Sparse region brimming with maverick spirit
The Inland Northwest rewards independent souls, Chris Peck writes.

By Chris Peck
The Spokesman-Review

Even with Horizon Airlines, a resurfaced Interstate 90 and better Amtrak service, few people choose to live east of the Cascades and west of the Rockies.

This isn't a place you come on a whim.

Whims suggest an afternoon drive, or a quick vacation to a warm climate.

We're not Whimsville.

Too big to explore in a weekend. Too cold and gray to attract many people in winter. Too far from anywhere to make commuting to a high-paying job feasible for anyone except airline pilots and software execs.

Yet if you are reading this on a Sunday and not fleeing to California or Seattle, then your spirit has led you here. You and about 1 million others occupy this territory larger than all of New England or Great Britain.

To live here makes a statement, like driving a Hudson or a Studebaker, or a Rambler once did.

It says something about what matters to you, and what you can live without.

To live east of the Cascades and west of the Rockies requires a conscious decision to be part of that other America, the one flown over by airlines, mispronounced by major media and not included on the lists of most hip, most hot, or most happening.

We have our own lists.

The top 10 most breathtaking vistas. The drives on back roads most likely to set your spirits free. The number of bald eagles seen on Christmas Day on Lake Coeur d'Alene.

The spirit of this northern corner of America touches people in profound ways that change lives. Certain spirits are lifted when gazing out from Lookout Pass on the Idaho-Montana border. Other spirits are frightened by the vastness and lack of housetops.

Great place to vacation, but. …

This is part of our narrative, our story.

We are not a place for everybody and likely will never be. Go back over the 200 years of development and exploration of this region by non-native people, and the storyline of why people come to the interior Northwest and why they leave hasn't changed that much.

Two kinds of people have come here and stayed.

The first are those enthralled by the natural beauty and isolation. They are determined to be Westerners. They have farmed, they have logged, they have bought Starbucks franchises and they will stay, no matter what.

The second wave of residents are those who have been tricked or trapped into coming here. Chinese and Irish railroad workers, mail-order brides and now refugees from the failed Soviet Union. They laid railroad track, raised children in shacks and now work the 7-Eleven night shifts.

They dream of an escape, but cannot.

The boom and the bust, the love and hate of the northern Rockies hasn't changed its rhythm all that much.

Ask a wheat farmer on the Palouse, a logger in Kamiah, or a small businessman in Colville trying to compete against Wal-Mart whether life has smoothed out after 100 years of settlement.

Their answers in many cases, will be a spit and and a no.

Things can be tough around here.

Were then. Still are today. In the midst of the biggest bull market economy in history, the counties of North Idaho and the Eastern Washington still have the highest unemployment and lowest per capita incomes of their states.

Yet the welfare rolls are down. The number of wood-chopping permits remain steady, as do four-wheel-drive vehicle sales. People are choosing to live here, even if times are better elsewhere.

And for those determined enough and lucky enough to live a good life here, the clover has never looked more sweet.

The spirit of entrepreneurship continues to drive the local economy, as hundreds of new businesses every decade have created jobs as fast as they are needed without the help of a single Fortune 500 company.

The high achievements of Spokane's medical facilities rank among the best in the country, even if you need a new heart.

Spokane, the city that nobody can find on the map in New York, has many people saying, who cares?

This place has a thriving symphony orchestra, two top-rated private liberal arts colleges in Whitworth and Gonzaga, the world's largest timed running event, known as Bloomsday, and the largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament in the land.

And when you don't want to spend your weekends in town, well, a sailboat on Lake Pend Oreille can take you skimming across the water to view mountain goats on a craggy mountainside on any summer afternoon.

In winter, the skiing is but an hour away.

These are the things we remember when asked why we live here. We have our reasons. We have made our choices.

This is the spirit of our northern corner of the West.

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