Lilac City Wanderers of Spokane

05/28/2026

❤️Still our favorite view of Spokane.

05/24/2026

~FOR THE PIONEERS OF SPOKANE~
This Memorial Day weekend we’re wandering a little slower on purpose, in memory of the pioneers of Spokane Washington.
Before there were sidewalks, there were the Spokanes — “Children of the Sun” — who fished these falls for centuries and welcomed other tribes here for salmon, trade, games, and celebration. When the Spokane Reservation was set aside in 1881, and dams built from 1908 changed the river, their salmon life was altered forever, but their name stayed on the city.
Then came the ones who saw potential in the roar. Fur trader David Thompson explored the upper Columbia starting in 1807, and in 1810 his North West Company built Spokane House near the Little Spokane — the first long-term non-Native settlement in Washington.
In 1873 James N. Glover bought a little sawmill claim and quietly became known as the “Father of Spokane.” With Anthony M. Cannon, our first banker, and John J. Browne, our first lawyer, they platted streets, opened stores, and bet everything on a town at the falls.
They weren’t alone, and they weren’t all the same. In the 1880s John Bryon Parker and his wife Adella opened Spokane’s first Black-owned barbershop, and Peter B. Barrow helped found Calvary Baptist Church. Finnish families made Peaceful Valley home. Chinese merchants ran laundries downtown, Italian stonemasons helped lay the brick that rebuilt after the fire, and German, Chinese, and Italian neighbors built enclaves the city histories still note.
May Arkwright Hutton — miner, suffragist, loud and unapologetic — fought for the vote, and Washington women won it in 1910.
On August 4, 1889 the Great Fire erased 32 blocks in one night. The pioneers didn’t leave. They pitched tents, reopened shops the next morning, and rebuilt in brick and stone. That stubborn hope is why we still walk the brick downtown they left us, and later landmarks like the 1895 Flour Mill and the 1914 Davenport Hotel.
Every Lilac City walk follows their footprints:
• The Centennial Trail follows the river corridor used for centuries, a route that grew from ancient Indigenous heritage.
• Browne’s Addition is literally named for John Browne, platted from his 1880s homestead.
• The lilacs at Manito were planted in the early 1900s and championed by women’s clubs who believed a frontier town deserved beauty.
🥾So this Memorial Day, if you’re out and about, take a minute to really see this beautiful city our pioneers built. Pause at the falls the way they first did. And most important, stop and smell the lilacs.

05/24/2026

🥾Our adventures took us West today towards Davenport WA and Lake Roosevelt natural recreation area.… Here’s a monument that we stopped at along the way
The Battle of Spokane Plains — September 5, 1858
Sign Reads: In 1858, war came to the homeland of the Spokane people. The tranquility of 10,000 years was ended near where you now stand. The opening of the Oregon Trail brought immigrant cohesion from across the United States onto the land where the Spokane Indians had lived as semi-nomadic indigenous people since time immemorial. Spokane people had two choices: take up arms to defend their land, resource, and children, and way of life, or allow the immigrants to take everything without a fight. The first battle was on May 17th, 1858, 50 miles south of here at a place which came to be known as Steptoe Butte or Pine Creek—known by the Nez Perce military scouts as Te-Hoto-Nim-Me, and to the Coeur d'Alenes as Neqotemqn. Following a daylong battle, approximately 160 U.S. Army soldiers on patrol under the command of Lieutenant Colonel [Edward] Steptoe were surrounded on a hilltop by united Spokane, Palouse, Yakima, and Coeur d'Alene warriors. Influenced by Catholic Priest Joseph Joset, the Council of Allies forces allowed the soldiers to escape in the night, abandoning most of their supplies and retreating under the cover of darkness. Embarrassed by the defeat, the U.S. Army sent a retaliatory force of nearly 1,000 men under the command of Colonel George Wright. He had orders to, "attack all the hostile Indians you meet, with vigor, make their punishment severe and persevere until the submission of all is complete and permanent."On September 1st, six miles north of here, allied tribal warriors fought against Wright's forces at the Battle of Four Lakes. In this engagement, the warriors encountered the increased killing range and accuracy of the Army's newly issued long range rifles and had to retreat. On September 5th, the Battle of Spokane Plains was fought. The running battle covered the area of today's Fairchild Air Force Base and skirted the present day Spokane Tribe Casino. Fighting ended eight miles north of today's Northern Quest Casino. The Spokanes referred to this battle as "Fire on the Plains" due to the grasslands they lit to gain a tactical advantage against the Army's superior weaponry. In the days after the battle, without meeting any further resistance, the U.S. Army used a scorched-earth strategy. Colonel Wright ordered the slaughter of nearly 900 Coeur d'Alene horses in a site between Spokane Falls and Lake Coeur d'Alene, [Idaho]. Tribal cache houses were completely burned along Hangman Creek, a peace treaty signing location. In the winter months that followed, several treaties were signed. Today, tribal camps protect a vibrant and thriving community. In modern times, many descendants of the original warriors remain here, both proud of the initial victories to which they stood resolved by force. — Warren Seyler, Spokane Tribe of Indians, 2013
👉👉 How to get there-
The Spokane Plains Battlefield State Park Heritage Site is located right along U.S. Route 2 in Airway Heights, Washington, just west of Spokane.
Coordinates: 47°38'37.0"N, 117°39'12.2"W (47.6436, -117.6534)

