History of Spokane, WA

=1810-1826: Fur trading post=

The first European settlement in the Spokane area was a fur trading post operated by the British North West Company and, later, the Hudson's Bay Company. Known as "Spokane House", or just "Spokane", it was located on the Spokane River near its confluence with the Little Spokane, roughly a mile below Nine Mile Falls (which, in turn, is approximately nine miles downstream from today's downtown Spokane), and was in operation from 1810-1826. [cite book |last= Phillips |first= James W. |title= Washington State Place Names |year= 1971 |publisher= University of Washington Press |isbn= 0-295-95158-3 |pages= p. 135] After the North West Company was absorbed into the Hudson's Bay Company the operations at Spokane House were shifted to Fort Colville, although the Company remained active in the Spokane region. [cite book |last= Meinig |first= D.W. |authorlink= D.W. Meinig |title= The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History, Volume 2: Continental America, 1800-1867 |year= 1993 |publisher= Yale University Press |isbn= 0-300-05658-3 |pages= p. 69]

1870-1890: Creation & Expansion

In 1873 James N. Glover bought the Spokane Falls area for $1600 from two men who lived there, Seth Scranton and JJ Downing. He built a sawmill, and invited settlers from Oregon to join him, though without much success. In 1877 soldiers that were fighting a war against the Nez Perce Indians spent the winter in Spokane. They built Fort Coeur d’Alene, and Glover sold food and goods to the soldiers. The presence of soldiers encouraged families to move to Spokane, expanding its population.

Growth of Spokane exploded in 1881 when The Northern Pacific Railroad reached the settlement. The small population increased rapidly, streets were built, and the small settlement became a city. Spokane won the county seat from Cheney in 1886 elections.

In the late 1880’s and early 1890’s mining emerged as a major stimulus to Spokane. The city served as a popular outfitting and jumping off point for miners. Just after the turn of the century mining declined and agriculture and logging replaced mining as the primary influence in the economic development of Spokane. The city became noted for processing and distributing dairy and orchard products and for producing products milled from timber. By the early twentieth century Spokane was primarily a commercial center rather than an industrial center. [Kensel, W. Hudson. "Inland Empire Mining and the Growth of Spokane, 1883-1905," Pacific Northwestern Quarterly, April 1969.]

The Great Fire

In the summer of 1889, a fire destroyed the city's downtown commercial district. Due to technical problems with a pump station, there was no water pressure in the city when the fire started. When volunteer fire fighters attempted to quench the flames, they found their hoses were unusable. Eventually winds died down and the fire exhausted of its own accord. 27 blocks of Spokane's downtown were destroyed.

1890-1980

Great Northern Railway

While the damage caused by the fire was a devastating blow, Spokane continued to grow. Just three years after the fire, in 1892, the Great Northern railroad reached Spokane and built a rail yard that made Spokane a transportation hub for the area. The first rail yard, built by James J. Hill, was completed in 1902. The clocktower currently in Riverfront Park was built as part of the depot and is one of the biggest in the northwest, with each side measuring 9 feet (2.7 m) across. The clocktower is the only part of the depot that remains to this day.

Free speech fight

In 1909, a free speech fight was conducted in Spokane by the "Wobblies," or working class members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). At the time, "job sharks" charged a fee for signing up workers in the logging camps. Employment agencies were known to cheat itinerant workers, with bribes sometimes paid to periodically fire entire work crews, generating repetitive fees. The IWW launched a campaign with the slogan "Don't Buy Jobs." The agencies countered by pressuring the city council to pass an ordinance against street speaking. When religious organizations obtained an exemption from the ordinance, the IWW initiated a free speech fight. In one day 150 men were arrested and crowded into Spokane jails. More IWW members soon arrived, and within a few weeks the jails were overflowing. Among those jailed was feminist labor leader Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. The Western Federation of Miners called a boycott of all goods from Spokane to support the struggle, and taxpayers began to protest the cost of feeding the men. The city council repealed the ordinance.A History of American Labor, Joseph G. Rayback, 1966, page 244.

1974 World's Fair

Spokane hosted the environmentally themed Expo '74, becoming the then-smallest city to ever host a World's Fair. This event transformed Spokane's downtown, removing a century of railroad industry that built the city and reinventing the urban core.

Many of the structures built for the World's Fair are still standing and in use. The United States Pavilion now houses an IMAX theater, and the Washington State Pavilion became the Inland Northwest Bank Performing Arts Center. The Expo site itself became the 100-acre (400,000 m²) Riverfront Park, containing, among other features, the U.S. Pavilion, the turn-of-the-20th-century (and meticulously preserved) Looff Carousel, and the Great Northern Railway clock tower, the last remnant of the vast rail depot that was demolished for Expo '74. The U.S. Pavilion and the clock tower are prominently featured in the park's logo.

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