Spokane history club wins Westerners International award

The Spokane area has a rich history, and no one is more aware of that than the members of the Spokane Corral of Westerners International, a history club.

Now the group has made a little history of its own, having been given the Heads Up award for being the best small Corral in the organization in 2021 and taking second place in the Coke Wood for Historical Monograph or Published Article.

“We’re the best small club in Westerners International,” said club sheriff Dick Jensen. “We’re pretty excited about it.”

Jensen received an email from the chairman of Westerners International, Bonney MacDonald, announcing the awards.

“The Spokane Corral’s award is well-deserved and reflects well on your leadership within the corral and on your fellow members, who clearly are invested in interesting and adventurous programs in the West,” she wrote.

The Spokane group has a little over 60 members and about half regularly attend meetings held once a month. One of those members is history enthusiast Richard Sola, who wrote the book that won the Coke Wood award. The book is actually the October edition of the Pacific Northwesterner, which the Spokane Corral publishes twice a year. It’s titled “All Roads Lead to Power City: Five Visitors Write About Urbanizing Spokane 1888-1920.”

The book features descriptions of Spokane as told by five prominent visitors to the growing city, including Archduke Franz Ferdinand and author Zane Grey.

“All of these people have different perspectives over a 45-year history,” Sola said.

Ferdinand, who wrote about his world tour that included a stop in Spokane, criticized the amount of horse manure in the city streets, left there by the many horses who pulled wagons through town.

“He hated it,” Sola said. “But he didn’t like anyplace in the United States.”

Westerners International started in Chicago in the 1940s and the Spokane chapter got its start in 1955. It is the only chapter in Washington State and there aren’t any chapters in Idaho or Oregon.

“It originally was a club for men and particularly scholarly men, but that didn’t last long,” said Jensen.

There simply weren’t enough men of that description to keep the club viable, so it was soon expanded to men in general, as long as they promised to write a historical paper. The Spokane Corral didn’t welcome women members until the 1990’s, when the club was under the leadership of noted local historian Tony Bamonte. Sola jokes that Bamonte did it because he wanted his wife, fellow historian Suzanne Bamonte, to be able to join the club.

The founders of the Spokane Corral included Joel Ferris, a banker who would later have a high school named after him, and Cecil Hagen, an editor at the Spokane Chronicle newspaper.

“We’re trying to promote history and keep it alive for people,” Jensen said. “I’ve always loved history. It’s the human stories that are fascinating.”

When Jensen was serving in the Air Force, he made a point to learn about the history of the areas where he was stationed. He owns Inland Empire Tours and offers historical tours of the area. He went so far as to self-publish a book in 2009 called “Spokane Set in Stone,” which details dozens of local historical monuments and markers.

Sola has also had a lifelong love affair with history, in which he received a degree. He has taught regional history classes through the Act 2 program offered by Spokane Community College since 2016.

“I haven’t lost it at all, the interest in it,” he said. “It’s about people and how people deal with change in the world.”

Jensen said he’s found many people don’t become interested in history until they’re older. “Most people don’t enjoy history until they have some history,” he said.