By Miranda Caudill
Cemeteries are more than a place of rest; they are physical records of the history of their communities. Nestled on a green hillside above the Tucannon River, the Starbuck Cemetery tells the story of the rise and fall of this small farming…

By Angel L. Rios
The cantilever Snake River Bridge has had a few different names over the years because of its past. The Old Columbia River Bridge was originally constructed in 1927 at Vantage. The carbon steel bridge crossed the Columbia River to link Grant and…

By Jessica L. Bell
J Harlen Bretz, whose given name was Harley J. Bretz, was born in 1882 in Michigan. The oldest of five children, Bretz had an early interest in astronomy and the natural environment that surrounded him on the farm where he grew up. Originally…

By Miranda Caudill
Starbuck is a small town of only 129 residents located in southeastern Washington near the Snake River. It has a warm climate and mild winters. The Snake River, Tucannon River, and surrounding land make the area ideal for farming and ranching. One…

By Josh M Bliesner
The Bank of Starbuck has stood for over 100 years and looks ahead for the next century. When the bank was constructed in 1904, there were no federal protections for depositors. What kept money safe were the strong walls for protection. In even the…

By Miranda Caudill
Palouse Falls State Park, located 18 miles southeast of Washtucna, is a beautiful recreational campground that offers a breathtaking view of the Palouse Falls. The Palouse Falls and the surrounding land were carved out by the ice age floods that…

By Joanne Percy
Palouse village, known to the local tribes as Naha’u’umpu’u, or “People of the River,” was one of the oldest sites of the Palus (or Palouse) Indians of the Pacific Northwest. It is located at the confluence of the Snake River and Palouse Falls and…

By Mariah Kruse
An American whitewater kayaker takes the biggest plunge in an attempt to set a world record. Tyler Bradt was born in Stevensville, Montana. Tyler was kayaking class five rapids at the age of 12, and by 15 he was receiving national recognitions. He…

By Larry Cebula
In the early 1990s, second-graders in Mrs. Sara Jane Aebly’s class at Windsor Elementary School discovered that Washington State did not have an official state fossil. Encouraged by their teacher, they decided to try to create one. After some…

By Sharon DeMIlls-Wood
Tiffany’s Skate Inn was a roller skating rink which opened in 1968 and was located at W. 708 Boone Avenue in Spokane. It was across the street from the old Coliseum where the Spokane Arena is now. Dennis King, Sr., acquired and operated the rink…

By Logan Camporeale
Developed by Carrie Harris, the Hotel Aberdeen is a corner-lot brick building that captures the stories of working-class Spokanites who came to Spokane at the turn of the 20th century to work in growing regional industries such as mining, lumber,…

By Devrick Barnett
In the house that once sat on this corner of 1st and Hemlock lived Robert E Strahorn. Few men can be said to have as much influence developing the west as Strahorn. Throughout the 1870s and 80s, he traveled across the Pacific Northwest as the…

By Leanne Allen
Before the Civil Right Movements in the 1960s, Jim Crow was the law of the land. Spokane was not exempt from racial segregation. Black Spokanites were restricted to the few restaurants, nightclubs, and hotels that were willing to serve them. Even…

By Devrick Barnett
Walking in Riverfront Park today, it might be hard to imagine it any other way. However, what once occupied that space was one of the grandest, most elegant rail depots in Spokane, the Union Pacific Depot or Union Station. When former Union Pacific…

By Dexter Davis
When the United States entered the First World War in 1917, many young men in Spokane rushed to join the Army and lend their part to the war effort. Three farm boys from Moran Prairie, Walter, Charles, and Ralph Burch, joined the Army but had very…

By Dexter Davis
American involvement in the First World War was at first unpopular--and nowhere more than Spokane. As the great powers of Europe stumbled into conflict in 1914, few Spokanites saw it as their fight. Though they did have opinions. The strong…

By Kyle McMurrich
John Doran opened his business in 1914 just as automobiles were remaking American society. He sold such early models as the Essex, the Packard, and the Hudson. The Hudson had a more powerful engine at a cheaper price than competitors such as…

By Leanne Allen
The sands of time are running low for the massive concrete Clock Tower that stands at the entrance of the Spokane Community College. The Washington State Department of Transportation has been trying to find a way to remedy ongoing traffic issues,…

By William Paaga
While the Spokane Children’s Home provided shelter for homeless and delinquent children during the era before public assistance the facility is best remembered for a 1930s scandal.   The Ladies Benevolent Society of Spokan Falls formed in 1884 to…

By Jason Raleigh
On the evening of January 17th, 1914, F. Lewis Clark and his wife arrived at the train station in Santa Barbara, California. Rather than joining his wife, Clark helped her board the train and left her with a kiss. Telling his chauffeur to meet him…

By Mary R. Bass
After the close of World War II, world power relations shifted. A global clash with USSR had Americans uneasy, particularly after the Soviets developed nuclear weaponry in 1949. In response to global Soviet aggression, Congress approved measures to…

By Madelyn R. Brown
Red Power was a movement for American Indian rights that began in the 1960s. Nationally, the American Indian Movement (AIM) led a series of national actions and protests, including the storming of the BIA building in Washington D.C., the occupation…

By Elisheba R. Gearhardt
With unemployment during the Great Depression reaching nearly 25% in Spokane, thousands of young men in the Inland Northwest joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Earning $30 per month, they obtained an education and vocational training…

By Mary R. Bass
Kazuma “Frank” Hirata was a prominent member of Spokane’s Japanese-American community. During the 1930s he was the manager of the Spokane Vegetable Growers Association, a critical organization for the Japanese community’s economic success in the…

By Parker J. Reincke
Born at the end of December 1918 in Spokane, Eleanor Barrow Chase was the third-generation of her family to live in the growing city. She attended Lewis and Clark High School and Washington State College. She graduated magna cum laude from Whitworth…

By Parker J. Reincke
Born in 1914 to a working-class African American family in dusty Wharton, Texas, James E. Chase might not have seemed like a future mayor. The youngest of seven, money was right in his family, although his childhood job at a bakery did pay in…