05/22/2026

📸We found several loose pages from an old photo album at the bins and There are several personal photos of Leo Oestreicher, an early Spokane photographer.
He opened Leo’s Studio in Opportunity (now Spokane Valley) in the 1920s and photographed Spokane through the next two decades — the 1933 aerial of Veradale, the frost-covered Vista House on Mt. Spokane, Comstock Park, Gonzaga in the 1930s, grade-school classes, and those crisp CCC camp photos up near Coeur d’Alene in 1935.
In 1955 Leo retired to Coeur d’Alene and sold the studio to his assistant, Lawrence Morgan. Everyone just called Morgan “Leo” too. He kept the name for 66 years, and that’s the Leo’s Photography most of us remember from school picture day in the 70s, 80s and 90s.
Two Leos, one studio, thousands of images that still show us what the Lilac City looked like between the wars.
👉👉Does anyone remember anything about this water park at Newman Lakes Honeymoon Bay? Not sure how long it was there…

05/18/2026

🪵Stopped at the historic Rose Cabin above Boundry Dam in Metaline Falls WA. today on our way to Gardner Caves …What a treasure! So glad they saved and preserved it.
The sign reads:
THE ROSE CABIN
The cabin in front of you was constructed by Harvey Rose and his son, Carl, about 1905, and was used by them until 1917. Rose and his son panned and sluiced for gold below Peewee Falls about one-halt mile south of here. They also had a cabin above the falls on Peewee Creek where they used the creek to power a small sawmill. Lumber from the mill was used for making sluice boxes, and for the construction of this cabin and others in the area.
This cabin was a treasured local landmark in the 1960s when construction started on boundary Dam, and City Light staff and contractors took extra precautions to protect it. The construction superintendent warned that any worker who damaged the cabin would be "sent for a walk down the hill"—in other words, fired.
City Light later conducted repairs to preserve the cabin in the early 1970s, including re-roofing and replacing the sill logs.

05/18/2026

05/18/2026

🥾We wandered back up north and spent part of the day underground at Gardner Cave in Crawford State Park near Metaline, WA.
Gardner is Washington's longest limestone cave at 1,055 feet (we walk the first 494 feet), full of stalactites overhead, stalagmites rising up, flowstone, pools, and that famous 2-foot-wide column. Our tour guide Sandie Durand was phenomenal — you could tell she really loves her job and what she does. She told us about bootlegger Ed Gardner discovering the cave in 1899 when he noticed mist rising from the ground on a cold morning, followed it to the sinkhole, and later stored moonshine inside because it stays about 40 degrees year-round.
Best moment: Sandie turned the lights completely off, and pulled out the black light. The park calls it their "mineral glow," and it's super cool to watch.
Tours just reopened for the season in mid-May, and you have to reserve a spot online at their website to get a spot. Bring a jacket, good shoes, and a flashlight. We left a little cold, but it was a beautiful day out so it didn’t take long to warm back up. Don’t forget to take the trail to the Canadian border while you’re there🤗

05/17/2026

🐲The “Dragons Teeth” guard rail near Indian Painted Rock Trail along W Rutter Way in Spokane WA

05/14/2026

🥾Another beautiful, historic stop in Metaline Falls last weekend. Way too much to see in one day. We’re heading back next Sunday for Gardner Caves and to explore whatever else we find. Any recommendations?

The brick building next to Sullivan Creek in Metaline Falls Washington is the old Mill Pond Hydro Powerhouse, part of the Sullivan Creek Hydroelectric Project. Built in 1909 by the Inland Portland Cement Company, it generated power for both the company’s cement plant and the town itself. The original system used a timber crib dam at Sullivan Lake and two dams downstream that created Mill Pond, sending water down a wooden flume to the brick powerhouse. In the early 1920s, the three original dams were replaced with two concrete dams. Power generation ceased in 1956 after frequent flume failures and the availability of cheap Bonneville Power Administration electricity. The generating equipment was removed, turbine pits filled with concrete, and the building has stood derelict for over 60 years.

05/12/2026

🥾Boundary Dam: Northeast Washington’s Hidden Giant~