🏤 About Spokane

Spokane ( spoh-KAN) is a city in and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is located in eastern Washington state along the Spokane River adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, 92 miles (148 km) south of the Canada–U.S. border, 18 miles (30 km) west of the Washington–Idaho border, and 279 miles (449 km) east of Seattle along Interstate 90.

Spokane is the economic and cultural center of the Spokane metropolitan area, the Spokane–Coeur d’Alene combined statistical area, and the Inland Northwest. Known as the birthplace of Father’s Day, its official nickname is the “Lilac City”. A pink double flower cultivar of the common lilac, known as Syringa vulgaris ‘Spokane’, is named for the city. The city and the wider Inland Northwest area are served by Spokane International Airport, 5 miles (8 km) west of downtown Spokane. According to the 2010 Census, Spokane had a population of 208,916, making it the second-largest city in Washington, and the 100th-largest city in the United States. In 2019, the United States Census Bureau estimated the city’s population at 222,081 and the population of the Spokane Metropolitan Area at 573,493.

The first people to live in the area, the Spokane tribe (their name meaning “children of the sun” in Salishan), lived off plentiful game. David Thompson explored the area with the westward expansion and establishment of the North West Company’s Spokane House in 1810. This trading post was the first long-term European settlement in Washington. Completion of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1881 brought settlers to the Spokane area. The same year it was officially incorporated as a city under the name of Spokane Falls (it was reincorporated under its current name ten years later). In the late 19th century, gold and silver were discovered in the Inland Northwest. The local economy depended on mining, timber, and agriculture until the 1980s. Spokane hosted the first environmentally themed World’s Fair at Expo ’74.

Source: Spokane, Washington in Wikipedia