The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Then & Now: Linder’s Lodge

1953: John Linder, center, surveys progress on the lodge on Mount Spokane that opened in 1952. There were about 12 acres of skiing available behind the lodge.
1953: John Linder, center, surveys progress on the lodge on Mount Spokane that opened in 1952. There were about 12 acres of skiing available behind the lodge.

John D. Linder grew up on the slopes of Mount Spokane. Linder’s parents had homesteaded and logged the mountain. Born in 1917, he began logging with his father when he was 15. He worked for the state park and later opened a store next to a chain-up area just outside the park boundaries in 1942. The store was perfectly situated to serve skiers headed up the mountain.

Starting in 1947, shortly after the installation of the first chair lift on top of the mountain, Linder and other family members started a five-year project to build a three-story lodge across from the store, opening in 1952.

Over the years, Linder had plowed the mountain road countless times and served as a park ranger. Knowing snow patterns around the lodge, Linder cleared 25 acres on a slope and installed a rope tow. “I’m not trying to compete with the rest of the skiing program on the rest of the mountain,” Linder told The Spokesman-Review in 1952. “I’m just helping to build it up.”

Some doubted there would be enough snow at the lodge’s elevation, but Linder said there was only one winter in his 27 years when that slope was bare. He installed lights on the lower slope for night skiing.

The lodge had a restaurant on the ground floor, hotel rooms on the second and two dormitories on the top floor divided between male and female skiers who brought sleeping bags.

Linder was active in Democratic politics and ran unsuccessfully for the Washington House of Representatives in 1976, 1978 and 1980.

The Linders operated the lodge until around 1978. The lodge was in a state of disrepair and the area strewn with junked machinery when John Linder died in 1983, followed by his wife Dorothy in 1984. New owners Gordon and Linda Kirk refurbished the place and put in a tubing run, operating as Kirk’s Lodge until 1996.

Under a succession of owners, it has been called the Resort at Mt. Spokane, Falk’s Lodge and Bear Creek Lodge. The current owners offer lodging, camping, a restaurant and the snow tubing run. They advertise the lodge as a wedding venue, banquet facility and year-round getaway.

Jesse Tinsley