It lies along the Spokane River , adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains , and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, 92 miles km south of the Canadian border , Spokane is the economic and cultural center of the Spokane metropolitan area , the SpokaneβCoeur d'Alene combined statistical area , and the Inland Northwest.
It is known as the birthplace of Father's Day , and locally by the nickname of "Lilac City". According to the census , Spokane had a population of ,, [ 12 ] making it the 2nd-most populous city in Washington , [ 13 ] and the 97th-most populous city in the United States. The first people to live in the area, the Spokane tribe their name meaning "children of the sun" in Salishan , lived off plentiful game. David Thompson explored the area with the westward expansion and establishment of the North West Company 's Spokane House in This trading post was the first long-term European settlement in Washington.
Completion of the Northern Pacific Railway in brought many settlers from America to the Spokane area. The same year it was officially incorporated as a city under the name of Spokane Falls it was re-incorporated under its current name ten years later.
The local economy depended on mining, timber, and agriculture until the s. Spokane hosted the first environmentally themed World's fair at Expo ' Many of the downtown area's older Romanesque Revival -style buildings were designed by architect Kirtland Kelsey Cutter after the Great Spokane Fire of , which damaged much of the downtown commercial district. John the Evangelist serves as that of the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane. Gonzaga University was established in by the Jesuits , and the private Presbyterian Whitworth University was founded three years later and moved to north Spokane in In sports, the region's professional and semi-professional sports teams include the Spokane Indians in Minor League Baseball.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs collegiate basketball team competes at the Division I level. As of , Spokane's major daily newspaper, The Spokesman-Review , had a daily circulation of over 76, The first humans to live in the Spokane area were hunter-gatherers that lived off plentiful fish and game; early human remains have been dated to 8, to 13, years ago.
