In April of 1996, Spokane found itself in the national spotlight. "Sperm Bank Is For Whites Only -- Spokane Effort Reportedly Funded By Tycoon" blared a headline from the Associated Press. The story ran in newspapers across the country. The…

In the early 1990s, second-graders in Mrs. Sara Jane Aebly’s class at Windsor Elementary School discovered that Washington State did not have an official state fossil. Encouraged by their teacher, they decided to try to create one. After some…

In 1890, Alfred Thayer Mahan published his magnum opus, The Influence of Seapower Upon History. Thayer was a geopolitical strategist and an admiral in the United States navy, and he argued that throughout history great empires had flourished by…

This quiet street corner in Cheney was once the scene of two brutal murders. From 1881 until 1886, the frontier village of Cheney was also the seat of government for Spokane County. A wooden, two-story courthouse and plank jailhouse were the sum…

The tiny community of Valleyford has a story like many of the small towns of the Palouse. The area was first settled in the 1880s, and Valleyford was incorporated in 1906. The town enjoyed some decades of prosperity and growth before a combination…

Early Spokane was a town full of working men and working women. For laborers throughout the region the city was a refuge and a pleasuring ground. Miners, loggers, and agricultural workers would come to Spokane to spend their pay on liquor, gambling,…