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Spokane
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The wide-open spaces and drab little towns of eastern Washington don't prepare you for
SPOKANE
("spo-CAN"). A few miles from the Idaho border, it's the region's only real city, and its scattering of grandiose late-nineteenth-century buildings - built on the spoils of Idaho silver mines - sport some unexpectedly elegant touches.
The town's nexus is the hundred-acre Riverfront Park , sprawling over two islands in the middle of the Spokane River. Originally planned by Frederick Olmsted of Central Park fame, the park was not laid out as specified until just before Spokane hosted the 1974 World's Fair. Bisecting the park, the river tumbles down a series of rocky shelves known as the Spokane Falls , once a fishing site for native peoples and later the home of the first pioneers. Attractions include an ice-skating rink which shares space with the IMAX theater, the charming hand-carved Looff Carousel , and the Gondola Skyride cable cars (summer Sun-Thurs 11am-8pm, Fri & Sat 11am-10pm; $4.75) which run above the falls from the west end of the park.
Most of the relics of Spokane's early grandeur can be found several blocks southwest on W Riverside Avenue, where neoclassical facades cluster around Jefferson Street. The city's nineteenth-century highlights include the
Davenport Hotel
, the
Clark Mansion
, and the Tudor Revival
Campbell House
(Tues-Sun 10am-5pm, Sun opens at 1pm; $4), part of the
Cheney Cowles Museum
at 2316 W First Ave (
), a regional history museum holding an impressive collection of artifacts. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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United States,
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