In June of 1871 Chief Seltice of the Coeur d'Alene tribe and German settler Frederick Post, made a verbal agreement. Post was granted 200 acres of native land to build a sawmill. As a part of the agreement Post would provide lumber to the tribe. The purchase of the land is preserved in a pictograph on a granite cliff in Treaty Rock Park. It is unclear whether they signed the rock as the initial contract or for later as a memorial. According to one source, Post Falls' treaty rock may be the only place in the United States where a contact with a native tribe was signed on rock.

Post Falls began to grow rapidly from the expansion of the lumber mills. Frederick Post built the areas first gristmill at Spokane Falls, but soon returned to Post Falls. Logs were transported to the mill by horse, water and later on the railroad and eventually the highway. After the mill burned down [when], the population shrank drastically. The Post Falls Dam site is positioned at the site of the old mill today. Post Falls used to provide irrigation to Spokane Valley and also electricity to the mining developments in the Silver Valley.

Treaty Rock was placed on the National Historic Register is 1992, representing the coming together of two cultures. This four acre plot offers paved trails and picnic areas. The site is located behind apartment complexes north of I-90 tucked away in the tall trees. Over the years the site has been struck by vandalism, so Plexiglas was placed on the face of the engraved rock to protect it. Cameras were installed to curb the vandalism and police officers continue to monitor the area.

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Tuberculosis was the most devastating disease of the 19th and 20th centuries. Isolation was the most effective public health intervention.

Tuberculosis was endemic in America in the 1800s and early 1900s. Known as consumption or "the White Plague," the disease killed thousands of people each year, and there was no cure. Tuberculosis Sanitariums such as Edgecliff were built to keep the infected separate from the general population while offering the afflicted what treatment and comfort they could.

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease of the lungs. Symptoms are fever, chills, night sweats, a loss of appetite, and severe coughing that could contain blood and mucous. People were encouraged to not carelessly cough, sneeze, or spit in public since the disease was highly contagious. Sanitariums were established across the nation to isolate and treat the sick. In 1915, Edgecliff Sanitarium opened its doors in Spokane Valley.

The hospital was located on a 12-acre campus that housed fifty-eight adults and thirty-five children when it first opened. Patients were treated with plenty of fresh air, sleep, wholesome food, and exercise--none of which actually cured the patient. Patients would end up staying for months in quiet environments, isolated from normal life. By 1940 Edgecliff housed 140 forty patients and included ambulatory cottages and a children's pavilion. By 1950 the sanatorium had increased its patient capacity to two-hundred beds.

With developments of effective antibiotics in the 1940s institutions such as Edgecliff soon were no longer needed. In 1975, the state withdrew funding and Edgecliff closed after sixty-three years. For a short time, the campus was used as an alcohol rehabilitation facility. In the early 1990's it was purchased by Park Place Retirement Community. After an extensive remodel the place opened as an independent living facility. In 1996 Brookdale Senior Living purchased the complex, which now houses two-hundred units.

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Saltese Cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in the valley. The name Saltese derives from the Coeur d'Alene Chief Andrew Seltice who sold this piece of land, known now as the Saltese Flats, to Daniel Courchaine in 1878. Burials began here as early as 1881 with the earliest birth date shown going all the way back to 1819. It is very likely that there were burials located here before 1881, but the graves would have been unmarked.

Daniel Courchaine is buried in the Saltese Cemetery. He built his home from lumber hauled in from the nearest mill in Walla Walla. The Courchaines were farmers, but their preferred interest was to raise cattle. Daniel donated land for the Saltese school to be built and was a founder of the Saltese Cemetery. He passed away after being kicked by a horse, but a monument was placed in front of the still standing house that he built, commemorating this early pioneer. Many of his descendants still live in Spokane Valley.

Cemeteries help us connect the present with the past. The weathered headstones offer a glimpse into pioneer life and migration into the Spokane Valley. This cemetery, however, is not neglected or forgotten. The Saltese Cemetery still stands today and continues to grow with the surrounding communities. Today the families of the Saltese Cemetery Association continue to maintain and improve the property. Saltese Cemetery is a pioneer cemetery which means that it is a burial place made available for individuals that participated in territorial expansion in the 18th through 20th centuries. Plots that are still available today are to only be sold to valley residents and their families so the burial sites can be cared for by the families. The cemetery features tall straw colored grass, sparsely laid pine trees, on an unlandscaped hillside with 19th century iron fencing still surrounding some of the older plots.

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