims. According to historian Paula Petrik, who refers to some Montana prostitutes as "capitalists with rooms," there were two types of houses in which women worked. Large cities had Parlor Houses where young attractive girls were employed. They were elegant and catered to a higher class of men. Out west women worked in the Volume Houses, where women were hired mostly for short periods of time by the Madams who ran them. Volume House gave the women more freedom and were more closely connected to the community than their larger city counterparts. This close connection to the community and the scarcity of marriageable women, meant that for many women prostitution was short-term and often led to marriage and a new, more respectable line of work.

Brothels in the Silver Valley started as far back as 1876. Maggie Hall, also known as Molly B'damn, was an Irish immigrant, who came to the Silver Valley and opened a brothel in Murray in 1884. Though well educated, the only work she could find was as a barmaid, and her first husband forced her into prostitution. In the Silver Valley Hall was known for her generosity and good deeds, including nursing the sick during the smallpox epidemic of 1886. Hall died from tuberculosis in 1888, and the whole town mourned her passing. Even today the town of Murray has Molly B'Damn Gold Rush Days days every summer.

By the late 1970's prostitution was reaching the end of the line in the Silver Valley. Mine closings, corruption charges and bribery allegations closed many of the brothels. By 1988 only one brothel remained open, the Oasis Room. On June 23 1988, 150 F.B.I agents descended on Wallace raiding businesses over illegal gambling machines. The eight ladies working at the Oasis were tipped off and fled before the agents arrived leaving everything behind including the shopping they had just brought in. That marked the end of prostitution in the Silver Valley. Today the Oasis is a museum and you can see it just as it was the day the women left--a snapshot of what brothels were like in this small mining town.

For more (including 2 images) view the original article