Spokane, Our Early History: Under All Is The Land
by Tony and Suzanne Bamonte

Published for the Spokane Association of Realtors' Centennial

Dreams of wealth, illusions of grandeur, and hopes for an easier life. Fulfillment was within easy reach. Within a hundred-mile radius, gold ran freely in creek beds that were surrounded by towering pines. Thunderous falls, deep fertile soil, and land - wide-open, great expanses of land - there for the asking. And at the center of these rich natural resources was the beginning of a tiny town - Spokane Falls. For capitalists, lumbermen, miners, land investors, homesteaders, the potential appeared limitless, and they soon began to flock to the area in staggering numbers.

In the beginning, the few rugged, determined settlers who believed in the town's potential struggled merely to survive. The isolation was suffocating. The backwater outpost had no lifeline to civilization - only the promise of the first northern transcontinental rail line. But the promise had been there for years. Now the town's future hung in the balance as the railroad company teetered under threat of financial failure. The few settlers, buoyed up by James Glover (the Father of Spokane), clung together for strength, even as some despaired and drifted away in hopes of finding an easier life elsewhere.

Then suddenly, as the railroad inched toward Spokane, people from all walks of life began to converge. Side by side, men of means and those of no means, the wicked and the righteous, the law-abiding and the lawless, knitted together a very rich history. Within the four decades of Spokane's early history covered in this book, the scraggly little settlement emerged into a vibrant, beautiful city of nearly 100,000.

This book showcases the city's growth through words and photographs. Spokane was built by wealth extracted from the region's mines, forests, and the mighty Spokane River, and of course, sales of the land. Tribute is paid to those who developed and sold the land, built neighborhoods and parks, and designed the opulent mansions and handsome commercial structures that rival those of any city. As their gift to Spokane, this book was sponsored by the Spokane Association of Realtors® to help celebrate their centennial.

Hardcover (8.5" x 11"), 320 pages, 395 photo illustrations, indexed.