City Discovery Local Author Writes Guidebook For Guests, As Well As Long-Time Residents

Mary Buckham always planned to leave Spokane.

She studied international relations at four different universities. She spent a year in Hawaii. She spent another year in Florence, Italy.

So 15 years ago, when the Spokane native left on a planned walk around the world, she didn’t expect to be back soon - if at all. But life, as we know, is full of little ironies.

“I got as far as England,” Buckham says matter-of-factly. Now 38, Buckham explains how her then-future husband, who hails from Wallace, Idaho, rendezvoused with her in England. How the two got married, stayed a couple of months and then moved to Washington, D.C.

How after her first child was born they moved back to Spokane. Back home.

“We came back under the assumption that we were going to get to leave again,” Buckham says. “But it seemed every time we planned to go, we had another baby. After six babies, we said, ‘OK, maybe if we act like we’re going to stay here, we’ll actually get to leave.’ “

The irony goes further: Buckham, who has been working as a free-lance writer for the past three years, is now the author of one of the most complete guides to her hometown that has ever been published. “Spokane: The Complete Guide to the Hub of the Inland Northwest” (Johnston Associates, 256 pages, $14.95) lives up to its name.

Where, for example, would you expect to pay $10 for the chance to ride a bucking bull? Buckham can tell you: At the Rocking Go Arena in Rockford (291-3110).

Where might you find the first house in Spokane to boast indoor bathrooms? Buckham’s answer: The Glover Mansion.

And where would you go to shop at Spokane’s oldest meat market? Buckham once again: At Sonnenberg’s Market & Deli, 1528 E. Sprague.

“I basically had a criteria,” Buckham says of the process she used to include some items and reject others. “And it was, ‘If I had somebody visit me, where would I take them? If I moved here, where would I want to know about? And if I’ve lived here for a long time, what has changed that I would want to know about.”’

The book, then, serves both tourists and longtime residents of all ages. “I tried to keep in mind three types of people: Is it a place that a thirtysomething crowd would go to? Is it someplace that I would bring family members, whether they were younger or older? And is it someplace that I would bring my aunt?”

And, truly, for every Luna there is a Granny’s Buffet, for every Luigi’s a Spaghetti Station, for every Patsy Clark’s a Chuck E. Cheese.

Split into 11 chapters, which span everything from sightseeing and eateries to shopping spots and places to stay, “Spokane: The Complete Guide” is an expanded variation on those guidebooks put out by Sasquatch Books: “Seattle Best Places,” “Northwest Best Places,” etc.

Buckham’s version of “best” is, like Spokane itself, less exclusive though not totally without standards. Doing the legwork that it takes to compile such a book put her in touch with what she’s always liked about the city.

“It is, as everybody says, a good place to raise kids,” she says. “And that has some very, very advantageous points to it, what with my family. And it has been changing so much that it’s kind of funny. It’s like discovering the new city within the old.”

It was a process of self-discovery that led Buckham to this project. She has spent the last few years writing articles for various regional publications while also trying to break in as a novelist.

A member of the Seattle chapter of the Romance Writers of America, she became friends with fellow romance writer Ann Schuessler, who works for Bellevue-based Johnstone Associates. So when Priscilla Johnstone, owner of the publishing house, went looking for someone to write the guide, Schuessler mentioned Buckham.

A quick trip around Spokane, with Buckham pointing out the sights and outlining the area’s history, led to Johnstone offering her the job.

Then began the task of collecting information.

“It took lots of phone calls and lots of in-person visits, just literally pounding the pavement, going to the places, asking other people what they thought of Spokane,” Buckham says. “I also read voraciously.”

One thing she discovered is that some people who are paid to give out tourist information don’t seem to be very good at their jobs.

“When I was calling up municipal groups - I’m not going to give out any names here - and these are people who are in the business of giving information out to newcomers and visitors, I would hear, ‘Well, go up the freeway, and you know the park on the right? Go back there and …”’ Buckham says, shaking her head in disbelief. “I’ve lived here all my life and I couldn’t find out where they were referring to.”

A sports-oriented association that Buckham called told her that they had been giving out a man’s name as a contact - only to discover that he had been dead for two years.

Most bothersome to readers, though, are the mistakes and outdated information that is bound to occur in such an exhaustive listing. The phone number for the Rocking Go Arena is wrong (though the one cited above is right).

In addition, one of the three listings for Auntie’s Bookstore has its old Riverside address, several of the stores in River Park Square have closed, and page 35 carries a reference to non-existent chapter 12.

“I almost had to put blinders on the minute the final edition went to the publishers,” Buckham says. “I’ve been stunned by the many changes. I have a copy at home that I’m already highlighting.”

If the first printing of 3,000 sells out, there likely will be a second. Buckham says the corrections will be made then. And as the city itself keeps changing, so probably will the book.

“I think people will be pleasantly surprised at how much the town really has prospered,” Buckham says. “I know that I was, being a native here and involved in the art scene and the history part of it. I was still surprised.”

And, for a person who never planned to stay, she was even somewhat smitten.

“There’s something really charming, quite unique and really special about here that is really easy to overlook,” she says. “It’s really easy to get that ‘Well, it’s only Spokane’ attitude.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos