title: Public relations

text: They also have to have the interest of society as a whole, and whomever will be affected by their media produced. Other than these fundamentals of the CPRS, they also introduced a code of ethics in 1961, where it supplies nine fundamental standards of ethics that members must uphold. CPRS Judicial and Ethics Committee, is set in place to oversee Public Relations members to ensure proper ethical communication. This association, like the Public Relations Society of America, helps young aspiring public relations practitioners grow their careers.


title: Public relations

text: Public relations professionals present the face of an organization or individual, usually to articulate its objectives and official views on issues of relevance, primarily to the media. Public relations contributes to the way an organization is perceived by influencing the media and maintaining relationships with stakeholders. According to Dr. Jacquie L’Etang from Queen Margaret University, public relations professionals can be viewed as "discourse workers specializing in communication and the presentation of argument and employing rhetorical strategies to achieve managerial aims."


title: Public relations

text: Building and managing relationships with those who influence an organization or individual's audiences have a central role in doing public relations. After a public relations practitioner has been working in the field, they accumulate a list of relationships that become an asset, especially for those in media relations.


title: Public relations

text: Within each discipline, typical activities include publicity events, speaking opportunities, press releases, newsletters, blogs, social media, press kits, and outbound communication to members of the press. Video and audio news releases (VNRs and ANRs) are often produced and distributed to TV outlets in hopes they will be used as regular program content.


title: Public relations

text: A fundamental technique used in public relations is to identify the target audience and to tailor messages that are relevant to each audience. Audience targeting requires public relations professionals to have a deep understanding of the needs and desires of the audience they are trying to appeal to. Sometimes the interests of differing audiences and stakeholders common to a public relations effort necessitate the creation of several distinct but complementary messages. These messages however should be relevant to each other, thus creating consistency in the overall message and theme. Audience targeting tactics are important for public relations practitioners because they face all kinds of problems: low visibility, lack of public understanding, opposition from critics, and insufficient support from funding sources.


title: Public relations

text: On the other hand, stakeholder theory identifies people who have a stake in a given institution or issue. All audiences are stakeholders (or presumptive stakeholders), but not all stakeholders are members of a target audience. For example, if a charity commissions a public relations agency to create an advertising campaign to raise money to find a cure for a disease, the charity and the people with the disease are stakeholders, but the audience is anyone who is likely to donate money. Public relations experts possess deep skills in media relations, market positioning, and branding. They are powerful agents that help clients deliver clear, unambiguous information to a target audience that matters to them.


title: Public relations

text: A public is any group whose members have a common interest or common values in a particular subject, such as a political party. Those members would then be considered stakeholders, which are people who have a stake or an interest in an organization or issue that potentially involves the organization or group they're interested in. The Publics in Public Relations are:


title: Public relations

text: Early literature authored by James Grunig (1978) suggested that publics develop in stages determined by their levels of problem recognition, constraint recognition and involvement in addressing the issue. The theory posited that publics develop in the following stages:


title: Public relations

text: Messaging is the process of creating a consistent story around: a product, person, company, or service. Messaging aims to avoid having readers receive contradictory or confusing information that will instill doubt in their purchasing choices, or other decisions that affect the company. Brands aim to have the same problem statement, industry viewpoint, or brand perception shared across sources and media.


title: Public relations

text: Digital marketing is the use of Internet tools and technologies such as search engines, Web 2.0 social bookmarking, new media relations, blogging, and social media marketing. Interactive PR allows companies and organizations to disseminate information without relying solely on mainstream publications and communicate directly with the public, customers and prospects.


title: Public relations

text: PR practitioners have always relied on the media such as TV, radio, and magazines, to promote their ideas and messages tailored specifically to a target audience. Social media marketing is not only a new way to achieve that goal, but also a continuation of a strategy that existed for decades. Lister et al. said that "Digital media can be seen as a continuation and extension of a principal or technique that was already in place".


title: Public relations

text: Social media platforms enable users to connect with audiences to build brands, increase sales, and drive website traffic. This involves publishing content on social media profiles, engaging with followers, analyzing results, and running social media advertisements. The goal is to produce content that users will share with their social network to help a company increase brand exposure and broaden customer reach. Some of the major social media platforms are currently Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Snapchat.


title: Public relations

text: As digital technology has evolved, the methods to measure effective online public relations effectiveness have improved. The Public Relations Society of America, which has been developing PR strategies since 1947, identified 5 steps to measure online public relations effectiveness.


title: Public relations

text: Publicists can work in a host of different types of business verticals such as entertainment, technology, music, travel, television, food, consumer electronics and more. Many publicists build their career in a specific business space to leverage relationships and contacts. There are different kinds of press strategies for such as B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to consumer). Business to business publicity highlights service providers who provide services and products to other businesses. Business to Consumer publicizes products and services for regular consumers, such as toys, travel, food, entertainment, personal electronics and music.


title: Public relations

text: Litigation public relations is the management of the communication process during the course of any legal dispute or adjudicatory processing so as to affect the outcome or its effect on the client's overall reputation (Haggerty, 2003).


title: Public relations

text: Public relations professionals both serve the public's interest and private interests of businesses, associations, non-profit organizations, and governments. This dual obligation gave rise to heated debates among scholars of the discipline and practitioners over its fundamental values. This conflict represents the main ethical predicament of public relations. In 2000, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) responded to the controversy by acknowledging in its new code of ethics "advocacy" – for the first time – as a core value of the discipline.


title: Public relations

text: The field of public relations is generally highly un-regulated, but many professionals voluntarily adhere to the code of conduct of one or more professional bodies to avoid exposure for ethical violations. The Chartered Institute of Public Relations, the Public Relations Society of America, and The Institute of Public Relations are a few organizations that publish an ethical code. Still, Edelman's 2003 semi-annual trust survey found that only 20 percent of survey respondents from the public believed paid communicators within a company were credible. Individuals in public relations are growing increasingly concerned with their company's marketing practices, questioning whether they agree with the company's social responsibility. They seek more influence over marketing and more of a counseling and policy-making role. On the other hand, individuals in marketing are increasingly interested in incorporating publicity as a tool within the realm marketing.


title: Public relations

text: According to Scott Cutlip, the social justification for public relations is the right for an organization to have a fair hearing of their point of view in the public forum, but to obtain such a hearing for their ideas requires a skilled advocate.


title: Public relations

text: Marketing and communications strategist, Ira Gostin, believes there is a code of conduct when conducting business and using public relations. Public relations specialists have the ability to influence society. Fact-checking and presenting accurate information is necessary to maintain credibility with employers and clients.


title: Public relations

text: The Public Relation Student Society of America has established a set of fundamental guidelines that people within the public relations professions should practice and use in their business atmosphere. These values are:


title: Public relations

text: Other than the ethics put in place in the United States of America there are also International ethics set to ensure proper and, legal worldwide communication. Regarding these ethics, there are broad codes used specifically for international forms of public relations, and then there are more specific forms from different countries. For example, some countries have certain associations to create ethics and standards to communication across their country.


title: Public relations

text: The International Association of Business Communication (founded in 1971), or also known as IABC, has its own set of ethics in order to enforce a set of guidelines that ensure communication internationality is legal, ethical, and is in good taste. Some principles that members of the board of IABC follow include.


title: Public relations

text: The IABC members use the following list of ethics in order to work to improve values of communication throughout the world:


title: Public relations

text: Spin has been interpreted historically to mean overt deceit that is meant to manipulate the public, but since the 1990s has shifted to describing a "polishing of the truth." Today, spin refers to providing a certain interpretation of information meant to sway public opinion. Companies may use spin to create the appearance of the company or other events are going in a slightly different direction than they actually are. Within the field of public relations, spin is seen as a derogatory term, interpreted by professionals as meaning blatant deceit and manipulation. Skilled practitioners of spin are sometimes called "spin doctors."


title: Public relations

text: In Stuart Ewen's "PR! A Social History of Spin", he argues that public relations can be a real menace to democracy as it renders the public discourse powerless. Corporations are able to hire public relations professionals and transmit their messages through the media channels and exercise a huge amount of influence upon the individual who is defenseless against such a powerful force. He claims that public relations is a weapon for capitalist deception and the best way to resist is to become media literate and use critical thinking when interpreting the various mediated messages.


title: Public relations

text: According to Jim Hoggan, "public relations is not by definition 'spin'. Public relations is the art of building good relationships. You do that most effectively by earning trust and goodwill among those who are important to you and your business... Spin is to public relations what manipulation is to interpersonal communications. It's a diversion whose primary effect is ultimately to undermine the central goal of building trust and nurturing a good relationship."


title: Public relations

text: The techniques of spin include selectively presenting facts and quotes that support ideal positions (cherry picking), the so-called "non-denial denial," phrasing that in a way presumes unproven truths, euphemisms for drawing attention away from items considered distasteful, and ambiguity in public statements. Another spin technique involves careful choice of timing in the release of certain news so it can take advantage of prominent events in the news.


title: Public relations

text: Negative public relations, also called dark public relations (DPR), 'black hat PR' and in some earlier writing "Black PR", is a process of destroying the target's reputation and/or corporate identity. The objective in DPR is to discredit someone else, who may pose a threat to the client's business or be a political rival. DPR may rely on IT security, industrial espionage, social engineering and competitive intelligence. Common techniques include using dirty secrets from the target, producing misleading facts to fool a competitor. In politics, a decision to use negative PR is also known as negative campaigning.


title: Public relations

text: The T.A.R.E.S. is a five-point test that evaluates ethical persuasion and provides boundaries in persuasive practices.


title: Public relations

text: In "Propaganda" (1928), Bernays argued that the manipulation of public opinion was a necessary part of democracy. In public relations, lobby groups are created to influence government policy, corporate policy or public opinion, typically in a way that benefits the sponsoring organization.


title: Public relations

text: In fact, Bernays stresses that we are in fact dominated in almost every aspect of our lives, by a relatively small number of persons who have mastered the 'mental processes and social patterns of the masses,’ which include our behavior, political and economic spheres or our morals. In theory, each individual chooses his own opinion on behavior and public issues. However, in practice, it is impossible for one to study all variables and approaches of a particular question and come to a conclusion without any external influence. This is the reason why the society has agreed upon an 'invisible government' to interpret on our behalf information and narrow the choice field to a more practical scale.


title: Public relations

text: When a lobby group hides its true purpose and support base, it is known as a front group. Front groups are a form of astroturfing, because they intend to sway the public or the government without disclosing their financial connection to corporate or political interests. They create a fake grass-roots movement by giving the appearance of a trusted organization that serves the public, when they actually serve their sponsors.


title: Public relations

text: Politicians also employ public relations professionals to help project their views, policies and even personalities to their best advantages.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Canadian border, west of the Washington–Idaho border, and east of Seattle, along I-90.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane is the economic and cultural center of the Spokane metropolitan area, the Spokane–Coeur 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". Officially, Spokane goes by the nickname of "Hooptown USA", due to Spokane annually hosting Spokane Hoopfest, the world's largest basketball tournament. The city and the wider Inland Northwest area are served by Spokane International Airport, west of Downtown Spokane. According to the 2010 census, Spokane had a population of 208,916, making it the second-largest city in Washington, and the 101st-largest city in the United States. At the 2020 census, Spokane's population was 228,989. A 2021 estimate sets the population of the Spokane Metropolitan Area at 593,466.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: 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 1810. This trading post was the first long-term European settlement in Washington. Completion of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1881 brought settlers 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). In the late 19th century, gold and silver were discovered in the Inland Northwest. The local economy depended on mining, timber, and agriculture until the 1980s. Spokane hosted the first environmentally themed World's fair at Expo '74.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Many of the downtown area's older Romanesque Revival-style buildings were designed by architect Kirtland Kelsey Cutter after the Great Fire of 1889. The city is also home to the Riverfront and Manito parks, the Smithsonian-affiliated Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, the Davenport Hotel, and the Fox and Bing Crosby theaters.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane, and the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist serves as that of the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane. The Spokane Washington Temple in the east of the county serves the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Gonzaga University was established in 1887 by the Jesuits, and the private Presbyterian Whitworth University was founded three years later and moved to north Spokane in 1914.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The city's western suburb of Airway Heights is home to Fairchild Air Force Base as well as two large casino hotels.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: In sports, the region's professional and semi-professional sports teams include the Spokane Indians in Minor League Baseball and Spokane Chiefs in junior ice hockey. The Gonzaga Bulldogs collegiate basketball team competes at the Division I level. As of 2010, Spokane's major daily newspaper, "The Spokesman-Review", had a daily circulation of over 76,000.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: 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 8,000 to 13,000 years ago. The Spokane tribe, after which the city is named (the name meaning "children of the sun" or "sun people" in Salishan), are believed to be either their direct descendants, or descendants of people from the Great Plains. When asked by early white explorers, the Spokanes said their ancestors came from "up North." Early in the 19th century, the Northwest Fur Company sent two white fur trappers west of the Rocky Mountains to search for fur. These were the first white men met by the Spokanes, who believed they were sacred, and set the trappers up in the Colville River valley for the winter.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The explorer-geographer David Thompson, working as head of the North West Company's Columbia Department, became the first European to explore the Inland Empire (now called the Inland Northwest). Crossing what is now the Canada–US border from British Columbia, Thompson wanted to expand the North West Company further south in search of furs. After establishing the Kullyspell House and Saleesh House trading posts in what are now Idaho and Montana, Thompson then attempted to expand further west. He sent out two trappers, Jacques Raphael Finlay and Finan McDonald, to construct a fur trading post on the Spokane River, which flows west from Lake Coeur d'Alene to the Columbia River, and trade with the local Indians. This post was established in 1810, at the confluence of the Little Spokane and Spokane rivers, becoming the first enduring European settlement of significance in what later became Washington state. Known as the Spokane House, or simply "Spokane", it was in operation from 1810 to 1826. Operations were run by the British North West Company and later the Hudson's Bay Company, and the post was the headquarters of the fur trade between the Rocky and Cascade mountains for 16 years. After the latter business absorbed the North West Company in 1821, the major operations at the Spokane House were eventually shifted north to Fort Colville, reducing the post's significance.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: In 1836, Reverend Samuel Parker visited the area and reported that around 800 Native Americans were living in Spokane Falls. A medical mission was established by Marcus and Narcissa Whitman to cater for Cayuse Indians and hikers of the Oregon Trail at Walla Walla in the south.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: After the Whitmans were killed by Indians in 1847, Reverend Cushing Eells established Whitman College in their memory, also setting up the first church in the Spokane area.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: In 1853, two years after the establishment of the Washington Territory, the first governor, Isaac Stevens, made an initial effort to make a treaty with Chief Garry and the Spokanes at Antoine Plantes' Ferry, not far from Millwood. After the last campaign of the Yakima Indian War, the Coeur d'Alene War of 1858 was brought to a close by the actions of Col. George Wright, who won decisive victories against a confederation of tribes in engagements at the battles of Four Lakes and Spokane Plains. The cessation of hostilities opened the inter-mountain valley of the Pacific Northwest to safe habitation by settlers.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Joint American–British occupation of Oregon Country, in effect since the Treaty of 1818, eventually led to the Oregon Boundary Dispute after a large influx of American settlers along the Oregon Trail. Great Britain ceded its claims to lands in Puget Sound and the central and lower Columbia Basin by the Oregon Treaty of 1846 The Hudson's Bay Company wound up its operations in the area over the next few years.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: In what is now Spokane, the first American settlers were J.J. Downing and S.R. Scranton, cattle ranchers who squatted and established a claim at Spokane Falls in 1871. Together they built a small sawmill on a claim near the south bank of the falls. James N. Glover and Jasper Matheney, Oregonians passing through the region in 1873, recognized the value of the Spokane River and its falls for the purpose of water power. They realized the investment potential and bought the claims of and the sawmill from Downing and Scranton for a total of $4,000. Glover and Matheney knew that the Northern Pacific Railroad Company had received a government charter to build a main line across this northern route. Amid many delays in construction and uncertainty over the completion of the railroad and its exact course, Matheney sold his interest in the claim to Glover. Glover confidently held on to his claim and became a successful Spokane business owner and the city's second mayor. He later came to be known as the "Father of Spokane".


title: Spokane, Washington

text: In 1880, Fort Spokane was established by U.S. Army troops under Lt. Col. Henry C. Merriam northwest of Spokane, at the junction of the Columbia and Spokane Rivers, to protect the construction of the Northern Pacific Railway and secure a place for U.S. settlement. By June 30, 1881, the railway reached the city, bringing major European settlement to the area. The city was officially incorporated with a population of about 1,000 residents on November 29, 1881. When Spokane was officially incorporated in 1881, Robert W. Forrest was elected as the first mayor of the city, with a Council of seven, S.G. Havermale, A.M. Cannon, Dr. L.H. Whitehouse, L.W. Rima, F.R. Moore, George A. Davis, and W.C. Gray, all serving without pay. The marketing campaigns of transportation companies with affordable fertile land to sell along their trade routes lured many settlers into the region they dubbed "Spokane Country".


