Expo '74

Spokane was initially settled in the late 1800s along the Spokane Falls of the Spokane River, a site which was chosen because of the falls' hydropower potential to support a late 19th century city and its economy.[7] As Spokane began to grow over its early years, the area would become heavily industrialized with numerous sawmills, flour mills,[8] and hydroelectricity generators.[9] Railroading would eventually develop around the falls by the early 20th century.[10][11]

All of the industrialization would engulf and obscure the area from public access and view.[12] The presence of railroads within the downtown core was noted by the Olmsted Brothers in 1908 when they began to develop a master plan for parks in the City of Spokane.[2] As the brothers were planning in the Spokane River Gorge, they skipped the area that would later become the site of Expo '74, sarcastically noting that it had already been partially "improved" (with all the industrial development that was present) and hoped that the City of Spokane would eventually come to its senses and reclaim the area around the Spokane Falls for a park.[13] Spokane would go on to become the site of four transcontinental railroads: Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Union Pacific, and the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad,[14][15] as well as regional ones like Oregon Railway.[16] By 1914, Union Pacific had built their own station on the park's site, along with elevated tracks leading up to it.[12] The heart of Downtown Spokane would become a hub for passenger and freight rail transport and remained that way for several decades.[12] By the mid-20th century, the problems of having a large amount of railroads in the middle of the city were beginning to be realized. The elevated railway, warehouses, and other lines leading into the park severely restricted both physical and visual access to the Spokane River and its falls, leading some locals to compare it to the Great Wall of China.[2] Additionally, the high volume of train traffic created a very noisy downtown,[12] and numerous at-grade railroad crossings were causing traffic congestion issues.[2]

The site of Expo '74, as seen in 1972, was a former railyard.

By the 1950s, the core of Downtown Spokane began to empty out due to suburbanization,[17] a trend that was prevalent amongst many American cities during this time.[2] This trend sparked urban renewal discussions in Spokane and in 1959, a group called Spokane Unlimited[17] was formed by local business leaders to try and revitalize Downtown Spokane. The group would hire New York-based Ebasco Services to create an urban renewal plan, which would be released in 1961 and called for the removal of the numerous train tracks and trestles in downtown and reclaiming the attractiveness of the Spokane River[18] in the central business district.[2][17]

The plan proposed a timeline that would incrementally renew the area over the next two decades, wrapping up in 1980, and proposed that the effort be funded through bonds, gas-taxes, and urban renewal money from the federal government. One part of the plan, and the first portion to go to voters for approval, would have constructed a new government center.[17] However, efforts to pass bonds to fund the construction were overwhelmingly defeated by Spokane voters over the next couple years,[17] and by 1963, Spokane Unlimited had to revise its vision.[2] They hired King Cole,[19] who had recently worked on some urban renewal projects in California, to execute EBASCO's urban renewal plans in Spokane.[20] In light of the failed votes, Cole formed a grassroots citizen group, called the Associations for a Better Community (ABC), to build community support through the 1960s around the idea of beautifying the riverfront and turning Havermale Island into a park.[2]

With support around beautification growing, Spokane Unlimited would go on to commission a feasibility study in 1970 for using a marquee event, proposed to be in 1973 to celebrate the centennial of Spokane, to fund the beautification. However the report stated that a local event would not have the stature to bring in enough funding for the group's beautification aspirations, and that it needed to go bigger; it suggested that Spokane host an international exposition that could bring in state and federal dollars, as well as tourists from outside Spokane, to fund a riverfront transformation. The idea to host caught on—inquiries were made to the Bureau of International Expositions as well as an additional study that was commissioned in the fall of 1970, and results both came back very positive. The 1974 world expo was identified as the target event.[2]

Efforts to host the expo just three-and-a-half years later began immediately and was a tall order considering that Spokane would be the smallest city at the time to ever host a World's fair, and that the proposed site had 16 owners, including the railroads. Funding came from local, state, and federal sources, including a new business and occupation tax that the Spokane City Council passed in September 1971 after a ballot bond measure to provide local funding failed the month prior.[2] The event was officially recognized by then-President Richard Nixon in October 1971, and the following month, the Bureau of International Expositions gave their sign-off[21] on the event as well.[2]

Construction on the Expo '74 site began in 1972 with the removal of existing rail lines and trestles. The "538" on the clock tower was a count down of days until Expo.

