Secret Spokane: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

Easygoing and eclectic Spokane is the second-largest city in Washington state, and it’s growing. The secret is starting to get out: The Lilac City—birthplace of Father’s Day, childhood home of crooner Bing Crosby, host of the longtime Lilac Bloomsday Run, and home of Hoopfest, the world’s largest three-on-three outdoor basketball tournament—is a lot of fun. And a little bit haunted. Its distinctive neighborhoods radiate from the Spokane River, complete with waterfalls, in the heart of the city. Half of its downtown buildings are historical, lending themselves to ghost signs and ghost stories. Secret Spokane explores some of these stories and many others, too. Find out what life was like for a wealthy Spokane family in the early 1900s at the Campbell House. See where Charles Manson’s mother is buried. Sip a cocktail named for Veronica the—friendly?—ghost at The Bad Seed. Meet Spokane’s marmots and gang of wild South Hill turkeys. Visit the park that helped Spokane make history in 1974 as the smallest city to ever host a World’s Fair. And fall in love with the quirky and unpretentious arts, culture, and culinary capital of the Inland Northwest. Read more