Living in a small town

From the ashes of Spokane’s Great Fire in 1889 rose the town of Deer Park.

When much of downtown Spokane burned to the ground, residents decided right away to rebuild.

The demand for lumber inspired William Short and his brother-in-law, George Crawford, to move north to start the Standard Lumber Co.

The heavily wooded area north of Spokane was the perfect spot for their mill, and the abundant wildlife inspired the name of Deer Park.

The settlement was incorporated as a city in 1908 with a population of about 1,000. The new city had telephone lines, a newspaper, two general stores, a post office and a thriving lumber mill, according to the Chamber of Commerce Web site.

In 1909, Arcadia Orchards began growing apples on 20,000 acres of land irrigated with water from Loon Lake and Deer Lake. The chamber’s Web site says private investors could