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The 1883 discovery of gold, silver, and lead in the Coeur d'Alene region of northern Idaho lured prospectors. The Inland Empire erupted with numerous mining rushes from 1883 to 1892. Mining and smelting emerged as a major stimulus to Spokane. At the onset of the initial 1883 gold rush in the nearby Coeur d'Alene mining district, Spokane became popular with prospectors, offering low prices on everything "from a horse to a frying pan". It would keep this status for subsequent rushes in the region due to its trade center status and accessibility to railroad infrastructure.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane's growth continued unabated until August 4, 1889, when a fire, now known as The Great Fire (not to be confused with the Great Fire of 1910, which happened nearby), began just after 6:00 p.m., and destroyed the city's downtown commercial district. Due to technical problems with a pump station, there was no water pressure in the city when the fire started. In a desperate bid to starve the fire, firefighters began razing buildings with dynamite. Eventually, the winds and the fire died down; 32 blocks of Spokane's downtown core had been destroyed and one person was killed.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Despite this catastrophe, and in part because of it, Spokane experienced a building boom. The downtown was rebuilt, and the city was reincorporated under the present name of "Spokane" in 1891. According to historian David H. Stratton, "From the late 1890s to about 1912, a great flurry of construction created a modern urban profile of office buildings, banks, department stores, hotels and other commercial institutions" which stretched from the Spokane River to the site of the Northern Pacific railroad tracks below the South Hill. Yet the rebuilding and development of the city was far from smooth: between 1889 and 1896 alone, all six bridges over the Spokane River were destroyed by floods before their completion. In the 1890s the city was subject to intrastate migration by African-Americans from Roslyn, looking for work after the closure of the area's mines. Two African-American churches, Calvary Baptist and Bethel African Methodist Episcopal, were founded in 1890. Just three years after the fire, in 1892, James J. Hill's Great Northern Railway arrived in the chosen site for Hill's rail yards, the newly created township of Hillyard (annexed by Spokane in 1924). Spokane became an important rail shipping and transportation hub for the Inland Empire, connecting mines in the Silver Valley with agricultural areas around the Palouse region. The city's population ballooned to 19,922 in 1890, and to 36,848 in 1900 with the arrival of additional railroads. By 1910 the population had hit 104,000, and Spokane eclipsed Walla Walla as the commercial center of the Inland Empire. In time the city came to be known as the "capital" of the Inland Empire and the heart of a vast tributary region. After the arrival of the Northern Pacific, Union Pacific, Great Northern, and Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific railroads, Spokane became one of the most important rail centers in the western U.S.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Expansion abruptly stopped in the 1910s and was followed by a period of population decline, due in large part to Spokane's slowing economy. Control of regional mines and resources became increasingly dominated by national corporations rather than local people and organizations, diverting capital outside of Spokane and decreasing growth and investment opportunities in the city. During this time of stagnation, unrest was prevalent among the area's unemployed, who became victimized by "job sharks", who charged a fee for signing up workers in the logging camps. Job sharks and employment agencies were known to cheat itinerant workers, sometimes paying bribes to periodically fire entire work crews, thus generating repetitive fees for themselves. Crime spiked in the 1890s and 1900s, with eruptions of violent activity involving unions such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), or "Wobblies" as they were often known, whose free speech fights had begun to garner national attention. Now, with grievances concerning the unethical practices of the employment agencies, they initiated a free speech fight in September 1908 by purposely breaking a city ordinance on soapboxing. With IWW encouragement, union members from many western states came to Spokane to take part in what had become a publicity stunt. Many Wobblies were incarcerated, including feminist labor leader Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, who published her account in the local "Industrial Worker".


title: Spokane, Washington

text: After mining declined at the turn of the 20th century, agriculture and logging became the primary influences in the Spokane economy. The population explosion and the building of homes, railroads, and mines in northern Idaho and southern British Columbia fueled the logging industry. Although overshadowed in importance by the vast timbered areas on the coastal regions west of the Cascades, and burdened with monopolistic rail freight rates and stiff competition, Spokane became a noted leader in the manufacture of doors, window sashes, blinds, and other planing mill products. Rail freight rates were much higher in Spokane than the rates in coastal seaport cities such as Seattle and Portland, so much so that Minneapolis merchants could ship goods first to Seattle and then back to Spokane for less than shipping directly to Spokane, even though the rail line ran through Spokane on the way to the coast.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The Inland Northwest region has also long been associated with farming, especially wheat production. Initially, the Palouse was thought to be unsuitable for wheat production due to the hilly terrain, believing wheat could not be cultivated on the tops of the hills, but the region showed great promise for wheat production when it began in the late 1850s in part due to the hilltops. The Palouse was and still is a breadbasket and was able to develop and grow with the completion of several railroad networks as well as a highway system that began to center around the city of Spokane, aiding farmers from around the region in distributing their products to market. Inland Empire farmers exported wheat, livestock and other agricultural products to ports such as New York, Liverpool and Tokyo.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Local morale was affected for years by the collapse of the Division Street Bridge early in the morning on December 15, 1915, which killed five people and injured over 20, but a new bridge was built (eventually replaced in 1994). The 1920 census showed a net increase of just 35 individuals, which actually indicates that thousands left the city when considering the natural growth rate of a population. Growth in the 1920s and 1930s remained slow but less drastically so, forcing city boosters to market the city as a quiet, comfortable place suitable for raising a family rather than a dynamic community full of opportunity. The Inland Empire was heavily dependent on natural resources and extractive goods produced from mines, forests, and farms, which experienced a fall in demand. The situation improved slightly with the start of World War II as aluminum production commenced in Spokane due to the area's cheap electricity (produced from regional dams) and the increased demand for airplanes.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: After decades of stagnation and slow growth, Spokane businessmen formed Spokane Unlimited in the early 1960s, an organization that sought to revitalize downtown Spokane. A recreation park showcasing the Spokane Falls was the preferred option, and after successful negotiation to relocate the railroad facilities on Havermale Island, they executed on a proposal to host the first environmentally themed World's Fair in Expo '74 on May 4, becoming the smallest city at the time to host a World's Fair. This event transformed Spokane's downtown, removing a century of railroad infrastructure and re-inventing the urban core. After Expo '74, the fairgrounds became the Riverfront Park.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The growth witnessed in the late 1970s and early 1980s was interrupted by another U.S. recession in 1981, in which silver, timber, and farm prices dropped. The period of decline for the city lasted into the 1990s and was also marked by a loss of many steady family-wage jobs in the manufacturing sector. At this time, market forces began to impact the local Kaiser Aluminum plant and layoffs, pension cuts, a 1998-1999 labor strike, and eventually bankruptcy in 2002 followed. Although this was a tough period, Spokane's economy had started to benefit from some measure of economic diversification; growing companies such as Key Tronic and other research, marketing, and assembly plants for technology companies helped lessen Spokane's dependence on natural resources.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: As of 2014, Spokane is still trying to make the transition to a more service-oriented economy in the face of a less prominent manufacturing sector. Developing the city's strength in the medical and health sciences fields has seen some success, resulting in the expansion of the University District with two medical school branches. The city faces challenges such as a scarcity of high-paying jobs, pockets of poverty, and areas of high crime.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The opening of the River Park Square in 1999 served as a catalyst and sparked a downtown rebirth that included the building of the Spokane Arena and expansion of the Spokane Convention Center. Other major projects include the building of the Big Easy concert house (now the Knitting Factory) and renovation of the historic Montvale Hotel, the Kirtland Cutter-designed Davenport Hotel (after being vacant for over 20 years), the Fox Theater (now home to the Spokane Symphony) as well as the completion of the WSU Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences Building in 2013 and the Davenport Grand Hotel in 2015, Ridpath Hotel in 2018 and the ongoing renovation of Riverfront Park (as of May 2019). The Kendall Yards development on the west side of downtown Spokane is one of the largest construction projects in the city's history. Directly across the Spokane River from downtown, it will blend residential and retail space with plazas and walking trails.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane is located on the Spokane River in eastern Washington at an elevation of above sea level, about from Idaho, south of the Canadian border, due east of Seattle, and southwest of Calgary. The lowest elevation in the city of Spokane is the northernmost point of the Spokane River within city limits (in Riverside State Park) at ; the highest elevation is on the northeast side, near the community of Hillyard (though closer to Beacon Hill and the North Hill Reservoir) at . Spokane is part of the Inland Northwest region, consisting of eastern Washington, north Idaho, northwestern Montana, and northeastern Oregon. The city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane lies mostly within the Spokane Valley Outwash Plains at the periphery of the North Central Rockies forests ecoregion and partly within the eastern edge of the basaltic Channeled Scablands steppe of the Columbia Plateau ecoregion, a plain that eventually rises sharply to the east towards the rugged, timbered Selkirk Mountains. The foothills of the Rockies—the Coeur d'Alene Mountains—rise about to the east in north Idaho. The city is in a transition area between the barren landscape of the Columbia Basin and the coniferous forests to the east; to the south are the lush prairies and rolling hills of the Palouse. The highest peak in Spokane County is Mount Spokane, at an elevation of , on the eastern side of the Selkirk Mountains. The Spokane River is the area's most prominent water feature, a tributary of the Columbia River, originating from Lake Coeur d'Alene in northern Idaho. The river flows west across the Washington state line through downtown Spokane, meeting Latah Creek, then turns to the northwest, where it is joined by the Little Spokane River on its way to the Columbia River, north of Davenport. The Channeled Scablands and many of the area's numerous large lakes, such as Lake Coeur d'Alene and Lake Pend Oreille, were formed by the Missoula Floods after the ice-dammed Glacial Lake Missoula ruptured at the end of the last ice age. The Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge south of Cheney is the closest natural reserve, the closest National Forest is the Colville National Forest, the closest National Recreation Area is the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area and the closest national park is Mount Rainier National Park, approximately a four-and-a-half hour drive from Spokane.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The area supports an abundance of wildlife in part because of its varied geology and natural history. The area contains a wide range of vegetation, from densely wooded coniferous forests to rolling grassy hills and meadows. Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir are common in the drier and lower elevation areas throughout the region. The ponderosa pine is the official tree of the City of Spokane, which is where specimens were first collected by botanist David Douglas in 1826.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The Canadian Rockies ecoregion supports 70 mammals, 16 reptiles and amphibians, 168 birds, and 41 fish species. There is a high concentration of raptors in the area, bald eagles are a common sight near Lake Coeur d'Alene in December and January when kokanee spawn. The most common fish present in area lakes is the Washington-native rainbow trout, which is the official fish of Washington state. Big game common in eastern Washington include black and grizzly bears, caribou, Rocky Mountain elk, bighorn sheep, and cougar. Whitetail deer, mule deer, and moose are also found in abundance. The gray wolf population has been making a recovery in the Inland Northwest. As of June 2016, there are 16 wolf packs in eastern Washington. In August 2016, photo evidence confirmed a solitary wolf in Mount Spokane State Park.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Although the ecoregion remains ecologically intact, it faces conservation challenges that include the negative effects of certain forestry management and logging practices, higher risks of forest fires due to the alteration of the trees that make up the forest composition, and habitat fragmentation as a result of urban sprawl and development, which endangers the long-term survival of vulnerable species such as mountain caribou and the Northern goshawk.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane has a warm-summer humid continental climate ("Dsb" under the Köppen classification), a rare climate due to its elevation and significant winter precipitation; Spokane, however, is adjacent to and sometimes even classified as a warm-summer Mediterranean climate ("Csb") because the average temperature for the coldest month is over , though in the US this threshold is often defined to be .


