The Spokane & Inland Empire Railroad started as a streetcar line, used largely for real estate development, and grew into a regional electric railway noted for its cutting edge technology and elegant sense of style. Jay P. Graves and the other men connected with the railroad, created land improvement companies designed to provide luxury resorts, as well as plan small towns. Within a few years, the rail lines would stretch from Spokane to Coeur d’Alene and Hayden lakes to the east, with another line heading south through the Palouse, splitting at Spring Valley to Colfax and Moscow.

This collection features essays about the prehistory, history, geography, and architecture of the Inland Pacific Northwest by eight national and regional scholars: Donald W. Meinig, John Fahey, Albro Martin, Carlos A. Schwantes, Wayne D. Rasmussen, Henry Matthews, Clifford E. Trafzer, and Harvey S. Rice. --From publisher's description.

Rarely recognized outside its boundaries today, the Pacific Northwest region known at the turn of the century as the Inland Empire included portions of the states of Washington and Idaho, as well as British Columbia. Katherine G. Morrissey traces the history of this self-proclaimed region from its origins through its heyday. In doing so, she challenges the characterization of regions as fixed places defined by their geography, economy, and demographics. Regions, she argues, are best understood as mental constructs, internally defined through conflicts and debates among different groups of people seeking to control a particular area's identity and direction. She tells the story of the Inland Empire as a complex narrative of competing perceptions and interests.

"In its heyday the electrified Spokane & Inland Empire Railroad carried huge numbers of passengers between Spokane, Washington and the Idaho towns of Coeur d'Alene and Moscow as well as to Colfax, Washington. This book describes in detail the history of the S & IE rail system from its amalgamation of a group of companies in the early 1900s to almost comp[l]ete abandonment by Burlington Northern 70 years later"--Jacket flap.