Then and now: Spokane’s rocky landscape

The Spokane area is in the very Northeast corner of a vast basalt field, where ancient lava petered out, leaving fields of rock and some islands of original grasslands.

Section:Gallery

Mon., Dec. 3, 2018

1930s - East Sprague Avenue in the early 1930s, just south of the Spokane River across from Gonzaga University, shows the rocky basalt landscape left from volcanic eruptions 6-17 million years ago. As Spokane grew, the area’s rocky basalt outcroppings forced builders to work around them or hammer them away before construction.

The Spokesman-Review Photo Archive Sr
2018 - East Sprague was an important industrial and warehouse corridor of Spokane as it grew and pushed warehouses out of the downtown business core. But like virtually everywhere in Spokane, basalt outcroppings added difficulty to developing the area with railroad tracks and industrial buildings.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review