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The area typically has a warm, arid climate during the summer months, bracketed by short spring and fall seasons. On average, the warmest month is July and the coolest month is December; July averages , while December averages . Daily temperature ranges are large during the summer, often exceeding , and small during the winter, with a range just above . The record high and low are and , but temperatures of more than or less than are rare. Temperatures of + occur an average of 21 days annually, temperatures of + occur an average of only 1 day annually, and those at or below average 2.2 days a year.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane's location, between the Cascades Range to the west and the Rocky Mountains to the east and north, protects it from weather patterns experienced in other parts of the Pacific Northwest. The Cascade Mountains form a barrier to the eastward flow of moist and relatively mild air from the Pacific Ocean in winter and cool air in summer. As a result of the rain shadow effect of the Cascades, the Spokane area has average annual precipitation, less than half of Seattle's . Precipitation peaks in December, and summer is the driest time of the year. The Rockies shield Spokane from some of the winter season's coldest air masses traveling southward across Canada.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The City of Spokane operates under a mayor–council form of government, with executive and legislative branches that are elected in non-partisan elections. David Condon was elected mayor in November 2011 and took office on the last business day of the year. The previous mayor was Mary Verner, who succeeded Dennis P. Hession who himself succeeded the recalled James "Jim" West. The city elected James Everett Chase as its first African-American mayor in 1981, and after his retirement, elected the city's first woman mayor, Vicki McNeil. Spokane is the county seat of Spokane County, a position it wrested from Cheney in 1886. Spokane is a part of Washington's 3rd legislative district, which is represented in the Washington State Senate by Andy Billig. The 3rd Legislative District is represented in the Washington House of Representatives by Marcus Riccelli and Timm Ormsby.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Federally, Spokane is within Washington's 5th congressional district, and has been represented in the House of Representatives by Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers since 2004. Washington State is represented nationally in the Senate by Democrat Patty Murray and Democrat Maria Cantwell. In the 2012 general election, Spokane County favored Mitt Romney for president over Barack Obama by 51.5 to 45.7 percent; on the state ballot, the county supported the legalization of recreational marijuana ballot measure by 52.2 to 47.9 percent but opposed the legalization of same-sex marriage by 55.9 to 44.1 percent. Spokane native Tom Foley was a Democratic Speaker of the House and served as a representative of Washington's 5th district for 30 years, enjoying large support from Spokane, until his narrow defeat in the "Republican Revolution" of 1994, the only time U.S. voters have turned out a sitting Speaker of the House since 1860.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The crime rate per 1,000 people in the Spokane metropolitan area (Spokane County) was 64.8 in 2012, higher than the Washington state average of 38.3; the violent crime rate of 3.8 and property crime rate of 61 also exceed the statewide averages of 2.5 and 35.8, respectively. NeighborhoodScout describes Spokane as "Safer than 2% of U.S. Cities".


