July 4, 2023, was a fantastically radiant day in sunny Spokane, Washington. It was also a day off of work, and just happened to be the day before my 20th wedding anniversary. I decided to introduce my beautiful bride to some of my wonderful childhood memories by taking her on an adventure down the Little Spokane River. It was especially nice since the kids were staying with the grandparents for
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Installed in 1974, just in time for the World’s Fair Exposition in Spokane, Washington, this iconic structure has delighted children and adults visiting the Inland Northwest for generations—but it isn’t the canted pavilion that once marked the US presence at the fair, or the gondola across Spokane Falls that takes visitors so close they can feel the spray on their faces, or even the German beer garden facility that now
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Marcus and Narcissa Whitman were Christian missionaries who left their homes in upstate New York and traveled with another missionary couple, Henry and Eliza Spalding, to what was then called Oregon Country in 1836. Their mission? To “Christianize” Indians. In fact, Oregon wasn’t even a territory yet. The United States government didn’t have any programs in Oregon Country, which at the time consisted of the present-day states of Washington, Oregon,
Thanks to a web service called Juxtapose that provides the ability to compare before-and-after images, I’m now able to take photos of different places across Washington and compare them with historic photos taken over a hundred years ago in the exact same place.
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Visitors to eastern Washington often find themselves drawn to the rich viticultural tasting opportunities found in Walla Walla wine country. There are literally dozens of wineries, tasting rooms and wine bars dotting the historic downtown area. It’s a superb example of a rural agricultural community that has revitalized its downtown core through business and tourism development. And the best place to stay in Walla Walla, by far, is the Marcus Whitman Hotel. Your fearless field guide Erich Ebel escorts you through the historic halls and into the palatial parlor on this exclusive Washington Our Home tour.
Cemetery reading is not an easy task. Maggie Rail got her start in cemetery reading in her mid-sixties when she met Bud Engelhart who had completed a few cemeteries himself. At first, she exclaimed, “There is no way you will see me out in a cemetery doing that!” Then she would go on to do exactly that for about 20 years.
Steeped in history, the Marcus Whitman was originally built in 1927 and it was intended to be the biggest and best hotel in the area. Nearly a hundred years later, it’s not far off the mark.
With a name like “Fort Spokane” you would expect this 136-year-old former U.S Army installation to be somewhere in the vicinity of its namesake. Then again, a lot of things about Washington aren’t always as they seem.
The ability to entice visitors to your corner of Washington may lie in your area’s unique local history. Statistics show that more and more people are citing historical—whether it be natural, cultural or heritage tourism as the reason for their travel. You need to stay on the forefront of this emerging trend…but how? What is heritage tourism? The National Trust for Historic Preservation defines heritage tourism as “traveling to experience
A recent article by the Pacific Northwest Inlander calls into question whether or not Spokane pioneer and founding father, James Glover, is deserving of having a new plaza next to city hall named in his honor. Lisa Waananen Jones, who wrote the Inlander piece, “Facing History: The story that James Glover didn’t want you to know, and why it’s threatening his legacy,” did a competent job assembling the different parts