Site of Expo '74 under construction, May 1973

With approvals and funding falling in place, one last challenge was transforming the site and removing the railroads. Through intense negotiations, the Expo '74 planners, including King Cole were miraculously able to convince the railroads to agree to a land swap and donate the land needed for the Expo site.[22][20][2][19] The railroads were consolidated onto the Northern Pacific Railway lines further to the south in Downtown Spokane,[11] freeing up the site for construction. Construction that would transform the site to host the environmentally-themed Expo '74 would begin in 1972.

Spokane was the smallest city to host a world's fair recognized by the Bureau International des Expositions until Knoxville, Tennessee held the 1982 World's Fair eight years later (although the Spokane metropolitan area is still smaller than the Knoxville metropolitan area). World's Fairs began at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution as public showcases. Expo '74 was the first fair in decades that did not focus on the space age, futuristic themes, or utopian ideas of living. An environmental theme was decided upon by the organizing committee, however there was some uncertainty about it because it had never been used previously by a World's Fair to that time. After considering several other slogans, such as "How Man Can Live, Work and Play in Harmony With His Environment", Expo '74 settled on "Celebrating Tomorrow's Fresh New Environment."[23]

Uncertainty about the ability of a city the modest size of Spokane to create a successful event caused many nations and corporations to hesitate about making major investments in the fair. Kodak, General Motors, and Ford hosted pavilions at this fair but they were scaled down in size and presence compared to the exhibits constructed for the New York Worlds Fair ten years earlier. For the first time since the company's beginning, General Electric did not have a fair pavilion but it sponsored the musical group Up with People that performed during the summer at the fair.

Expo '74's official logo debuted in March 1972 and was designed by Spokane artist Lloyd L. Carlson.[1] The logo is a stylized Möbius strip, an endless three-dimensional form, which was chosen to symbolize the continuity of life and mankind's relationship with the environment.[1] The three colors, blue, green, and white, also symbolized the environmental theme of the fair, representing the purity of clean water, the unspoiled natural beauty of growing plants and trees, and the cleanliness of fresh air, respectively.[1]

View of the Expo '74 site during the fair.

US President Richard Nixon presided over the fair's opening ceremony on May 4, 1974,[24][25] where he addressed a crowd of some 85,000.[26] Nixon had high praise of the fair and its environmental theme, noting Washington state's role as the first state in the nation to have environmental protection laws,[25] and urged nations to work together to clean up the environment around the world.[24] The opening of Expo '74 occurred in the midst of the Watergate Scandal investigation, which Nixon was deeply embroiled in, bringing the presence of a number of protestors and hecklers, some of whom shouted "Jail to the Chief!", to Nixon's speech.[26] The hecklers were ignored by Nixon, who continued to give his opening day remarks.[24]

In keeping with the fair's environmental theme, other opening day events included the release of 1,974 rainbow trout into the Spokane River,[24] and releasing 1,000 pigeons into the sky.[25]

Nations with an official presence at the fair included Australia, Canada, West Germany, Iran, Japan, Taiwan, Republic of Korea, the Philippines, the United States and the USSR.[6] Architectural critics were intrigued by the Australian Pavilion with its 36 screen revolving audio visual platform and a model of the newly completed Sydney Opera House. (The artistic director for the project was film director Jonathan Dawson). However, writer Calvin Trillin tartly commented that the exhibits of several other countries seemed designed to demonstrate their nation's lack of environmental care. "While other world's fairs had introduced the telephone, the escalator, and the Belgian waffle, Spokane's Expo '74 would be associated forever with the 'institutionalized mea culpa,'" Trillin wrote in The New Yorker.[23]

One piece of technology that made its debut at Expo '74 was the IMAX movie theater. The original theater, built inside of the United States Pavilion, had a screen that measured 90 ft × 65 ft (27 m × 20 m), completely covering the front wall of the pavilion. It was the largest indoor movie screen at the time and had bigger dimension than a typical drive-in movie screen. 'The quote, "The Earth does not belong to Man, Man belongs to the Earth" (attributed to Chief Seattle) was written in large letters on the outside wall. Inside the pavilion, visitors watched "Man Belongs to the Earth," a 23-minute IMAX film made for Expo by Paramount. Scenes of U.S. splendor led into environmental problems including air pollution in Denver. The film was so realistic—especially during a sequence flying through the Grand Canyon—that motion sickness bags had to be made available.'[27]

The fair also featured the interactive movie system Kinoautomat. Pacific Northwest Bell had a pavilion that eliminated the use of air conditioning by using louvered panels on the roof. They demonstrated the use of TTY equipment and discussed the use of 911 for emergency telephone services. Expo '74 was the last time that the Bell system would exhibit at a world's fair before its breakup ten years later.