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Half of all property crimes are localized in about 6.5 percent of the city. Spokane had the fourth-highest rate of auto theft in the U.S. in 2010 and 2011, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. Drive-by shootings and drug use, particularly crack cocaine use, became worse in the early 1990s, and four drive-by shootings were recorded in December 1993 alone. In the 1990s, the Spokane Police Department (SPD) established a special gang unit, with an officer "collecting intelligence on gang activity and disseminating it to street officers". The 1990s also saw Spokane's most prolific serial killer, Robert Lee Yates, who killed thirteen prostitutes in Spokane's East Sprague red light district and confessed to two others in Tacoma, Washington. The transition of the Spokane Police Department to a community-policing precinct model has helped curb crime rates since its introduction downtown, and has been expanded citywide. The crime woes are possibly due in part to an imbalance that Spokane County prisons receive of pre-release and work-release prisoners; An investigation by the "Tacoma News Tribune" found that while Spokane County accounts for 6.21 percent of the inmates in state prisons, it receives a disproportionate 16.73 percent of the inmate population to be released into the general population.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane and the Spokane Police Department have received national publicity and scrutiny in the 2000s and 2010s due to many officer-involved shootings and allegations of excessive force. The most high-profile of these incidents was the 2006 death of Otto Zehm, a mentally challenged man who was initially suspected of theft at a convenience store. Zehm was later found to have committed no crime, but was struck with batons by several officers and tasered. The increased pressure on the SPD prompted an independent review by a commission of the organization's use-of-force policies, an internal culture audit, and the purchase of body cameras.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: According to the American Community Survey, the median income for a household in Spokane in 2012 was $42,274, and the median income for a family was $50,268. Males had a median income of $42,693 and females had a median income of $34,795. The per capita income for the city was $24,034. About 13.3% of families and 18.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.8% of those under the age of 18 and 10.8% of those aged 65 and older.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: At the 2010 census, there were 208,916 people, 87,271 households, and 49,204 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 94,291 housing units at an average density of . The racial make-up of the city was 86.7% White, 2.6% Asian, 2.3% African American, 2.0% Native American, 0.6% Pacific Islander, and 1.3% from other races. 5.0% of residents were of Hispanics or Latinos heritage, of any race.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: There were 87,271 households, of which 28.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.5% were married couples living together, 12.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.0% had a male householder with no wife present, and 43.6% were non-families. In 2010, 34.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.31 and the average family size was 2.97.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The median age in the city was 35 years. In Spokane, 22.4% of residents were under the age of 18, 12.3% were between the ages of 18 and 24, 27.6% were from 25 to 44, 25.1% were from 45 to 64, and 12.8% were 65 years of age or older. The gender make-up of the city was 48.8% male and 51.2% female.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: According to the Association of Religion Data Archives' 2010 Metro Area Membership Report, the denominational affiliations of the Spokane MSA are 64,277 Evangelical Protestant, 682 Black Protestant, 24,826 Mainline Protestant, 754 Orthodox, 66,202 Catholic, 31,674 Other, and 339,338 Unclaimed. As of 2016, there are also at least three Jewish congregations.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The Emanu-El congregation erected the first synagogue in Spokane and the state of Washington on September 14, 1892. The city's first mosque opened in 2009 as the Spokane Islamic Center. Spokane, like Washington and the Pacific Northwest region as a whole, is part of the Unchurched Belt, a region characterized by low church membership rates and religious participation. The city serves as the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane, which was established in 1913, and the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane, established in 1929. The Spokane Washington Temple, established in 1999, serves Latter-day Saints from the east of the county.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane has hosted an annual multicultural celebration, Unity in the Community, since 1995. The city has become more diverse in recent decades. People from countries in the former Soviet Union (especially Russians and Ukrainians) form a comparatively large demographic in Spokane and Spokane County, the result of a large influx of immigrants and their families after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. According to the 2000 Census, the number of people of Russian or Ukrainian ancestry in Spokane County was reported to be 7,700 (4,900 residing in the city of Spokane), amounting to two percent of the county. Among the fastest-growing demographics in Spokane is the Pacific Islander ethnic group, which is estimated to be the third-largest minority group in the county, after the Russian and Ukrainian community and Latinos. Spokane was once home to a sizable Asian community, mostly Japanese, centered in a district called Chinatown from the early days of the city until 1974. As in many western railway towns, the Asian community started off as an encampment for migrant laborers working on the railroads. The Chinatown Asian community thrived until the 1940s and experienced a population boom during WWII as Japanese families fled the exclusion zones along the coast, after which its population decreased and became integrated and dispersed, losing its Asian character; urban blight and the preparations leading up to Expo '74 led to Chinatown's eventual demolition.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The Spokane metropolitan area consists of Spokane County. As of the 2018 census estimates, the Spokane metropolitan area had a population of 573,493. Directly east of Spokane County is the Coeur d'Alene Metropolitan Statistical Area, which consists of Kootenai County, Idaho, anchored by the city of Coeur d'Alene. The urban areas of the two MSAs largely follow the path of Interstate 90 between Spokane and Coeur d'Alene. The Spokane area has suffered from suburbanization and urban sprawl in past decades, despite Washington's use of urban growth boundaries; the city ranks low among major Northwest cities in population density and smart growth according to the Sightline Institute, however Smart Growth America in a 2014 study ranked the census defined MSA as the 22nd most compact and connected in the nation using their Sprawl Index factors: development density, land use mix, activity centering, and street accessibility. The Spokane and Coeur d'Alene Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) are now included in a single Combined Statistical Area (CSA) by the Office of Management and Budget. The Spokane–Coeur d'Alene CSA had around 721,873 residents in 2017.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane's neighborhoods range from the Victorian-style South Hill and Browne's Addition, to the Davenport District of Downtown, to the more contemporary neighborhoods of north Spokane. Spokane's neighborhoods are gaining attention for their history, as illustrated by the city being home to 18 recognized National Register Historical Districts.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Some of Spokane's best-known neighborhoods are Riverside, Browne's Addition, and Hillyard. The Riverside neighborhood consists primarily of downtown Spokane and is the central business district of Spokane. The neighborhoods south of downtown Spokane are collectively known as the South Hill. Downtown Spokane contains many of the city's public facilities, including City Hall, Riverfront Park (site of Expo '74), and the Spokane Convention Center and First Interstate Center for the Arts, as well as the Spokane Arena and Spokane County Courthouse across the river in the historic West Central neighborhood. The Monroe Street Bridge, a city icon, connects the two areas. To the east of downtown is East Central and the adjacent University District and budding "International District". To the west of downtown is one of Spokane's oldest and densest neighborhoods, Browne's Addition.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: A National Historic District west of Downtown, Browne's Addition was Spokane's first prestigious address, notable for its array of old mansions built by Spokane's early elite in the Queen Anne and early American Craftsman styles. The area houses the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. In northeast Spokane, the Hillyard neighborhood began in 1892 as the chosen site for James J. Hill's Great Northern Railway yard, placed outside Spokane city limits to avoid "burdensome taxes". The downtown Hillyard Business District, located on Market Street, was the first Spokane neighborhood listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Many of the former town's houses were built to house railroad workers, mainly immigrant laborers working in the local yard, who gave Hillyard an independent, blue-collar character. Hillyard has become a home for much of Spokane's growing Russian, Ukrainian, and Southeast Asian communities.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane neighborhoods contain a patchwork of architectural styles that give them a distinct identity and illustrate the changes throughout the city's history. Most of Spokane's notable buildings and landmarks are in the Riverside neighborhood and the downtown commercial district, where many of the buildings were rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1889 in the Romanesque Revival style. Examples include the Great Northern clock tower, Review Building, Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes, First Congregational Church, Washington Water Power Post Street substation, Peyton Building, and The Carlyle.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The principal architect of many buildings of this period was Kirtland Kelsey Cutter. Self-taught, he came to Spokane in 1886, and began by designing "Chalet Hohenstein" for himself and other residences for his family, while also working as a bank teller. Other structures designed by Cutter include the Spokane Club, Washington Water Power Substation, Monroe Street Bridge (featured in the city seal), the Steam Plant, and the Davenport Hotel. Built in renaissance and Spanish Revival style, the Davenport Hotel cost two million dollars to complete and included new technologies at the time of its opening in September 1914, such as chilled water, elevators, and air cooling.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: In contemporary times, one of the city's foremost and influential architects has been Warren C. Heylman, who helped give the city a great breadth of mid-century architecture. Heylman's career was most prolific during the 1960s and 1970s where his main body of work was done in the modernist style, designing numerous residential houses, apartment buildings, and architectural embellishments. Some of his most noteworthy works in Spokane include The Parkade, Spokane International Airport, Spokane Regional Health Building, and the Burlington Northern Latah Creek Bridge over Hangman Valley.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Other well-represented architectural styles downtown include Art Deco (Spokane City Hall, Paulsen Center, Fox Theater, John R. Rogers High School, City Ramp Garage), Renaissance Revival (Steam Plant Square, Thomas S. Foley Courthouse, Legion Building, San Marco), Neoclassical (Masonic Center, Hutton Building, Bing Crosby Theater), Chicago School (U.S. Bank Building, Liberty Building, Old City Hall) and Modernist (The Parkade, Ridpath Hotel, Bank of America Financial Center). The tallest building in the city, at , is the Bank of America Financial Center. Also of note is the Spokane County Courthouse in West Central (the building on the seal of Spokane County), the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Rockwood, the Benewah Milk Bottles in Riverside and Garland, Mount Saint Michael in Hillyard, and the Cambern Dutch Shop Windmill in South Perry.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: As an early affluent Spokane neighborhood, the Browne's Addition neighborhood and residences contain the largest variety of residential architecture in the city. These residences are lavish and personalized, featuring many architectural styles that were popular and trendy in the Pacific Northwest from the late 19th century to 1930, such as the Victorian and Queen Anne styles. In high demand following his firms' design of the Idaho Building at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, Cutter found work constructing many mansions for mining and railroad tycoons such as Patrick "Patsy" Clark and Daniel C. Corbin and son Austin.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The older neighborhoods of the early 20th century, such as West Central, East Central, Logan, Hillyard, and much of the lower South Hill, feature a large concentration of American Craftsman style bungalows. In Hillyard, the most architecturally intact neighborhood in Spokane, 85 percent of these buildings are historic. As the city expanded mainly to the north in the middle of the 20th century, the bungalows in the "minimal traditional" style commonplace from the 1930s to the 1950s tend to predominate in the Northwest, North Hill, and Bemiss neighborhoods. This architectural style occupies the neighborhoods where the integrity of Spokane's street grid pattern is largely intact (especially the areas north of downtown and south of Francis Ave.), and the houses have backyard alleys for carports, deliveries, and refuse collection. Contemporary suburbs and architecture are prevalent at the north and south edges of Spokane as well as in the new Kendall Yards neighborhood north of downtown.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: In 1907, Spokane's board of park commissioners retained the services of the Olmsted Brothers to draw up a plan for Spokane's parks. Much of Spokane's park land was acquired by the city prior to World War I, establishing it early on as a leader among Western cities in the development of a citywide park system. Spokane has a system of over 87 parks totaling and includes six neighborhood aquatic centers. Some of the most notable parks in Spokane's system are Riverfront Park, Manito Park and Botanical Gardens, Riverside State Park, Mount Spokane State Park, Saint Michael's Mission State Park, Plantes Ferry Recreation Park, John A. Finch Arboretum, and the Dishman Hills Conservation Area.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Riverfront Park, created after Expo '74 and occupying the same site, is in downtown Spokane and the site of some of Spokane's largest events. The park has views of the Spokane Falls and holds a number of civic attractions, including a skyride, a rebuilt gondola lift that carries visitors across the falls from high above the river gorge. The park also includes the historic hand-carved Riverfront Park Looff carousel created in 1909 by Charles I. D. Looff. Riverfront Park is currently being renovated and modernized (as of October 2016). Manito Park and Botanical Gardens on Spokane's South Hill features the Duncan Gardens, a classical European Renaissance-style garden and the Nishinomiya Japanese Garden designed by Nagao Sakurai. Riverside State Park, close to downtown, is a site for outdoor activities such as hiking, mountain biking, and horse riding.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The Spokane area has many trails and rail trails, the most notable of which is the Spokane River Centennial Trail, which features over of paved trails running along the Spokane River from Spokane to the Idaho border. This trail continues on towards Coeur d'Alene for as the North Idaho Centennial Trail and is often used for alternative transportation and recreational use. In the summer, it has long been popular to visit North Idaho's "Lake Country", such as Lake Coeur d'Alene, Lake Pend Oreille, Priest Lake, or one of the other nearby bodies of water and beaches. In the winter, the public has access to five ski resorts within a couple hours of the city. The closest of these is the Mt. Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park, which has trails for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, and dog sledding.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Zoological parks in Spokane include Cat Tales Zoological Park, a wildlife sanctuary primarily for big cats and the Blue Zoo an interactive aquarium in the NorthTown Mall.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane became an important rail and shipping center because of its location between mining and farming areas. In the early 1880s, gold and silver were discovered in the Inland Empire; as a regional shipping center, the city furnished supplies to the miners who passed through on their way to the mineral-rich Coeur d'Alene, Colville and Kootenay districts. The mining districts are still considered among the most productive in North America.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Natural resources have historically been the foundation of Spokane's economy, with the mining, logging, and agriculture industries providing much of the region's economic activity. After mining declined at the turn of the 20th century, agriculture and logging replaced mining as the primary influences in the economy. Lumberjacks and millmen working in the hundreds of mills along the railroads, rivers, and lakes of northern Washington and Idaho were provisioning themselves in Spokane. Agriculture has always been an important sector in the local economy. The surrounding area, especially to the south is the Palouse, a region that has long been associated with farming, especially wheat production where it is one of the largest wheat producing regions in the United States. As with the mining industry in the late 1880s, Spokane was an important agricultural market and trade center. Inland Empire farmers exported wheat, livestock and other agricultural products to the ports such as New York, Liverpool and Tokyo. Today, a large share of the wheat produced in the region is shipped to Far East markets. The Inland Northwest also supports many vineyards and microbreweries as well. By the early 20th century Spokane was primarily a commercial center rather than an industrial center.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: In Spokane, wood and food processing, printing and publishing, primary metal refining and fabrication, electrical and computer equipment, and transportation equipment are leaders in the manufacturing sector. Gold mining company Gold Reserve, and Fortune 1000 company Potlatch Corporation – a forest products company that operates as a real estate investment trust – are headquartered in the city proper. Mining, forestry, and agribusiness remain important to the local and regional economy, but Spokane's economy has diversified to include other industries, including the high-tech and biotech sectors. Spokane is becoming a more service-oriented economy in the face of a less prominent manufacturing sector which declined in the 1980s, particularly as a medical and biotechnology center; Fortune 1000 technology company Itron, for instance, is headquartered in the area. Avista Corporation, the holding company of Avista Utilities, is the only company in Spokane that has been listed in the Fortune 500, ranked 299 on the list in 2002. Other companies with head offices in the Spokane area include technology company Key Tronic, vacation rental provider Stay Alfred, and microcar maker Commuter Cars. Despite diversification to new industries, Spokane's economy has struggled in recent decades. Spokane was ranked the #1 "Worst City For Jobs" in America in both 2012 and 2015, while also ranking #4 in 2014. Additionally, Forbes named Spokane the "Scam Capital of America" in 2009 due to widespread business fraud. Trends of fraud were noted as far back as 1988, again in 2002, and continuing through 2011.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: As of 2013, the top five employers in Spokane are the State of Washington, Spokane Public Schools, Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children's Hospital, the 92d Air Refueling Wing, and Spokane County. The largest military facility and employer, the 92d Air Refueling Wing, was stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base near Airway Heights. The leading industries in Spokane for the employed population 16 years and older were educational services, health care, and social assistance (26.5 percent), retail trade (12.7 percent), and arts, entertainment, recreation, and accommodation food services (10.4 percent). As the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest, as well as parts of southern British Columbia and Alberta, Spokane serves as a commercial, manufacturing, transportation, medical, shopping, and entertainment hub. In 2017, the Spokane–Spokane Valley MSA had a gross metropolitan product of $25.5 billion while the Coeur d'Alene metropolitan area was $5.93 billion.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: As of 2014, economic development in the Spokane area primarily focuses on promoting the following industries: manufacturing (especially aerospace manufacturing), health sciences, professional services, information science and technology, finance and insurance as well as clean technology, and digital media. To aid economic development, the eastern branch of Innovate Washington, a state-supported business incubator was placed in the city.