Spokane Cuts Itself a New County — and Expects the Courthouse
The Territorial legislature carves a new county out of Spokane, placing Spokane Falls near its center. The town is 'exceedingly happy,' and already counting on the county seat, the land office, and the records that come with them.
The Territorial legislature has just passed an act providing for the setting off of a new county from the territory covered by Spokane county, leaving Spokane Falls at or very near the center of the present county of Spokane. This is a consummation devoutly desired by the people of this town, and they are exceedingly happy over it. It is expected, of course, that the location of the county seat will be permanently decided by a vote of the electors, in which case Spokane Falls, on account of its position and importance as a business center, confidently expects to "secure the persimmon." The United States land office for this section is an additional reason for centering all county records at this place.
“Spokane Falls, on account of its position and importance as a business center, confidently expects to "secure the persimmon."”
County lines and county seats were the 1880s equivalent of an economic development package — the records, the land office and the payroll all followed the courthouse. Spokane's gambit paid off, and the county-seat fight it set off is the ancestor of every modern municipal annexation and boundary war in the region.
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