I’m always happy to tell people about my hometown (the city I grew up in, that is)…Spokane, Washington. But first, a few things Spokane is NOT:
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It is not anywhere near Seattle. In fact, it’s nearly 300 miles east of Seattle, so if you hope to see the Space Needle, you have a long drive ahead of you. That’s OK, no need to rush…Spokane has plenty of other things for you to see.
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It is not the “poor stepsister” of cities in Western Washington. It is, in fact, a thriving economic and cultural center in its own right…the hub of a vast agricultural and mining region known as “The Inland Empire.”
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It isn’t rainy. Few outsiders realize this, but fully 3/4 of the state of Washington lies in the rain shadow of the Cascades, and sees little precipitation at all, outside of deep winter snows and the occasional summer thunder storm.
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It doesn’t rhyme with “cocaine.” The name of the city is pronounced “spoh-CAN.” More on the unusual spelling in a bit.
The city of Spokane lies in a beautiful river valley near the foothills of the Bitterroot Mountains, about 30 miles from the Washington/Idaho border. Its namesake river rises from Lake Coeur d’Alene in Northern Idaho and breaks into a magnificent waterfall as it passes through downtown Spokane en route to its meeting with the mighty Columbia. Originally, the valley was part of the territory of a peaceful Native American people who called themselves “Spokan-ee”: The Children of the Sun. The first white settlers were a pair of outlaws who encountered the valley as they were fleeing the law with a band of ill-gotten horses. They decided to give up a life of crime and built a cabin and a sawmill on the banks of the river near the falls. Gradually a town named Spokan Falls grew up around the sawmill, made up mostly of lumberers and fur trappers. The Spokan-ee were evidently unbothered by this turn of events, as they never tried to reclaim the valley, and, in fact, remained on good terms with the settlers.
Spokane might have faded eventually into a ghost town if it hadn’t been for the coming of the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern railroads. All of a sudden, the little town became a boomtown, as cattle and tree fruit flowed in from the Yakima and Wenatchee Valleys, along with wheat and legumes from the Palouse, lumber from the mountains, and, most financially significant, silver from Northern Idaho. Fortunes were made virtually overnight, and you can still visit the magnificent Victorian mansions the newly rich city fathers built on Spokane’s still wealthy South Hill and in the formerly upscale Browns Addition.
In the late 1800s, tragedy nearly destroyed the newly bustling city when a fire (ostensibly caused by one of the local ladies of the evening, who left her curling iron unattended while entertaining a client…though that may be more legend than fact) turned the entire central district to ashes. Two good things arose from from those ashes, however…the first was a waffle tent set up the very next morning by an enterprising French immigrant named Louis Davenport, which grew to become Spokane’s first and most elegant “grand hotel.” The second was a grid system for the newly constructed city streets, which makes it possible for just about anybody to navigate the city with ease (the first of its type in the Northwest).
Around the same time, one of the city leaders proposed changing the name of the city from “Spokan Falls” to “Spokan-ee,” to honor the people whose peaceful acceptance of settlers on their land had made the city’s growth possible. Unfortunately, a clerk charged with making the change official misunderstood…told to "drop the word “Falls” from the name and to add “ee” to “Spokan,” he wrote the name “Spokane”…and Spokanites have been correcting outsiders’ pronunciation of our city’s name ever since! Even the
Spokan-ee bowed to the inevitable, and are now known as the Spokane Tribe. A warning to all…details do matter!
Another city father left the city a more pleasant legacy. He greatly missed the lilacs of his native Midwest, and got a law passed requiring every property owner in the city to plant at least one lilac bush. The law has long-since been off the books, but the lilacs remain, and turn the city’s air to pure ambrosia every spring. A huge, city-wide festival heralds their blooming every May, and Spokanites are proud to tell people that we live in “The Lilac City.” To this day, the faintest scent of lilac takes me right back to my childhood.
In 1974, Spokane played host to a Word’s Fair: Expo '74. Expo established a lot of “firsts”: It was the first American World’s Fair to be held in a downtown area (Seattle Center is downtown now, but it wasn’t in the 1960s, when the fair was held…rather, downtown has grown to encompass it). It was the first World’s Fair to be held on an island (Havermale Island, in the middle of the Spokane River). It was the first World’s Fair with an environmental theme. Most important, it was the saving grace of downtown Spokane at a time when most medium-sized cities were seeing their central business districts disintegrate in favor of suburban shopping malls. The buildings received a much-needed facelift, new shops and department stores were attracted by the hoards of visitors and stayed to serve eager inhabitants, and an extensive “skywalk” system (second largest in the country) was built so that downtown shoppers could browse in comfort, despite summer’s heat or winter’s snow and ice. Expo’s remaining legacy (aside from the vital downtown shopping area) is Riverfront Park: Nearly 100 acres of green space, featuring two outdoor stages (one of which floats right on the river), a small carnival, a weekly farmer’s market, a gondola ride nearly within touching distance of the falls and an gorgeous antique Looff carousel (the only one still operating that was hand carved by the master himself and not delegated to an apprentice…a gift to his daughter, who married a Spokanite). Every summer Riverfront Park hosts free concerts, street dances, festivals and arts fairs, drawing residents and visitors alike to downtown Spokane.