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: In recent years, Spokane has become a growing technology hub for both established companies and startups. Fortune 1000 cybersecurity leader, F5, Inc., has two offices in the area with over 250 employees whom are focused on hardware product development, software engineering, global services support, and digital sales. Other established firms are moving to Spokane, such as Remitly, an app-based financial services corporation, which was founded by Josh Hug, a Whitworth University graduate. Ignite Northwest, led by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Tom Simpson, has invested over $100 million through the Spokane Angel Alliance and Ignite to fund and support early stage companies.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane's main art districts are located in the Davenport Arts District, the Garland Business District, and East Sprague. The First Friday Artwalk, which occurs the first Friday of every month, is dedicated to local vendors and performers displaying art around downtown. The two most important Artwalk dates (the first Friday of February and October) attract large crowds to the art districts.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The Davenport Arts District has the largest concentration of art galleries and is home to many of Spokane's main performing arts venues, including the Knitting Factory, Fox Theater, and Bing Crosby Theater. The Knitting Factory is a concert house that serves as a setting for many mainstream touring musicians and acts. The Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox, restored to its original 1931 Art Deco state after years of being derelict, is home to the Spokane Symphony Orchestra. The Metropolitan Performing Arts Center was restored in 1988 and renamed the Bing Crosby Theater in 2006 to honor the former Spokanite. Touring stand-up comedians are hosted by the Spokane Comedy Club. Theater is provided by Spokane's only resident professional company, The Modern Theater, though there are also the Spokane Civic Theatre and several other amateur community theaters and smaller groups. The First Interstate Center for the Arts often hosts large traveling exhibitions, shows, and tours. Spokane was awarded the All-America City Award by the National Civic League in 1974, 2004, and 2015.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane offers an array of musical performances catering to a variety of interests. Spokane's local music scene, however, is considered somewhat lacking by the Spokane All-Ages Music Initiative and other critics, who have identified a need for a legitimate all-ages venue for music performances. The Spokane Symphony presents a full season of classical music, and the Spokane Jazz Orchestra, a full season of jazz music. The Spokane Jazz Orchestra, formed in 1962, is a 70-piece orchestra and non-profit organization.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: There are several museums in the city, most notably the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, located a few blocks from the center of downtown in Browne's Addition, amid the mansions of Spokane's late 19th-century "Age of Elegance". A Smithsonian affiliate museum, it houses a large collection of Native American artifacts as well as regional and national traveling art exhibits.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The Mobius Science Center and the related Mobius Kid's Museum in downtown Spokane seek to generate interest in science, technology, engineering, and math among the youth in a hands-on experience. The Jundt Art Museum at Gonzaga University features of exhibition space and contains sizable collections of prints from the Bolker, Baruch, Jacobs, and Corita Kent collections. The museum houses glass art by Dale Chihuly, bronze sculptures by Auguste Rodin, tapestries, paintings, ceramics, photographs, and a wide range of gifts, including from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation and Collections. On the campus of Gonzaga University, the Crosby House, Bing Crosby's childhood home, houses the Bing Crosby Memorabilia Room, the world's largest Crosby collection with around 200 pieces. A museum of flight showcasing historic airplanes and curated by the Historic Flight Foundation is located at Felts Field.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane is known as the birthplace of the national movement started by Sonora Smart Dodd that led to the proposal and the eventual establishment of Father's Day as a national holiday in the U.S. The first observation of Father's Day in Spokane was on June 19, 1910. Sonora conceived the idea in Spokane's Central Methodist Episcopal Church, while listening to a Mother's Day sermon.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The Lilac Bloomsday Run, held in the spring on the first Sunday of May, is a race for competitive runners as well as walkers that attracts international competition. Also in May is the Lilac Festival which honors the military, celebrates youth, and showcases the region. Spokane's unofficial nickname, the "Lilac City", refers to a flowering shrub that has flourished since its introduction to the area in the early 20th century. In June the city hosts Spokane Hoopfest, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament, among the largest of its kind. One of Spokane's most popular local events is Pig Out in the Park, an annual six-day food and entertainment festival where attendees may eat a variety of foods and listen to free live music concerts featuring local, regional, and national recording artists in Riverfront Park.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The Spokane International Film Festival, held every February, is a small, juried festival that features documentaries and shorts from around the world. The Spokane Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, held every November, features contemporary, independent films of interest to the GLBT community.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Other notable events in the Spokane region include the Spokane County Interstate Fair, Japan Week, Spokane Pride Parade and the Lilac City Comicon. The Spokane County Interstate Fair is held annually in September at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center in Spokane Valley. Japan Week is held in April and celebrates the sister-city relationship with Nishinomiya, Hyogo, demonstrating the many commonalities shared between the two cities. Students from the Spokane campus of Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute, Gonzaga, Whitworth, and other area schools organize an array of Japanese cultural events. The gay and lesbian Spokane Pride Parade is held each June. There is an annual Renaissance fair and Civil War reenactment as well.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Serving the general educational needs of the local population are two public library districts, the Spokane Public Library (within city limits) and the Spokane County Library District. Founded in 1904 with funding from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, the Spokane Public Library system comprises a downtown library overlooking the Spokane Falls and five branch libraries. Special collections focus on Inland Pacific Northwest history and include reference books, periodicals, maps, photographs, and other archival materials and government documents.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane Public Schools (District 81) was organized in 1889, and is the largest public school system in Spokane, and the second-largest in the state, as of 2014, serving roughly 30,000 students in six high schools, six middle schools, and thirty-four elementary schools. Other public school districts in the Spokane area include the Mead School District in north Spokane County, outside city limits. A variety of state-approved, independent charter schools and private and parochial elementary and secondary schools augment the public school system. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane manages ten such schools in & around the area.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane is home to many higher education institutions. They include the private universities Gonzaga and Whitworth, and the public Community Colleges of Spokane system (Spokane Community College and Spokane Falls Community College) as well as a variety of technical institutes. Gonzaga University and Law School were founded by the Italian-born priest Joseph Cataldo and the Jesuits in 1887. Whitworth was founded in Tacoma, Washington in 1890 and moved to its present location in 1914. It is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church and had 2,500 students studying in 53 different undergraduate and degree programs as of 2011. While Spokane is one of the larger cities in the U.S. to lack a main campus of a state-supported university within its city limits, Eastern Washington University (EWU) and Washington State University (WSU) have operations at the Riverpoint Campus in the University District, just adjacent to downtown and across the Spokane River from the Gonzaga campus. Washington State University Spokane is WSU's health sciences campus and houses the school's College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy, and Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. The main EWU campus is located southwest of Spokane in nearby Cheney, and WSU is located to the south in Pullman. In addition to WSU's health science presence in Spokane, there is also a four-year medical school branch affiliated with the University of Washington's WWAMI program. An international branch campus of the Mukogawa Women's University, the Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute, is located in Spokane.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane is close to dozens of lakes and rivers for outdoor sports and recreation. People use these for swimming, boating, kayaking, rafting, and fishing. Nearby mountains provide for skiing, hiking, biking and sightseeing.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The Spokane region's professional and semi-professional sports teams include the Spokane Indians in Minor League Baseball and the Spokane Chiefs in junior ice hockey. Collegiate sports in Spokane focus on the local teams such as the Gonzaga Bulldogs who compete in the NCAA's Division I West Coast Conference and the Whitworth Pirates playing in the Division III Northwest Conference and local media covers other regional teams, including the Eastern Washington Eagles, Washington State Cougars, and the Idaho Vandals.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The Spokane Indians located in the suburb Spokane Valley, are a Class High-A baseball team in the Northwest League (NWL) and have been a farm team of the Colorado Rockies since 2021. The Indians play their home games at the 6,803-seat Avista Stadium and have won seven NWL titles since their Short-Season-A debut in 1982. Prior to 1982, the Indians played at the Triple-A level. The team achieved considerable success in the early 1970s, winning the Pacific Coast League championship in 1970, and having a 94–52 record. In the 1920s and 1930s the Spokane City League, a semiprofessional baseball league of teams of the Inland Empire, reached its peak.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The Spokane Chiefs are a junior ice hockey team that play in the Canadian Hockey League's Western Hockey League. They play their home games in the Spokane Arena and have a regional rivalry with the Tri-City Americans. They have won the CHL's top prize, the Memorial Cup, two times in club history, first in 1991 and again in 2008.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The Spokane Arena is the city's premier sports venue. In the years since the Spokane Arena opened, it has played host to several major sporting events. The first major event was the 1998 Memorial Cup, the championship game of the Canadian Hockey League. Four years later in 2002, the city hosted the 2002 Skate America figure skating competition and then the 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in the Spokane Arena. The latter event set an attendance record, selling nearly 155,000 tickets. Spokane later hosted the 2010 U.S. Figure Skating Championships – ending eighteen days before the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia and then the 2016 Team Challenge Cup.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane's streets use a grid plan that is oriented to the four cardinal directions; generally, the east–west roads are designated as avenues, and the north–south roads are referred to as streets. Major east–west thoroughfares in the city include Francis, Wellesley, Mission, Sprague, and 29th Avenues. Major north–south thoroughfares include Maple–Ash, Monroe, Division, Hamilton, Greene–Market (north of I-90), and Ray–Freya (south of I-90) Streets. Division Street divides the city into East and West, while Sprague Avenue splits the city into North and South. Division Street is Spokane's major retail corridor; Sprague Avenue serves the same purpose in Spokane Valley. With over 40,000 vehicles per day in average daily traffic from Interstate 90 north to the US 2–US 395 junction, North Division is Spokane's busiest corridor.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane's extensive skywalk system covers thirteen blocks in the downtown area and is among the largest in the United States; it is used for pedestrian travel in cold and inclement weather and retail space as well. Despite this, the city has an average Walk Score of 49 as of 2020, indicating that most errands require a car. Its average Bike Score is 52.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Before the influx of automobiles, Spokane's electric streetcar and interurban lines played a dominant role in moving people and goods around Spokane. Streetcars were installed as early as 1888, when they were pulled by horses. Many older side streets in Spokane still have visible streetcar rails embedded in them. Streetcar service was reduced due to declining ridership beginning in 1922, and by August 1936, all lines had been abandoned or converted to motor buses. Mass transportation throughout the Spokane area is provided by the Spokane Transit Authority (STA), which operates a fleet of 156 buses. Its service area covers roughly and reaches 85 percent of the county's population. A large percentage of STA bus routes originate from the central hub, the STA Plaza in downtown Spokane. Spokane has a Transit Score of 35.4 on Walk Score. Spokane has intercity rail and bus service provided by Amtrak, Greyhound, Flixbus and Jefferson Lines via the Spokane Intermodal Center. The city is a stop for Amtrak's "Empire Builder" on its way to and from Chicago's Union Station en route to Seattle and Portland. Amtrak's through service to Seattle and Portland is a legacy of BNSF Railway's old Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway trackage. Spokane is a major railway junction for the BNSF Railway and the Union Pacific Railroad and is the western terminus for the Montana Rail Link.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Interstate 90 (I-90) runs east–west from Seattle, through downtown Spokane, and eastward through Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, and onward to Coeur d'Alene and then Missoula. Although they are not limited access highways like I-90, US 2 and US 395 enter Spokane from the west via I-90 and continue north through Spokane via Division Street. The two highways share the same route until they reach "The Y", a fork where US 395 continues northward to Deer Park, Colville then onward to Canada, and US 2 branches off to the northeast, continuing to Mead, Newport, and Sandpoint. US 195, also known as the Inland Empire Highway, connects to Interstate 90 west of Spokane near Latah Creek and travels south through the Palouse.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is tasked with improving local highways to keep up with the region's growth and to try to prevent congestion problems that plague many larger cities. The WSDOT is constructing the North Spokane Corridor. When completed, the corridor will be a limited-access highway that will run from I-90, in the vicinity of the Thor/Freya interchange, northward through Spokane, meeting the existing US 395 just south of the Wandermere Golf Course.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane International Airport (IATA: GEG, ICAO: KGEG) serves as the primary commercial airport for Spokane, Eastern Washington, and Northern Idaho. It is the second-largest airport in the state of Washington, and is recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration as a small hub, with service from nine passenger and five cargo airlines. The airport is located west of downtown Spokane and is approximately a 10-minute drive away. The international airport's three-letter designation is "GEG", a result and legacy of the Geiger Field days prior to 1960, when the airport was named after Army aviator Major Harold Geiger in 1941.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Felts Field is a general aviation airport serving the Spokane area and is located in east Spokane along the south bank of the Spokane River. Aviation at Felts Field dates back to 1913 and the strip served as Spokane's primary airport until commercial air traffic was redirected to Geiger Field after World War II. In 1927, the strip was one of the first in the western U.S. to receive official recognition as an airport by the U.S. Department of Commerce and is now named in honor of James Buell Felts, a Washington Air National Guard pilot.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The Spokane area has six major hospitals, four of which are full-service facilities. The health-care industry is a large and increasingly important industry in Spokane; the city provides specialized care to many patients from the surrounding Inland Northwest and as far north as the Canada–US border. The city's health-care needs are served primarily by non-profit Seattle-based Providence Health & Services and non-profit Tacoma-based Multicare Health System, which run the two biggest hospitals, Sacred Heart Medical Center, and Deaconess Hospital, respectively. These two hospitals, the 102-bed St. Luke's Rehabilitation Institute, 100-bed Inland Northwest Behavioral Health, and most of Spokane's major health-care facilities, are located on Spokane's Lower-South Hill, just south of downtown, in what is known as the "Medical District" of Spokane. Sacred Heart Hospital opened originally with just 31 beds on Spokane Falls Boulevard on January 27, 1887, but later moved to its present location at 101 West Eighth Avenue. As of 2014 it had 642 beds, with 28,319 admissions, 71,543 emergency room visits, and 2,982 births annually, and a full-time staff of 29 doctors and dentists and 583 registered nurses. Deaconess Medical Center, the smaller of the two main hospitals, had 388 beds as of 2014. Other hospitals in the area include the Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the northwest part of town, Providence Holy Family Hospital on the north side, and MultiCare Valley Hospital in the Spokane Valley. One of 20 specialty orthopedic Shriners Hospitals in the U.S. is also located in Spokane. One of Washington's two state psychiatric hospitals, Eastern State Hospital, is located away in Medical Lake.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The City of Spokane provides municipal water, wastewater management, and solid waste management. Spokane operates Washington's only waste-to-energy plant as well as two solid waste transfer stations as part of the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System, a collaboration between the City of Spokane and Spokane County. Electricity generated by the waste-to-energy plant is used to operate the facility, with excess energy being sold to Puget Sound Energy. Spokane draws its water from the Spokane Valley–Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer; this "sole source aquifer" is the only water supply for Spokane County in Washington, and for Kootenai and Bonner counties in Idaho. Serving over 500,000 people, the aquifer is distinguished in being one of the largest aquifers in the country at 10 trillion gallons, as well as having one of the fastest flow rates in the country at per day, and for its purity.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Natural gas and electricity are provided by the local utility, Avista Utilities, while CenturyLink and Comcast provide television, internet, and telephone service. Spokane hosts three hydroelectric generation facilities on the Spokane River: the Upriver Dam, the Upper Falls Dam, and the Monroe Street Dam. The Upriver Dam is owned and operated by the City of Spokane, and generates the electricity needed to operate the municipal water supply's pressure pumps. The power generated in excess of that is sold to Avista Utilities. The Upper Falls and Monroe Street dams are owned and operated by Avista Utilities, and have respective generation capacities of 10 and 15 MW.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Newspaper service in Spokane is provided by its only major daily newspaper, "The Spokesman-Review", which has a daily circulation of 76,291 and Sunday circulation of 95,939. "The Spokesman-Review" was formed from the merger of the "Spokane Falls Review" (1883–1894) and the "Spokesman" (1890–1893) in 1893 and was first published under the present name on June 29, 1894. It later absorbed the competing afternoon paper "The Spokane Daily Chronicle", a significant newspaper that existed from 1881 until 1982 and returned in 2021. More specialized publications include the weekly alternative newspaper "The Pacific Northwest Inlander", the bi-weekly "Spokane Journal of Business", and the student-run "Gonzaga Bulletin". Monthly publications include "The Black Lens", an African American community newspaper, a newspaper for parents, "Kids Newspaper", and a home and lifestyle magazine, "Spokane Coeur d'Alene Living".


