50 years ago in Expo history: King Cole discusses plans for Spokane after World’s Fair

Outgoing Expo ’74 president King Cole – now a consultant with Spokane Unlimited – described some of his ideas for Spokane’s post-Expo future.

His goal was to attract 2.5 million visitors a year to Spokane, roughly the same as the number of outside visitors who attended Expo.

One of his most ambitious ideas: secure a National Parks Service tourist information center.

He was envisioning Spokane being a tickets-and-reservations clearinghouse for visitors heading to the Northwest’s national parks and monuments. Cole said such a facility could draw a million visitors a year to Spokane.

Unfortunately, the National Park Service gave a “thumbs-down” to such a plan. But Cole said he was not giving up without a fight, and believed there was still a chance, if slim.

Cole’s other ideas included attracting conventions to the new Convention Center, bringing back the Folklife Festival annually, instituting a ski-resort package deal and making Spokane the “opera center of U.S.,” in the same way that Ashland, Oregon, had become a Shakespeare destination. He foresaw a six- to eight -week Opera Festival, attracting grand opera stars.

From 100 years ago: A passenger train from Portland to Spokane jumped the track and came within a whisker of “rolling 300 feet down the steep embankment into the Spokane River.”

The “quick action of the trainmen brought the engine to a standstill” just in time. The baggage car “hung off the rails on the narrow cut,” but no one was injured and a crew eventually got the train back on track.