Another great thing that happened in the 1970s was the establishment of Washington’s wine-growing industry. Most enophiles know that Washington has one of America’s premier wine-growing regions, but many don’t realize that all of the grapes and most of the wineries are in Central and Eastern Washington (again, nowhere near Seattle). There are several superb wineries either in or a short drive from Spokane, and they are particularly noted for their fine oak-aged Chardonnays and rich Merlots. If you’re into wine, forget the Space Needle and focus on Worden and Arbor Crest!
Most people blow past Spokane on I-90 without a thought for what they may be missing. For example, did you know that Spokane has one of the most extensive botanical gardens in the Northwest? To my mind, Manito Park is second only to Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC (and unlike Butchart, Manito is free). You can wander through the ethereal Italian formal garden, browse the extensive conservatory, stroll around the English-style rose hill, meditate in the Japanese Garden (a gift from our sister city of Nishinomiya, Japan) and view the newest varieties in the Lilac and Peony test gardens without spending a dime! Just down the hill from Manito is the Northwest’s only authentic Norman Gothic-styled building: St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral. St. John’s dominates the Spokane skyline, and is a favorite retreat from the summer’s heat (free tours are offered daily). The cathedral’s rose window is one of the city’s finest art treasures. On the northern side of the city, you can shoot the rapids of the Spokane River at Riverside State Park, then drive up to the old fur trading post at Spokane House to view petroglyphs made by the prehistoric ancestors of the Spokan-ee. Who needs big pointy buildings when you have all that at your disposal? Oh, and don’t forget the Museum of Native American Cultures…one of the finest collections of Native American arts and artifacts anywhere.
If you happen to find yourself in Spokane on the first Saturday in May, don’t miss the nation’s second largest fun run: The annual Lilac Bloomsday Road Race. Just about everyone who can walk or run participates in this rolling, grueling 12K party (which also attracts most of the running world’s top seeds), and that Bloomsday T-shirt will get you into a lot of fun, including parties, half-price dinners and free beer! Don’t try to buy one, by the way…a Bloomsday T-shirt has to be earned, and anyone who has finished the race would sooner sell you his right arm! By the way, the race DID used to take place on Bloomsday (the founder was a Joyce fan), but was later moved to correspond with the annual Lilac Festival…hence the name.
Another thing I love about my city is its four distinct seasons. Hot, dry summers give way to gloriously colored autumns, snowy winters and breezy, lilac-scented springs. Summer there is the time for tubing or rafting the river, water skiing at one of the 70 or so lakes that dot the region or relaxing with a cold drink at an outdoor concert. Fall is for hiking or horseback riding through stands of Ponderosa Pine and red and gold maples. Winter brings snow skiing and snowmobile rides to “snow picnics” (outdoor chili feeds around a roaring bonfire). Spring brings people out in droves to fly kites, jog along the river in preparation for Bloomsday, and smell the flowers.
I guess you can tell I’m passionate about the city that nurtured me for the first 22 years of my life. Various circumstances have taken me elsewhere for many years. I still get a lump in my throat, however, every time I drive over the ridge on I-90 and see my city sitting like a jewel in its river valley. I wish others would take the time to know it and love it as I do.
So, next time you happen to find yourself speeding along I-90 in Eastern Washington, don’t just grit your teeth and fix your sights on making it to Seattle. Stop a while. Take time to browse the shops and restaurants in Spokane’s downtown (if you’re a vegetarian, let me tell you now…Mizuna’s on Howard Street downtown is the equal of Millenium, and blows Seattle’s Café Flora right out of the water!). Take in a concert in Riverfront Park. Walk through our gardens, raft our river, tour our wineries, marvel at ancient Native American artwork. Taste a Washington apple the likes of which will never be seen in any supermarket at our Farmer’s Market, and feel Eastern Washington start to seep into your soul. Washington is much, much more than Seattle and environs…and we’d love to share it with you. If you happen to be there in July, you might even see me…my body lives in California, but my relatives and a part of my soul will always live in Spokane. 
The thing is, though, that the whole “Peach” thing, is actually a big misunderstanding. You see, round or about 1821 or so there was a deal made not far from where I am sitting right now. The Creek Indians gave over a lot of land to the American Government at the standing Pitch Tree which was actually a kind of pine tree. Well, “Pitch” pretty much became “Peach” and there you have it. Now we have 57 different “Peachtree” streets, roads, avenues, blablabla… in Atlanta with nary a Peach Tree alongside any of 'em.
how true, Lizzie!