Expo 74 and Riverfront Park

Welcome to Riverfront Park, a beautiful stretch of land and river located in downtown Spokane. This hundred acre park sprawls across two islands and both shorelines, providing visitors with breathtaking views of both upper and lower Spokane Falls. But this natural oasis was once a tangled mess of steel and concrete. It was home to several railroad companies, whose unsightly tresses hid the river from view. In the 1960's, a determined group of citizens conceived to clean up the river and reclaim the falls by bringing a World's Fair to Spokane. In 1974, that unlikely vision became a reality as Spokane welcomed the citizens of the world to the inland northwest for Expo 74. The fair would eventually come to an end, but when it did Spokane was left with Riverfront Park, something to be enjoyed for decades to come. This tour tells the story of Expo 74, and how Spokane was able to reclaim its most captivating feature, the falls.