Spokane City Council considers formal acknowledgment of Native American land

Once the lifeblood of indigenous people, the rushing waters of the nearby Spokane Falls are audible to anyone standing just outside the Spokane City Council’s chambers.

Section:Gallery

Sun., March 14, 2021

Spokane Falls, Spokane, Washington 1878

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Spokane Falls in 1881. Echo Mill is under construction at left. For many years Spokane falls was the heart of the city of Spokane, both geographically and economically. The falls were first recorded in Spring in Volume XII of the Pacific Railway explorations by Isaac I. Stevens, first governor of the territory. The falls were first put to use by two former livestock traders, J.J. Downing and L.R. Scranton, who built a mill on the south side of the river. In 1885 George A. Fitch set up an electric generating station in the basement of one of the many mills that dotted the falls. With the origin of WWP in 1889, the falls began to provide more and more electric power for the city. At one time, when the Monroe street plant was the largest in the west, the whole of Spokane received electric service from one plant.

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This is a 1907 photo of the Spokane River Lower Falls. View is looking to the west with downtown Spokane on the left. The Cascade Steam laundry is the prominent structure on the north bank of the river. Cascade was established in Spokane in 1890.

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This June 1914 photo from the King Collection in the Spokesman-Review archives shows the industrial skyline of early 20th-century Spokane, where buildings clustered around the falls and the Washington Water Power generating plant. From the Monroe St. bridge, one can see the lower falls of the Spokane River coming over a level, manmade spillway that symbolizes man's ever-present need to harness the waters of the region to produce power. Early settlers were focused on powering lumber and flour mills, but from the early 1880s, entrepreneurs were experimenting with Thomas Edison's invention, the generator, driven by water power. Because of the flowing water, Spokane was one of the first cities in the northwest with electric streetlights. In 1890, a year after a fire destroyed much of downtown Spokane, a new company called Washington Water Power completed the Monroe Street Project, which formed the level spillway and a generation plant along the river. Soon, the waters of the river were powering mines in the Silver Valley, streetcars to outlying neighborhoods and an amusement center, new in 1895, called Natatorium Park. WWP went on to build several more dams around the region, including Post Falls. The company changed its name to Avista in 1998.

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1953 photo of the Spokane River.

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This picture was taken at a picnic of Methodist ministers in 1884 while they were in conference in Spokane. The picnic was held just below where the Monroe Street bridge now stands. The Post Street bridge may be seen in the background.

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