50 years ago in Expo history: ‘Lush, green park’ is the desired seen for site following the end of the World’s Fair

The public “overwhelmingly favors a lush, green park with plenty of trees and quiet spots” for the proposed Riverfront Park after Expo ’74 closes.

The Spokane Park Board was briefed on a survey of public opinion about the Expo site, and besides lots of green space, people said they wanted to retain only two structures on the site: the U.S. Pavilion and the Boeing International Amphitheater. Some other structures, such as ticket booths, could be retained as shelters or “decorative buildings.” People also wanted to keep the Gondola Ride, but a study would need to show that it could support itself.

One on issue, people were almost unanimous: They were opposed to putting a new city hall in the park, as had been suggested.

From 100 years ago: Postal officials were pushing a plan to institute an air mail route between Elko, Nevada, and Pasco, Washington.

This would shave 48 hours off of mail delivery in Spokane, as well as other cities in the Northwest.

Why Elko?

Because it was one of the main stations on the already existing air mail route. A westbound plane from New York arrived at at Elko every day just after noon.

The Spokane postmaster said that an Elko to Pasco flight would enable mail leaving New York on Monday mornings be delivered in Spokane by Wednesday mornings. At that time, mail wasn’t arriving until early Friday .