Spokane Special Insert June | July 2018

Jon Jonckers
PLAN YOUR TRIP
Centennial Trail State Park has 37 miles
of trails for running and recreating.
written by Kevin Max
EVERY TIME I visit Spokane, I find something new to make it my favorite surprise city in Washington.
Early on, it was a winter relationship—one-night stands and well-groomed cross-country skiing at Mount
Spokane State Park. Come spring, we moved into long runs along Centennial Trail. By summer, we were
dining al fresco downtown and taking in a performance at the Spokane Symphony.
Beneath my new fascination, I knew it was the old bones—old
bones with a lively marrow—that brought me back. Like a forensic
paleontologist, I dig into a city’s buried places, the older the better.
These are the bones that will have more stories to tell. This was once
the long-time department store, where Spokanians shopped for decades.
Or Bing Crosby trod the boards here.
The bones of this eastern Washington city are old, going back to
the 1870s. Beautiful and boarded-up stone and brick buildings in
its downtown core area are steadily being renovated for higher use.
Theaters have undergone massive renovations. The riverfront is getting
a makeover, too.
Though historians and rank nostalgists like me won’t be disappointed
here, neither will entrepreneurs. In and around Spokane,
innovation is bubbling. There is the new medical school affiliated
with Washington State University, only the second in Washington.
Gonzaga University has partnered with University of Washington to
double down on medical curricula in Eastern Washington. Spokane
was also named one of ten Smart Cities nationally, a collaboration of
business and government entities deploying technology to improve a
city’s efficiency and livability.
JUNE | JULY 2018 // DESTINATION SPOKANE 2