Several years ago, before DTE, there was a History class at Eastern Washington University taught by a one Dr. Bill Youngs.  The shared learning of Andrew Carnegie and the Industrial Revolution lead to a confused afternoon in Riverfront Park some five years later and some fifteen hours or so before we were to lead people through the park on a historical tour of Expo'74 and what it meant for the environment.  Confused?  Keep following. 

It served us well to accidentally and happily both be in the same History class at EWU.  Just as it served us well to coincidentally bump into Dr. Youngs one afternoon in the park as we were preparing on how we'd give our Expo '74 tours that we had agreed to as part of Earth Day Spokane 2009.  The book we were using to prepare for the tour was The Fair and The Falls: Spokane's Expo '74, Transforming an American Environment, written by none other than Dr. Youngs. 

We share two unplanned fortunes with Dr. Youngs, which is why we think you should plan on having one.

*Photo from 1888 courtesy of Wikipedia.

You are invited on Saturday, July 10th to the Spokane River History Tour - 2010 ~ Bicentennial year of Spokane House ~

spend a day reliving Spokane history:

 - listen to powerful stories of our past from two of the Northwest's leading historians - Jack Nisbet and William Youngs

 - look at the Spokane River and Spokane Falls through the eyes of history

 - watch the sunset overlooking Spokane Falls, reflecting on the past and future of Spokane

for short walks, you will need comfortable shoes - limited to 30 people - $25 donation suggested to cover costs) RSVP with John Osborn, MD: john@waterplanet.ws 509.209-2899

Jack Nisbet is a teacher, naturalist, and writer who lives in Spokane, Washington.  His writings include:
Sources of the River:  Tracking David Thompson across Western North Merica
The Collector:  David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest
Purple Flat Top:  In Pursuit of a Place
Singing Grass, Burning Sage:  Discovering Washington's Shrub-Steppe
Visible Bones:  Journeys through Time in the Columbia River Country
The Mapmaker's Eye:  David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau

J. William T. Youngs, award-winning historian and editor of Pacific Northwest Forum, headed the research staff who interviewed over 200 citizens and reviewed thousands of pages of records, in order to write the definitive history of Spokane, its people, and the first-ever Environmental World's Fair to be ratified by the Bureau of International Expositions in Paris.  His writings include:
The Fair and The Falls: Spokane's Expo '74, Transforming an American Environment
American Realities: Historical Episodes from the First Settlements to the Present

---

---