September 24, 2024 Evening Report

Goose Creek RV Park and Campground ($21 (cash) for tent site)

Day 24 of no hotel, motel, Holiday Inn (Rappers’ Delight)

Wilbur, Washington

September 25, 2024

Note: All the towns that are "first names"

Upon leaving Post Falls, Idaho I hopped on Interstste 90 in order to get through Spokane, Washington as quickly as possible. I was on I90’s six lanes for upwards of an hour and that was plenty for me. I had flashbacks to driving the DC beltway. All I could think is these people are in a hurry and probably don’t know why. Downtown Spokane looked interesting as I drove by it, but I was overwhelmed by the rush.

Spokane (/spoʊˈkæn/ ⓘ spoh-KAN)[8] is the most populous city in and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, 92 miles south of the Canadian border, 18 miles west of the Washington–Idaho border, and 279 miles 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. It is known as the birthplace of Father's Day, and locally by the nickname of "Lilac City". Officially, Spokane goes by the nickname of Hooptown USA, due to Spokane's annual hosting of the Spokane Hoopfest, the world's largest basketball tournament. The city and the wider Inland Northwest area are served by Spokane International Airport, 5 miles west of Downtown Spokane, which is located near another airfield at Fairchild Air Force Base. According to the 2010 census, Spokane had a population of 208,916, making it the 2nd-most populous city in Washington, and the 97th-most populous city in the United States. At the 2020 census, Spokane's population was 228,989. A 2023 estimate sets the population of the metropolitan area at 600,290.

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 many settlers from America to the Spokane area. The same year it was officially incorporated as a city under the name of Spokane Falls (it was re-incorporated 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.

Many of the downtown area's older Romanesque Revival-style buildings were designed by architect Kirtland Kelsey Cutter after the Great Fire of 1889. The city is also home to the Riverfront and Manito parks, the Smithsonian-affiliated Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, the Davenport Hotel, and the Fox and Bing Crosby theaters.

The Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane, and the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist serves as that of the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane. The Spokane Washington Temple in the east of the county serves the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Gonzaga University was established in 1887 by the Jesuits, and the private Presbyterian Whitworth University was founded three years later and moved to north Spokane in 1914.

In sports, the region's professional and semi-professional sports teams include the Spokane Indians in Minor League Baseball. The Spokane Chiefs in the Western Hockey League. The Spokane Velocity in USL League One with a women's first division team Spokane Zephyr FC in USL Super League. The Gonzaga Bulldogs collegiate basketball team competes at the Division I level. As of 2010, Spokane's major daily newspaper, The Spokesman-Review, had a daily circulation of over 76,000.

Spokane became an important rail and shipping center because of its location between mining and farming areas. In the early 1880s, gold and silver were discovered in the Inland Empire; as a regional shipping center, the city furnished supplies to the miners who passed through on their way to the mineral-rich Coeur d'Alene, Colville and Kootenay districts. The mining districts are still considered among the most productive in North America.

Natural resources have historically been the foundation of Spokane's economy, with the mining, logging, and agriculture industries providing much of the region's economic activity. After mining declined at the turn of the 20th century, agriculture and logging replaced mining as the primary influences in the economy. Lumberjacks and millmen working in the hundreds of mills along the railroads, rivers, and lakes of northern Washington and Idaho were provisioning themselves in Spokane.

Agriculture has always been an important sector in the local economy. The surrounding area, especially to the south is the Palouse, a region that has long been associated with farming, especially wheat production where it is one of the largest wheat producing regions in the United States. As with the mining industry in the late 1880s, Spokane was an important agricultural market and trade center. Inland Empire farmers exported wheat, livestock and other agricultural products to the ports such as New York, Liverpool and Tokyo. Today, a large share of the wheat produced in the region is shipped to Far East markets. The Inland Northwest also supports many vineyards and microbreweries as well. By the early 20th century Spokane was primarily a commercial center rather than an industrial center.

The trains were at the Northwest Train Museum which is only open on weekends.

https://trainmuseum.org/

Wilbur

Wilbur is a town in Lincoln County, Washington, United States. The population was 895 at the 2020 census.

Just prior to the construction of the Central Washington Railroad line in 1889, no towns existed west of Davenport in Lincoln County. One place along the line, "Wild Goose Bill's Ranch," run by Samuel Wilbur Condit, was assigned a post office by the Federal government. Condit was 62 years old and known throughout the region as Wild Goose Bill when he and another man shot each other to death on January 21, 1895. The town was originally named "Goosetown" in his honor, however, after the local blacksmith's wife complained that she would never live somewhere with such a silly name, the town was christened "Wilbur" in 1889.

It had been located on the stage line between Davenport and the Mines in northern Washington and with the speculation of the railroad arriving soon seemed a likely place for a town. The town grew in earnest and was platted in April 1889. With the arrival of the railroad later that year, Wilbur's growth increased rapidly with the establishment of bigger hotels, a bank, a lumber mill and countless other businesses. After several failed attempts to incorporate in 1889, Wilbur was officially incorporated on August 11, 1890. The boom had slowed by 1891 and came to a halt with the Panic of 1893. A fire in October 1891 caused damage to the town, killing 4.

Wilbur was brought out of the hard times of the 1890s during a record wheat harvest in 1897 which brought over $1,000,000 to circulation in the town. The construction of a road to Republic then a flourishing mining camp in what was to become Ferry County was expected to increase traffic to Wilbur, but the expected benefit never materialized. After a July 5, 1901, fire destroyed several city blocks, causing $155,000 in damage ($3.9 million in 2017 dollars), a water works was established in 1903. Wilbur was electrically lighted in October 1903 by the Wilbur Electric Company.

Wilbur gained news coverage in July 2007 as a result of crop circles found roughly 10 miles north of town, just off of Highway 2. The origin of these depressions in the wheat crop of local farmer Jim Llewellyn is unknown, and the phenomenon was covered by new stations as well as newspapers. More crop circles were discovered in August 2009. On July 31, 2012, crop circles appeared for the third time in wheat fields near the town.