Nonfiction
644 Pages
ISBN: 0-910055-33-5
Cloth: $60.00 |
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This wide-ranging history of a mid-sized western American city chronicles the coming of white settlers and their exchanges with the Native Americans of the region. It documents the harnessing and exploitation of the Spokane River and its beautiful falls for energy to run mills and street lights, stores, and homes; and the impact of the railroads. Central to this distinguished, versatile author's narrative is the theme quoted by one of the key figures in Spokane's recent urban history, King Cole: "To me, the center of the city . . . just by geographical and psychological position, the center of the city is its heart . . ."
Thus, at the heart of this meticulously researched account, is the growth and decay of Spokane's inner city by the falls, as its economy ebbed and flowed, and the reclamation of the falls through the resounding success of Spokane's World's Fair-Expo '74.
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| J. William T. Youngs, award-winning historian and editor of Pacific Northwest Forum, headed the research staff who interviewed over 200 citizens and reviewed thousands of pages of records, in order to write this definitive history of Spokane, its people, and the first-ever Environmental World's Fair to be ratified by the Bureau of International Expositions in Paris. |
