Late last month city officials celebrated the 125 anniversary of incorporation. As it turns out, that's barely a pimple on 8,000 years of human habitation at the confluence of the Spokane River and Latah Creek.
In terms of continuous human use and habitation verified by radiocarbon dating, recent discoveries have made Spokane the oldest city in the state, said Stanley C. Gough, archaeology director at Eastern Washington University in nearby Cheney.
"This documents for the first time people actually living here at this age," Gough said.
Although this is weird:
"We've known that all our lives," said Buzz Gutierrez, a Spokane Indian tribal member who was born and raised just upstream from the traditional encampment.
"It's great for me to know that somebody is going to admit that native peoples have been here for more than 3,000 years," he said. "We can say to the Europeans, 'We've been here longer than you thought."'
Errrr, no, we've always figured people have been 'round about these parts for several more thousand years.