Spokane is known as a city in eastern Washington and seat of Spokane County, at falls of the Spokane River. Spokane is the second largest city in the state after Seattle. It is a commercial, manufacturing, transportation, and cultural center of a vast farming, mining, and lumbering area known as the Inland Northwest. The Inland Northwest is made up of eastern Washington, northern Idaho, western Montana, and northeastern Oregon.
Many of Spokane's industries are powered by hydroelectricity produced in the region. High technology and service companies have grown to be essential to the economy. Manufactures include aluminum, forest products, machinery, electrical and electronic equipment, processed food, plastic goods, and computer software. Fairchild Air Force Base is one of several areas’ largest employers. The city is a major rail center; commercial air service is through Spokane International Airport.
Spokane's educational institutions include Gonzaga University (1887), Whitworth College (1890), two community colleges, and a junior college. Nearby is Eastern Washington University (1882), in Cheney. Among the list of cultural attractions are the Cheney Cowles Museum, run by the Eastern Washington State Historical Society and including exhibits on the history of eastern Washington; the Museum of Native American Cultures, at Gonzaga University; and the Corbin Art Center, located in the former home of Daniel Chase Corbin, founder of the Coeur d'Alene Railroad and Navigation Company and the Spokane Falls and Northern Railroad.
The city boasts several mansions that were built in a period of economic prosperity around the beginning of the 20th century; the many architectural styles represented include colonial revival and California Mission. Riverfront Park, site of Expo '74, a global exposition on the environment, has an opera house and a convention center and serves as the city's centerpiece. Ten or twenty yards downstream are the holistic Riverside State Park, the site of Spokane House, the state's first trading post (1810). Annual Spokane events include the spring Lilac Festival and the Interstate Fair in early fall.
Native Americans long fished the falls of the Spokane River for salmon. White settlement developed around a mill on the river. The city, established as Spokane Falls, grew as grain and lumber mills replaced fur trading in the early 1870s. It became an important rail center in the early 1880s because of its location between the Rocky Mountains and the Cascade Range and between mining and farming areas, which made it a natural shipping center. The city furnished supplies to the miners who passed through on their way to mine in the Coeur d'Alene region. It incorporated as a city in 1881 and its name was shortened to Spokane in 1891 (for the Spokane Native United states citizens).
Much of the city was destroyed by fire in 1889; the still-standing Crescent Building is the sole structure to have survived it. The city was quickly rebuilt according to plans that allocated land for parks and other public venues. Spokane later benefited from the hydroelectricity produced at Grand Coulee Dam (completed 1942); its abundant and inexpensive power led to the establishment of aluminum plants in Spokane during World War II (1939-1945). Springing up from the late 1980s, Spokane and Spokane County experienced rise in population and employment. Construction in the city's downtown area included completion of a sports and entertainment complex.
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