Spokane

Spokane occupies a dramatic natural setting the Spokane River drops 183 feet through the city center in a series of cascades, and Riverfront Park, built on the 1974 World's Fair grounds, preserves the most striking urban waterfall in any American city. The river was the site of intensive Salish-speaking Native settlement for thousands of years before American settlement; the Spokane Tribe's history permeates the area. Gonzaga University, founded in 1887, brings a distinctive Jesuit liberal arts culture to the city and is famous for its basketball program. The Spokane Public Library, opened in 2019, is a $61 million architectural landmark designed by Lake Flato Architects that has become a model for urban library design. The Palouse region east of Spokane the most productive wheat-growing landscape in North America creates a rolling, treeless hill country of striking visual character that looks unlike anywhere else in the Pacific Northwest. The Columbia Valley, Snake River AVA, and Walla Walla wine appellations begin 30 - 90 minutes south, collectively producing some of Washington's best Cabernet, Syrah, and Riesling. The Spokane International Airport makes the city a practical fly-in destination for eastern Washington wine touring.