Riverside State Park
History Preserved
As you explore downtown Spokane, you’ll find a number of points of interest that boast more than 100 years of history. One of them is a 1909 carousel right in Riverfront Park.
“It’s called the Looff Carousel,” Robinson said. “It was created by a German man named Looff who built carousels. All of the horses and animals on it are hand carved. There’s a tiger on the carousel worth $250,000; it’s one of only four tigers on a carousel in the world that you can ride.”
The carousel is on the list of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, along with numerous other sites around the city. One of the most prominent is the Davenport Hotel, which groups can tour or stay in overnight.
“The Davenport Hotel is one of our crowning jewels,” Turnbow said. “It was built in 1914, so it will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year. They did a total renovation of it in 2002. It was one of the top hotels back in the day, and now it’s better than ever.”
The Davenport is one of 11 buildings in Spokane designed by notable 20th-century architect Kirtland Cutter. Cutter’s work is known for elaborate detail and expansive size, as well as the range of styles it represents. Groups can see Cutter’s Swiss, Arts and Crafts, and Mission Revival buildings constructed between 1889 and 1939 on an architectural tour of downtown Spokane.
One of the most famous Cutter homes in Spokane is the Campbell House, a Tudor Revival mansion commissioned in the late 1800s by mining magnate Amasa B. Campbell. The Campbell House is an example of Spokane’s Age of Elegance, when wealthy miners built extravagant homes around the area. The home sits on the campus of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture and is open to the public for tours.
Whitewater AND More
If your group enjoys high adventure more than high architecture, Spokane and the surrounding region offer a variety of outdoor activity opportunities. Like everything else in the city, the menu begins downtown at the river.
“If you’re up for adventure, you can get on a guided raft tour downtown and hit some Class III and Class IV rapids,” Turnbow said. “The trips take about an hour and a half, and you can do lunch with your group as part of it. Kids as young as 12 can go out on that.”
Unlike many white-water rafting destinations that are set in rural areas, Spokane’s rafting route follows the river through downtown, which means that participants get the interesting experience of navigating rapids in the middle of an urban destination. But if you do go a bit further afield, you’ll find a variety of other opportunities for adventure in the wilderness surrounding the city.
There are five ski resorts surrounding Spokane, all within a 90-minute drive of downtown. Groups can ski and snowboard during the winter, or they can take advantage of warm-weather activities on the mountain during the summer.
“Our ski resorts have some awesome hiking trails in the summer,” Turnbow said. “You can hike, bike or go horseback riding.”
Hikers, bikers and walkers can also take advantage of the Centennial Trail, a paved trail from downtown Spokane to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
“The path used to be an old railroad,” Turnbow said. “You can ride through the old railroad tunnels. When you rent bikes, you can rent helmets with flashlights on them as well.”
About an hour and a half away from downtown, adrenaline junkies will find a notable zip-line course called Silverstreak in Kellogg, Idaho. This zip course features more than three miles of cable on which participants fly high above the floor of the Silver Valley.
