Fort Spokane

Use as an outpost

Fort Spokane was founded in the fall of 1880 by Lt. Colonel Henry C. Merriam and four companies (D, E, F and I) of the 2nd U.S. Infantry as Camp Spokane. It was renamed Fort Spokane in 1882, and at the start of the Spanish–American War in 1898 the fort was turned over to the Coleville Indian Agency.

Fort Spokane was strategically located at the convergence of the Columbia River and the Spokane River about 50 mile west-northwest of the city of Spokane, it was the last army frontier post established in the Northwest. In 1884 there were about 25 buildings, including six barracks, a schoolroom, an ice house and a two-story administrative building topped with a glass-sided Cupola. Eventually there were about 50 buildings built on the post which included officers' quarters, barracks, a hospital and a chapel. The post served to consolidate older posts like Fort Colville closer to the population areas, and as a buffer to calm tensions between Natives and Settlers in the area. When the Spanish–American War broke out in 1898 the troops at Fort Spokane were moved elsewhere and the fort was turned over to the Coleville Indian Agency. In 1899 the post became a school for Indian children and later a tuberculosis sanatorium. The site was abandoned by the government in 1929.

Preservation and restoration

The National Park Service took over the site in 1960 with only four original buildings remaining from the fort. Four buildings and the site have been preserved and are now part of the Park Service’s Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. The restoration has saved the 1884 stable, the 1888 powder magazine, the 1889 reservoir and the 1892 guard house.^[3]