title: Spokane, Washington

text: According to Arbitron, Spokane is the 94th-largest radio market in the U.S., with 532,100 listeners aged 12 and over. There are 28 AM and FM radio stations broadcast in the city. The five most listened-to stations are KKZX-FM (classic rock), KQNT-AM (news/talk), KXLY-FM (country), KISC-FM (adult contemporary), and KZZU-FM (Hot AC). Spokane's primary sources of non-commercial and community radio include Spokane's NPR-affiliate station KPBX-FM and KYRS, a full-power community radio station.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Spokane is the 73rd-largest television market in the U.S., accounting for 0.366% of the total TV households in the U.S. The city has six television stations, representing the major commercial networks and public television. Spokane is the television broadcast center for much of eastern Washington (except the Yakima and Tri-Cities area), northern Idaho, northwestern Montana, northeastern Oregon, and parts of southern Canada (by cable television). Spokane receives broadcasts in the Pacific Time Zone, with weekday prime time beginning at 8 pm. Montana and Alberta, Canada are in the Mountain Time Zone and receive Spokane broadcasts one hour later by their local time. The major network television affiliates include KREM (TV) 2 (CBS), KXLY-TV 4 (ABC), KHQ-TV 6 (NBC; Spokane's first television station, on air on December 20, 1952), KAYU 28 (FOX), KSKN 22 (The CW), KSPS-TV 7 (PBS), and KCDT-TV 26 (PBS; operating out of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho).


