By Larry Cebula
In 1890, Alfred Thayer Mahan published his magnum opus, The Influence of Seapower Upon History. Thayer was a geopolitical strategist and an admiral in the United States navy, and he argued that throughout history great empires had flourished not by…

By Larry Cebula
This quiet street corner in Cheney was once the scene of two brutal murders. From 1881 until 1886, the frontier village of Cheney was also the seat of government for Spokane County. A courthouse stood nearby, and here on the northeast corner of…

By Larry Cebula
The tiny community of Valleyford has a story like many of the small towns of the Palouse. The area was first settled in the 1880s, and Valleyford was incorporated in 1906. The town enjoyed some decades of prosperity and growth before a combination of…

By Larry Cebula
The Deep Creek school was built in 1905, to replace an earlier, one-room schoolhouse that stood at the same spot. The town of Deep Creek was founded in 1883 as Deep Creek Falls. An 1889 guide for immigrants touted the "exceedingly rich…

By Larry Cebula
Early Spokane was a town full of working men and working women. For laborers throughout the region the city was a refuge and a pleasuring ground. Miners, loggers, and agricultural workers would come to Spokane to spend their pay on liquor, gambling,…