By the late 1800’s, the frontier was gone and the West was dealing with what they called the "Indian problem." One of their solutions was the Indian Boarding School.

By the late 1800’s, the American government had run out places to put American Indians. The frontier was gone, and native people had been forced onto reservations. But soon enough, land-hungry whites began demanding even the reservations. What would become of the inhabitants? White reformers called this the “Indian problem” and boarding schools were thought to be an answer.

In his annual report to the War Department in 1891, Brigadier General A.V. Kautz, told of the “repeated troubles between Indians and white settlers” in the area. The Indians in “that section,” he said, “are unprovided with an agent and seem to have no one to look for aid or counsel.” Kautz soon reported the following warning to his supervisors: “In the near future a great increase in the number of settlers will succeed the building of the Great Northern Railroad, and trouble will follow unless some provision is made in anticipation.”

With the soldiers now gone from Fort Spokane following the Spanish American war, it became “the purpose of the government to establish the Indian agency and a large Indian school in the abandoned quarters and barracks” according to an 1889 article in the Spokesman-Review. The Fort Spokane Boarding School opened in 1900 and remained open officially until 1914. In a matter of a decade, “drill grounds became playgrounds” and the “Indian problem,” was thought to be well on its way to being subdued. But what was daily life really like for these children?

One native woman recalled a similar school: “Everything happened by bells, ‘triangles’ they were called. A triangle would ring in the morning and we would all run, line up, march in, get our little quota of tooth power, wash our teeth, brush our hair, wash our hands and faces, and then we all lined up and marched outside. Whether it was raining, snowing or blowing, we all went outside and did what was called ‘setting up exercises’ for twenty minutes.".

Uniformity was key to the success of boarding schools. Children were given a strict regimen of work, school and little else. At Fort Spokane, children also sustained the school itself; harvesting a garden, making clothing, repairing sheets and curtains, and working in the kitchen. Just a few years after the school opened, “the appearance of the old fort had begun to change. A community building was being remodeled for an assembly and auditorium, like those in public schools.”

One student at Fort Spokane, Lulu O’Hara, a Spokane Indian who attended the school around 1906 recalled that “everyone stood behind his place until a bell was rung for them to sit down. There was also a bell for grace and a bell for everyone to turn his plate over at the same time. If anyone misbehaved, at a table, they had to sit all by themselves, at a small table at the end of the room for all to see.”

Boarding school life was a sharp contrast to the traditional native childhood that Lulu was used to at home with her family in the Spokane tribe. At home, discipline and punishment were a collective experience for children, usually carried out by the child’s grandparents, not a stranger. If a child misbehaved in the tribe, all children as a group were punished together. Rarely were children ever hit, verbally abused or publicly shamed. Education was found every day working alongside relatives and performing the daily tasks of living and survival.

After the closing of the Fort Spokane Boarding school in 1914, children returned to their homes on the reservation where they attended what were called “day schools.” In 1960, the National Park Service took over the site where the Fort Spokane Boarding School once ran. There are four original buildings including a stable from 1884 and a guard house dating back to 1892 that remain on the site and are preserved as part of the Park Service’s Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area (Wikipedia, Fort Spokane). Additional stories of the Fort Spokane Boarding school can be found at an exhibit in the park.

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Before the Spanish-American War, soldiers stationed at Fort Spokane relied on one man to lift their spirits; a German brewer who made the Fort his home.

Just a few decades before the prohibition of alcohol, soldiers stationed at Fort Spokane were thirsty for libations and one man, Bernard Bockemeuhl, decided to take on the job. To the lonely, isolated soldiers stationed at Fort Spokane during the Spanish-American war, he must have been a welcome addition.

Bernard Bockemuehl was an industrious brewer from Germany who made a name for himself in a large brewery in Milwaukee. In the late 1870s, he moved to Eastern Washington and opened a successful brewery in the rich fertile region of the Palouse. The Bockemuehl Brewery of Rockford, Washington Territory was ”a business that proved so successful” he was soon offered “any location in Spokane Falls” to open a new brewery. Bockemuehl told his wife, he wanted “to locate where the soldiers were,” so they packed up and moved north to Fort Spokane.

Alongside his family, Bernard secured a piece of farm property in Miles, Washington, near the military base at Fort Spokane. He called it the The Fort Spokane Brewery and until the Fort closed in 1898, Bockemuehl was the primary supplier of alcohol for troops who were stationed there

The brewer constructed several buildings on the site, a few of which are still standing today. In those days, “there was a law that you couldn’t bottle in the same building you made the beer.” So, the brewer built a “bottling department across the road and closer to the house." There was also a malt house, a kiln and a granary, where Bockemuehl kept the beloved “blue barley” he used for his beers. Foundation marks can still be found where the brewery once stood.

