SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
CHAPTER XIII.
Spokane and the Inland Empire.
After a pleasant stay of six weeks in Butte, I went over the Great Northern Railroad to Spokane, making short stops at Great Falls, Havre and Kalispell. Arriving at Spokane I took a coach and drove across the river to the Oregon Railroad and Navigation depot and took the train for Tekoa, Washington, a distance of fifty miles, passing Rockford, Fairfield and Latah, extensive wheat sections. Tekoa is the town where the trains branch off to go to the famous Coeur d'Alene mines, consequently this is an important division point. Millions of bushels of wheat are shipped from here yearly. This was a picturesque looking little town to me, with the hills dotted by little white buildings, trees and flowers. On account of the hotel just burning down, accommodations were limited, but I got a room with a very pleasant family, taking my meals at a restaurant.
My next stop was at Wallace, Idaho, where I spent a very entertaining week. This is the principal city of the Coeur d'Alenes, surrounded by mining towns. The ones of most note are Wardner, Mullan, Burke and Gem, all large producers of lead and silver ore, and Kellogg, an important milling town. On my way back from Wallace I stopped at Harrison, on Coeur d'Alene Lake, where are large sawmills. To change my route, I took a sail on the Steamer Spokane over the lake to Coeur d'Alene City, which I found extensively engaged in lumbering enterprises.
I made my way back to Spokane in time to attend their annual fall fair, which showed patronage from the four northwestern states. The fruit exhibit from the irrigated fruit farms, surrounding Wenatchee, carried off the first prize, closely followed by Waterville and Douglas County and the Palouse country. There were also wheat and cereals from these, Harrington and the Big Bend country, the exhibits coming on the Washington Central Railway from Davenport, Coulee City and Wilbur. On the Spokane Falls & Northern they came from Colville, Marcus, Northport and Nelson, British Columbia. Also from Rathdrum and the lumbering town of Sandpoint, on Pend d'Oreille Lake. There were mineral exhibits from the Coeur d'Alene mines of Idaho, from Republic, and other sections of Washington, and from Rossland, Sandon, Kalso, Trail and Slocan, British Columbia; Baker City and Sumpter, Oregon; cattle from Le Grande and Portland, and as far south as the State of Nevada; horses, sheep and hogs from the entire section, including trotting and racing horses from Butte. And even the Northern Pacific Railway Company had their exhibit, consisting of a miniature railroad, and I had the pleasure of taking a trip to St. Paul and return in ten minutes.
The horse racing and other sports were unexcelled, and the balloon ascension was perfectly grand, the finest I ever witnessed; to see coming down, seemingly as far as the eye could reach, two little parachutes, one basket having a dog in it, the other a cat, followed by the balloonist and his parachute, all coming safely back to earth.
I met interesting people from everywhere in the west, and remarked to my friends that nature had destined a city here, the center of the richest section found anywhere on the American continent, with its mines, lumber, farms and natural available water power; with its two transcontinental railroads and branches, with division headquarters for all lines passing through the city, of all the western railway systems, bringing business from the Dominion of Canada, as well as the United States, an Inland Empire within itself. All these, combined with the energy and enterprise of its citizens, will make Spokane the largest inland city on the western hemisphere.
Probably what made me so interested during the fair was that the final games of the Pacific Northwest National Baseball League were being played here at this time, and I was delighted, of course, to see Butte, my home town team, win the pennant.
The fair being over, I wended my way to Seattle, Washington, over the Great Northern Railroad, which served me with every comfort on the way.