At the falls of the Spokane River, in the heart of Washington’s now booming Inland Empire, Spokane stands as a symbol of an America that, in many ways, is only just beginning, and Miss Fargo here gives the story of its rise from trading post to regional metropolis. Lightly and skillfully she brings the city and its past to life through the toil, the triumphs, the zest for work and fun of its citizens—people like: Ross Cox, “scribbling clerk” of the fur trade era who was lost for two terrifying weeks in the Palouse hills; Father Cataldo of the Jesuits from whose “rock pile” arose Gonzaga University; the hotel-keeper’s wife whose party dress froze to the wall just as she was about to show Spokane its first waltz; Jim Glover, “Father of Spokane;” and “Dutch Jake,” who ran a gambling resort and crossed swords with Ida Tarbell. Spokane Story is the colorful history of a colorful city and its people, from the years of its lusty youth to the day when a clergyman sat in the Mayor’s chair and a new city charter heralded the end of its days as a frontier town.

"Archie Prescot has traveled across the country to design the now-iconic Spokane clock tower for the new Great Northern Railroad Depot. When his talent for creating unique clock chimes connects him with a local patroness, he is thrilled, until she is discovered dead in the workshop of his new colleague. Her grand home on the South Hill provides ample suspects, as Archie works with his lodgers, Detective Carew and his twin brother, to prove his fellow inventor and himself innocent of the crime. While on the hunt for the murderer, romance crops up when a young lady crosses his path with a mysterious past of her own. Six intersecting storylines create a cohesive look at a convoluted murder that will require all points of view to discover the truth ..."--Amazon

In 1935, nine-year-old George Weyerhaeuser, heir to one of the wealthiest families in America, is snatched off the streets two blocks from his home. The boy is kept manacled in a pit, chained to a tree, and locked in a closet. The perps—a career bank robber, a petty thief, and his nineteen-year-old never-been-in-trouble Mormon wife—quickly become the targets of the biggest manhunt in Northwest history. The caper plays out like a Hollywood thriller with countless twists and improbable developments. Perhaps the most astonishing thing of all, though, is how it all ends.

Discover the incredible life of Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet and the mastermind behind Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, in this fascinating picture book biography that’s perfect for fans of I Dissent. Most people know about President FDR, but do you know the woman who created his groundbreaking New Deal? As a young girl, Frances Perkins was very shy and quiet. But her grandmother encouraged Frances to always challenge herself. When somebody opens a door to you, go forward. And so she did. Frances realized she had to make her voice heard, even when speaking made her uncomfortable, and use it to fight injustice and build programs to protect people across the nation. So when newly-elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt finally asked Frances to be the first female Secretary of Labor and help pull the nation out of the Great Depression, she knew she had to walk through that open door and forward into history. In this empowering, inspirational biography, discover how the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet led the charge to create the safety net that protects American workers and their families to this day.

A New York Times bestseller—over one million copies sold! A National Book Award winner A Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winner Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live. With a forward by Markus Zusak, interviews with Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney, and black-and-white interior art throughout, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.

In 1981, decades before mainstream America elected Barack Obama, James Chase became the first African American mayor of Spokane, Washington, with the overwhelming support of a majority-white electorate. Chase’s win failed to capture the attention of historians—as had the century-long evolution of the black community in Spokane. In Black Spokane: The Civil Rights Struggle in the Inland Northwest, Dwayne A. Mack corrects this oversight—and recovers a crucial chapter in the history of race relations and civil rights in America. As early as the 1880s, Spokane was a destination for black settlers escaping the racial oppression in the South—settlers who over the following decades built an infrastructure of churches, businesses, and social organizations to serve the black community. Drawing on oral histories, interviews, newspapers, and a rich array of other primary sources, Mack sets the stage for the years following World War II in the Inland Northwest, when an influx of black veterans would bring about a new era of racial issues. His book traces the earliest challenges faced by the NAACP and a small but sympathetic white population as Spokane became a significant part of the national civil rights struggle. International superstars such as Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong and Hazel Scott figure in this story, along with charismatic local preachers, entrepreneurs, and lawyers who stepped forward as civic leaders. These individuals’ contributions, and the black community’s encounters with racism, offer a view of the complexity of race relations in a city and a region not recognized historically as centers of racial strife. But in matters of race—from the first migration of black settlers to Spokane, through the politics of the Cold War and the civil rights movement, to the successes of the 1970s and ’80s—Mack shows that Spokane has a story to tell, one that this book at long last incorporates into the larger history of twentieth-century America.