Bockemuehl found many creative ways to get beer to the troops. There was a tunnel dug 100 feet deep into a hillside to store kegs. He even had “a sled carved for himself so he wouldn’t have to walk down to the brewery.” He would just “step out the front door, get on his own personal sled and coast down the hill.” Later, “one of the brewery hands” would “pull the sled back up the hill." The industrious brewer even taught his horse, Coaley, to deliver beer without a driver. The horse would “pull the buckboard to Ft. Spokane. The soldiers would unload it, and Coaley would turn around and bring the empty buckboards back to Granddad."

The fort closed in 1898 and with its closure, the soldiers left. The brewery remained afloat until 1906 when a fire destroyed the building. Bockemuehl never rebuilt and died just two years later.

In 1988, over 100 years after the Bockemuehl rode his sled down the hill to bring beer to the soldiers, his great-grandson helped open the Fort Spokane Brewery in Downtown Spokane. The brewery operated until 2000 when business got tough. The brewery was located at 401 West Spokane Falls Boulevard, in a building that has since been demolished.

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As Kettle Falls, a popular Native American fishing and gathering spot slipped slipped below the surface of Lake Roosevelt, Indians gathered for one final ceremony.

For centuries, Kettle Falls was a fishing spot and a gathering place. When Grand Coulee Dam began construction in 1933, thousands of years of history and tradition suddenly changed. By 1940, the waters of Lake Roosevelt began to rise, slowly covering the falls, taking with it centuries of history. Losses included native burial sites and entire communities. But most of all, the dam that swallowed Kettle Falls also took away the salmon. A final ceremony was held at Kettle Falls in 1940.

As many as 10, 000 people attended the ceremony including Indians from all over the Pacific Northwest. Colvilles, Tulalips, the Blackfeet Indians of Montana, the Nez Perces, Yakimas, Flatheads (and) Coeur d’Alenes. They all understood it was the end of a 10,000 year era. Together, they gathered alongside white politicians, spectators and media.; They called it The Ceremony of Tears.

Proponents of Grand Coulee Dam were also in attendance including U.S. Senator Homer Bone, a dam proponent who tried to minimize the impact on local tribes:

"The Indians have fished here for thousands of years.," Bone pronounced. "They love this spot above all others on their reservation because it is a source both of food and beauty. We should see to it that the electricity which the great dam at Grand Coulee produces shall be delivered to all the people without profit, so that the Indians of future generations, as well as the white men, will find the change made here a great benefit to the people."

Compensation to the tribes was disputed for decades. In 1994, the Colville Confederated Tribes won a lawsuit totaling 53 million dollars. In addition, 15 million annually was awarded from 1996 onward.

Today the Upper Columbia United Tribes (UCUT), a coalition of five tribes, is fighting for the restoration of salmon on the upper Columbia. Other organizations, such as Save Our Wild Salmon, are working to eliminate dams in the lower Snake River in Idaho and other places along the Columbia River. Advocates point to the removal of the Elwha River dam in Washington State in 2012, which resulted in the return of salmon in huge numbers. The fishery at Kettle Falls is gone for now, but it may not be gone for good.

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It was the "crown jewel" of a small town that had burned to the ground just one year before...

In 1878 just fifty-four citizens called Spokane home, including two young entrepreneurs who would leave a mark on the city. John Browne and Anthony Cannon made great fortunes in real estate and business and became Spokane's first millionaires. In 1889 they began construction on the magnificent Auditorium Theater, which would become the center of Spokane's civic and cultural life.

Located on the corner of Main and Post, where present day Riverpark Square now stands, the Auditorium Theater was still under construction when the Fire of 1889 left Spokane's central business district in ruins. When construction was complete in 1890, the immaculate five story red brick building became one of the finest theaters west of the Mississippi. Before construction began, Cannon and Browne visited Chicago to see what was then the largest theater in the country, the Chicago Auditorium. To rival Chicago, builders were instructed to go "one foot wider and one foot deeper" on the Spokane Auditorium. From 1890 until the construction of the Hippodrome Theater in New York in 1914, the Auditorium in Spokane was the largest theater in America.

No expense was spared in the construction. Granite was taken from the base of Mt. Spokane to complete the foundation. Inside, were 17 dressing rooms and a "box office vestibule (lit) by stained glass windows." Atop the building stood a large gold-plated statue of Thalia, Goddess of Music. The Auditorium drew acts from all over the world. Sarah Bernhardt, Alma Gluck, Anna Held and Al Jolson, performed on the stage. Jolson appeared in 1917 while a young Bing Crosby watched from his seat.

Several factors contributed to the demise of the Auditorium Theater. Browne and Cannon went bankrupt, World War I and the Great Depression happened, and the rise of motion pictures overshadowed the glory days of the live theater. In 1934, the building was sold and the new owners promptly had it razed. In its place stands a Payless Drug Store.

The "world's largest stage" remained a fond memory for many Spokanites who were alive to experience it during its time. Old Bill Wallace, who once managed the theater came by to see the "old stage ripped apart" on that fateful day in 1934. Unable to watch any longer, Old Bill simply "walked away" and "let her go."

