Spokane, Washington
Spokane County
53-67000
Spokane [ spoʊkæn ] is a city in the U.S. state of Washington.
Spokane is the capital of the county of the same name and the largest city in eastern Washington. Your name is based on the Indian tribe of Spokan, which inhabited the area until the arrival of Europeans.
Spokane is the second largest city in Washington ( Seattle ) with 208 916 inhabitants in the urban area (2010 ) and about 600,000 in the agglomeration.
Geography
Spokane lies on the eastern end of the Columbia Plateau on the border of the Rocky Mountains. Through the city flows the Spokane River. In Spokane, there are two striking waterfalls, the Upper Spokane Falls and the Lower Spokane Falls.
History
The city was founded in 1881 as Spokane Falls and received its present name until 1891. Between 1900 and 1910 the population increased from 36 848 to 104 402 inhabitants on. In 1974, here the World's Fair, Expo '74 was, held.
On December 24, 2007 Mary Verner was introduced in office as mayor of the city. For a politician with Indian ancestors came to this office for the first time. Verner has ancestors from Muskogee. Previously, she had worked at the Spokane Natural Resources Department. Equipped with a bachelor's degree in Ethnology ( Anthropology ) and a Master in Environmental Studies ( Yale University ) and law ( Gonzaga University), she was a member of the Spokane City Council, the Human Rights Commission and executive director of the Upper Columbia United Tribes, so the united tribes on the upper Columbia River.
In Spokane about 8,000 Indians, who in turn belong to 127 tribes live.
Population Development
¹ 1980 - 2010: census results
Education
The city is the seat of the Gonzaga University and Whitworth College. Also, here entertain, based in Pullman Washington State University and Eastern Washington University Cheney, based in a field office.
Sports
Nationally, attention to himself made the comparatively small Gonzaga University by the success of their basketball division in the NCAA tournaments. Since 1999, playing in the West Coast Conference Bulldogs reached each year the finals of the NCAA Men 's Division I Basketball Tournament, the highest tournament at college level. The Bulldogs brought forth several NBA players, including John Stockton, Adam Morrison and Ronny Turiaf. The football section of Gonzaga comes from, among other national player Brian Ching, from the baseball department, among others, Jason Bay.
In addition to the college teams, there are also professional teams. These include the Spokane Indians in baseball ( Northwest League), a farm team of the Texas Rangers, and in football the Spokane Spiders ( USL Premier Development League). In 1980-82 Hockey played the Spokane Flyers ( Western Hockey League) in the city, since 1985, the Spokane Chiefs ( Western Hockey League).
In amateur sports, there are in Spokane every year two major events, the Lilac Bloomsday Run on the first Sunday in May and the Hoop Fest, which takes place every year on the last weekend of June. The Lilac Bloomsday Run leads over 12 km through the city. On average, about 45,000 runners take part, the record reached the event in 1996 with more than 61,000 participants. When Hoopfest is a basketball tournament in which compete on a reduced field teams of three against each other. The number of participants has leveled off at about 6,000 teams ( three or four teams with replacer ).
Hoopfest (Recording from 2008 )
Spokane Arena
Traffic
Spokane is connected via the I-90, the longest interstate in the USA, in the West with Seattle and the east with the U.S. states of Idaho and Montana. The Spokane International Airport is the second largest airport in the state of Washington. Because it is a wide area of the only major airport, he serves the entire eastern part of the State of Washington and northern Idaho. In addition, Spokane by the railroad company Amtrak with their long-distance train connection " Empire Builder " with Chicago, Seattle, and Portland ( Oregon) is connected.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Paul d' Amour ( b. 1968 ), bassist
- Joe Bain (1912-1991), economist
- Jack Brownlow (1923-2007), jazz pianist
- Arnie Carruthers (1929-2011), jazz pianist
- Bob Crosby (1913-1993), singer, and big band leader
- David Eddings (1931-2009), author of several series of fantasy novels
- Ray Flaherty (1903-1994), American football player and coach
- Tom Foley (1929-2013), politician and diplomat
- Jan- Michael Gambill ( b. 1977 ), tennis player
- Thomas Hampson ( born 1955 ), baritone; grew up in Spokane
- Jason Hanson (born 1970 ), football player
- Mikki Jamison (1944-2013), actress
- Myles Kennedy (born 1969 ), singer and guitarist
- Amy LePeilbet (* 1982 ), football player
- Sol Lesser (1890-1980), film producer and director
- Craig T. Nelson ( born 1944 ), actor
- Gale Page (1913-1983), actress
- Wilder Penfield (1891-1976), physician
- Susan Peters (1921-1952), film actress
- Jimmy Rowles (1918-1996), jazz pianist
- Don Sickler ( b. 1944 ), a jazz musician and music producer
- John Stockton (born 1962 ), NBA basketball player
- Karl Tunberg (1909-1992), screenwriter and film producer
- Mark Vigil (born 1954 ), composer
- Michael Winslow (born 1958 ), actor and comedian
Often Bing Crosby (1903-1977) is known as the most famous son of the city. His family moved to Spokane in 1906. Crosby studied from 1920 at the local Gonzaga University.
Twin Cities
- Jecheon (South Korea)
- Jilin (China)
- Limerick ( Ireland)
- Nishinomiya ( Hyogo, Japan) since September 1961