Built in 1880, Fort Spokane served as a frontier military post until the troops were transferred to Cuba to fight in the Spanish-American War in 1898. Government officials who ran the Colville and Spokane Indian Agencies then took over the fort and by 1900 it became the Fort Spokane Indian Boarding School. Teachers, clergy and Indian children came to live here. The last people to occupy the fort were the doctors, nurses and patients of the Tuberculosis Hospital and Sanitarium that served the tribes of the area starting in 1910 until Fort Spokane's final closure in 1929.
In 1880 a board of officers selected a central location at the confluence of the Columbia and Spokane Rivers for a new military post. The purpose of the post was to protect the settlers of the upper Columbia, as well as protect the rights of the Indians by keeping settlers off the reservation. Following is text from a placard at Fort Spokane.
Strategic Location
"The site is a level plateau, gravelly and partly covered with open timber. It is four hundred feet above the river... running parallel with the Spokane River.
Its water supply would be obtained from several large springs... Timber for fuel and building is at hand of fine quality and vast quantity...
The site can easily be reached by wagons from several directions... and good Indian trails concentrate there from all directions, leading to the principle fishery of the Spokane which is within three miles of the site.
For economy and efficiency we recommend... [Fort Spokane] to take the place of the posts of Chelan and Colville."
-Lt. Col. Henery Clay Merriam
Over a span of 19 years the 2nd, 4th, and 16th Infantry, and 2nd Cavalry saw duty here. At the height of Army occupation, over 300 soldiers, their families and other civilians lived at Fort Spokane.
With the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898 the entire garrison was withdrawn and the equipment and furnishings, including the cemetery, moved by wagon to the newly established Fort George Wright near the growing city of Spokane.
After the withdrawal of the soldiers, Federal Indian policy continued at the site. The buildings and land were turned over to the Office of Indian Affairs for the relocation of the Colville Indian Agency and the establishment of an Indian boarding school under Major Albert M. Anderson.
The Fort Spokane Boarding School opened on April 2, 1900 with an enrollment of 83 students. By 1902, the number had soared to 229 children ranging in age from 6 to 2o. However, the reopening of day schools on the reservations and parents' objections to sending their children far away from home to attend school for nine months of the year caused enrollment to decline steadily. By 1908, only 31 students attended the school on a full time basis. The school was closed in 1914.
The Fort served the tribes of the area as a tuberculosis sanitarium and Indian hospital until its final closure in 1929. After 1929, the abandoned fort grounds became a popular picnic site for local residents. Through the years some of the buildings were destroyed by fire and vandalism, while others were sold or moved to the new Colville Indian Agency headquarters in Nespelem.
Fort Spokane was transferred to the National Park Service in 1960, and major restoration began on the four remaining original buildings: the Quartermaster Stable, built in 1884, the Powder Magazine, built in 1888, the Reservoir, built in 1889, and the Guardhouse, built in 1892.
The Guardhouse now serves as the visitor center and museum. The other three buildings are open to visitors from May through September. The grounds are open to explore year round. The reservoir, though restored, is outside of the boundary of the district as it lies on private property.