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"The little theater charms and satisfies and makes an attractive addition to Spokane's Playhouse Row" (Spokesman-Review, 11 May 1924).

As motion pictures replaced stage shows in the 1920's, Spokane's Playhouse Row along Main Street saw the need to move forward with the times as well. One of the earliest film theaters to arrive in Spokane was The Ritz, built in 1924 by local architect J.W. Allender. For nearly a century, The Ritz theater was a "Main Avenue fixture" along the Falls City Block.

Theater was always a big deal in Spokane. Before the prohibition of alcohol in 1916, the local bar scene included risque, burlesque style theater. There were 11 live theaters between 1880 and 1889. By 1910, Spokane was ranked nationally as the most "show conscious community west of Chicago." When motion picture theater was introduced in the 1920's, The Ritz Theater played a very important role in bringing Spokane to a new era of entertainment.

The Spokesman-Review praised The Ritz as a "little theater (that) charms and satisfies and makes an attractive addition to Spokane's Playhouse Row." Indeed, the little theater was quite beautiful in its period details and Italian Renaissance-style architecture.

Like many early theaters, The Ritz suffered from complaints regarding its selection of films. In 1950, the film "Street Corners" caused such a stir that it was banned by the city's censor board on the grounds that it was "objectionable from the standpoint of it's psychological reaction among the general public." Walt Hefer, who ran the establishment as Cinema 66 in the 1960's contended with similar complaints from the public. He discovered he had to run "sleazier and sleazier" films just to make ends meet.

After nearly a century of new owners, including Walt Hefer, who reopened the theater in 1962 as Cinema 63 and the efforts of conservationists, the old Ritz Theater has been carefully preserved. In 2003, it was added to the National Register of Historic places and is now an important addition to the historic East Downtown neighborhood of Spokane.

It was a choice he had to make and one that kept his little theater in business until the present owners of Rocky Rococo turned it into a pizza parlor. You can still find remnants of the old theater virtually everywhere you look in the building today.

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In the 1970's the City Corporation Council warned Spokane to "clean up its ordinance" after receiving complaints from church groups that the old drive-in theater at the Y was playing pornographic films.

In 1952, Spokane opened its fourth drive-in movie theater at the North Division Y. It was just a few years after the first drive-in on East Sprague opened in 1949. In the 1950's business was good for drive-ins. At theaters like the Y, theater owners could cram up to 700 paying customers for each film.

The drive-in theater was the perfect past time for 1950's Americans, who were equally obsessed with automobiles and film. By 1960 there were more than 5,000 drive-ins in the United States. Notable films that played at The North Division Y Drive-In over the years included "Country Girl" with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly, "Heller in Pink Tights" with Sophia Loren. Attendance began to drop later that decade, with the rise of television and other competing entertainments.

Theater owners often tried to boost attendance with racy fare, and the drive-in at the Y soon had a reputation for specializing in movies such as "Atom Age Vampire" and "Sex Kittens Go to College."

Spokane City Councilwoman Marilyn M. Stanton referred to the drive-in as "the hottest place in town," and noted that many teenagers planted themselves on a nearby hillside to watch the racy films. Stanton lobbied to ban the films but little was done, aside from a warning issued by the City Corporation Council asking Spokane to "clean up its ordinance."

When church-sponsored court charges were brought against the theater for "corrupting the moral fiber of the youth," commission members shot it down. They had "no legal power to stop the films."

The drive-in theater as an American Institution eventually went "the way of the silent film" by the 1990s. Spokane's last drive-in closed in 1994.

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The rude frontier hamlet of Spokane experienced its first taste of the nightlife in 1887 when the Falls City Opera house opened at 706 West Main Street. Spokane's "first and only theater" was open to all. Its crowds were a mixture of upper-class citizens in their evening attire and lower class citizens looking for a night out. At the time, the Opera House served as the cultural epicenter of the little city by the falls.

D.H. Dwight constructed the building making it not only Spokane's first theater but the city's first building over three stories tall. Bonne's grocery occupied the first floor while the upper floors became the theater. The Opera House could comfortably contain 800 people and, in at least one production, a live horse.

Notable plays and operas included The Bohemian Girl starring Emma Abbot, The Poor Relation, Peaceful Valley, and early production of Ben Hur. Even Shakespearean actors made their way to Spokane with a remake of The Chimes of Normandy, which "filled the theater with its operatic strains."

The drama was short-lived, however. In 1889, just two years after opening its doors, the great fire claimed the building along with an estimated 300 other buildings in the area. The manager of the opera house, Harry Hayward, was determined to recover what he had lost. With the city still smoldering, Hayward paired up with local entrepreneurs A.M Cannon and J.J. Browne to become the first manager of the Auditorium Theater, which was the largest of its kind in the country. For this small town, despite the devastating fire, "the joints" were still "jumping" and the "theaters filled."

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