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The name is said to derive from "Spukcane", the vocalization of a sound made by a snake which the Chief of the Spokanes came to call "power from the brain" after pondering it made his head vibrate. It is unknown when the present meaning of the word, "Sun People" replaced this earlier meaning.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Unbeknownst to them, the Spokane Valley was the only area within 200 miles that could provide passage to the Inland Empire through the Rockies at a reasonable grade.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The present name, set forth by an 1891 charter reincorporated the city under the name "Spokane Falls", stating: ""The corporate name of the city is Spokane Falls, and by that name shall have perpetual succession" (Charter, Article I)." However, a later article in that same charter which was voted on concurrently changed the name to "Spokane".


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Secretary of the Spokane chamber of commerce, John R. Reavis tells of Spokane's significance to the Inland Northwest region as an entrepôt distributing center (largely the city's raison d'être) in his 1891 Annual Report, writing: "By reason of her geographical position and railroad connections Spokane is fitted as no other city is, or ever can be, to be the distributing center of all that country within a radius of 150 miles, and in some instances territory much farther away. There is no point 150 miles from Spokane that is not at least 225 miles from any other city of 10,000 population. We have about us a territory of 60,000 square miles in extent, to every point of which we are nearer than any other city, to every point of which we have better railroad connections and easier grades than any other city ... We have eight lines of railroad that radiate out in all directions through it, so that shipments made here in the morning can reach any point within its borders by nightfall. We have a telephone system connecting us with almost every shipping town and shipping station within its borders. Goods may be ordered, shipped and received, in most instances, within one day. Never was a city more intimately knit to its surrounding territory than Spokane, and never was one more free from a legitimate rival in trade ..."


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The financing for rebuilding the downtown core came in large part from the infusion of investment from Dutch bankers; this investment was so deep that by 1896, one prominent Dutch mortgage company, the "Northwestern and Pacific Hypotheekbank" owned a quarter of the city.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: In 1892, the Interstate Commerce Commission agreed with the city after it filed a complaint about these practices, but that decision was struck down by a federal court. In 1906, Spokane sued under the newly passed Hepburn Act, and won on July 24, 1911.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: The exact circumstances and sequence of events regarding the discovery of the tree are obscure due to conflicting accounts.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: Average monthly temperatures obtained by summing the average monthly highs and lows then dividing by 2.


title: Spokane, Washington

text: A study published in "The Spokesman-Review" on May 6, 1909, by City bacteriologist, Frank Rose found only seven or eight germs per cubic centimeter of water. As a standard, "water that contains 100 germs per cubic centimeter is considered comparatively pure".


title: Spokane, Washington

text: "The Spokesman-Review" has been a family-owned newspaper since 1894. The Cowles family also owns the city's NBC affiliate, KHQ-TV.


title: The Thin Red Line (1998 film)

text: The Thin Red Line is a 1998 American epic war film written and directed by Terrence Malick. It is the second screen adaptation of the 1962 novel of the same name by James Jones, following the 1964 film. Telling a fictionalized version of the Battle of Mount Austen, which was part of the Guadalcanal Campaign in the Pacific Theater of World War II, it portrays U.S. soldiers of C Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, played by Sean Penn, Jim Caviezel, Nick Nolte, Elias Koteas and Ben Chaplin. The novel's title alludes to a line from Rudyard Kipling's poem "Tommy", from "Barrack-Room Ballads", in which he calls British foot soldiers "the thin red line of heroes", referring to the stand of the 93rd Regiment in the Battle of Balaclava of the Crimean War.


title: The Thin Red Line (1998 film)

text: The film marked Malick's return to filmmaking after a 20-year absence. It co-stars Adrien Brody, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Jared Leto, John C. Reilly and John Travolta. Reportedly, the first assembled cut took seven months to edit and ran five hours. By the final cut, footage of performances by Bill Pullman, Lukas Haas, and Mickey Rourke had been removed (one of Rourke's scenes was included in the special features outtakes of the Criterion Blu-ray and DVD release). The film was scored by Hans Zimmer and shot by John Toll. Principal photography took place in Queensland, Australia and in the Solomon Islands.


title: The Thin Red Line (1998 film)

text: "The Thin Red Line" received generally positive reviews from critics, and was nominated for seven Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Sound. It won the Golden Bear at the 1999 Berlin International Film Festival. Martin Scorsese ranked it as his second-favorite film of the 1990s. On "At the Movies", Gene Siskel called it "the greatest contemporary war film I've seen."


title: The Thin Red Line (1998 film)

text: In 1942, United States Army Private Witt goes AWOL from his unit to live among the carefree Melanesian natives in the South Pacific. He is found and imprisoned on a troopship by First Sergeant Welsh of his company. Witt is not allowed to rejoin his unit, and is instead punitively assigned to act as a stretcher bearer for the upcoming campaign.


title: The Thin Red Line (1998 film)

text: The men of C Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, have been brought to the island of Guadalcanal as reinforcements in the campaign to secure Henderson Field, seize the island from the Japanese, and block off their route to Australia. As they wait in the hold of a Navy transport ship, they contemplate their lives and the upcoming invasion. Among them is Private Bell, a married former officer; Private Doll, a cocky soldier; and Captain James Staros, the sensitive company commander. Elsewhere on the ship, Lieutenant Colonel Tall, the aging battalion commander, mulls over the importance of the invasion, which he sees as his last chance for glory in combat.


title: The Thin Red Line (1998 film)

text: The company lands on Guadalcanal unopposed. They march into the interior of the island, and along the way encounter natives and evidence of the ongoing Japanese presence. The company soon finds their objective: Hill 210, a key enemy position. The Japanese have placed bunkers at the top of the hill, and anyone attempting the climb will be cut down by machine-gun fire.


title: The Thin Red Line (1998 film)

text: The attack commences at dawn the next day. Charlie Company storms up the hill, but are immediately repelled by heavy machine-gun fire. Among the first killed is one of the platoon leaders, Lieutenant Whyte. Many of the men are scattered in the carnage. One group, a squad led by Sergeant Keck, hides behind a knoll safe from enemy fire to await reinforcements. When they are fired upon, Keck reaches for a grenade on his belt and accidentally pulls the pin, then throws himself back so that he will be the only one killed by the concussion. At another point, Sergeant Welsh attempts to rescue a dying soldier, only to provide him enough morphine to put him out of his misery.


title: The Thin Red Line (1998 film)

text: Tall orders Staros over the sound-powered field telephone to capture the bunker by frontal assault, at whatever cost. Staros balks, stating that he will not commit his men to what he sees as a suicide mission. Meanwhile, Bell (one of the men who was with Keck's squad) covertly scouts the summit of the hill by himself and assesses the Japanese stronghold.


title: The Thin Red Line (1998 film)

text: Furious at Staros's refusal to obey his command, Tall ventures up to Charlie Company's position, accompanied by his battalion executive officer, Captain John Gaff. When they arrive, they find that the Japanese resistance seems to have lessened, and Tall's opinion of Staros is sealed. After being advised on Bell's reconnaissance of the Japanese position, Tall suggests a small detachment of men to perform a flanking maneuver on the bunker to capture it. Among the men to volunteer for the mission are Witt (who has since rejoined the company during the battle), Doll, and Bell. Captain Gaff is given command of the detachment, and they proceed up the hill toward the bunker. A pitched battle ensues, but ultimately the American forces are victorious, and the hill is captured.


title: The Thin Red Line (1998 film)

text: For their efforts, the men are given a week's leave, though they find little joy in the respite in the fighting: the airfield where they are stationed comes under frequent enemy artillery bombardment. While the company is bivouacked, Staros is relieved of his command by Tall, who deems him too soft for the pressures of combat and suggests that he apply for reassignment and become a lawyer in the JAG Corps in Washington, D.C. He offers to arrange a Silver Star for Staros, to avoid the unit's name being tarnished for having an officer removed from command. During this time, Bell receives a letter from his wife, informing him that she has fallen in love with another man and seeks a divorce. Witt, meanwhile, comes across some of the locals and notices that, unlike the idyllic life he'd shared with the Melanesian natives when he went AWOL, the villagers have grown distant and distrustful of outsiders, and regularly quarrel with each other.


title: The Thin Red Line (1998 film)

text: Weeks later, the company is sent on patrol up a river under the command of the inexperienced Lieutenant Band. As Japanese artillery fire falls close to their positions and with communications severed, Band orders Corporal Fife and Private Coombs to scout upriver. Witt, sensing danger, volunteers to go along. The three men encounter an advancing Japanese column, but as they attempt to retreat back to the company, they are fired upon and Coombs is wounded. In order to buy time for Fife to go back to inform the rest of the unit, Witt draws away the Japanese but is encircled by one of their squads, who demand that he surrender. Despite this, Witt raises his rifle to provoke them and is killed.