Transcripts For CSPAN C-SPAN Cities Tour In Spokane Washington Part 2 20170915

For the next hour, an history tv exclusive, our cities tour visited spokane, washington, to learn more about its unique history and literary life. Or six years now, we have traveled to u. S. Cities bringing the literary scene and Historic Sites to our viewers. Can watch more of our visits on cspan. Org slash citiestour. Thing about bing crosby, is legacy and memory was that he was well balanced. He was not needing for fame. Even seek it. It totally surprised him. In s often mentioned today general 20th century histories influenceshe calming on American History. He was the voice that people istened to in the 1930s on hard. When things were so that was bings role in american be sort of ind of he nextdoor neighbor, commonsensical approach to, you know, life and so forth. He modelled that. Goes back to his life neighborhood. Tomah, s born in to washington, on the west side of his state. His family f 3, moved to spokane. His dad took a position at a in spokane. Y they rented a house just a couple blocks from where we are now. At the age of 11, bings ather and a couple of uncles built this house. So bing lived here from the age 11 to the age of 22. Up, performing was kind of a part, a natural part childhood because there were school plays. In bells of st. Marys. On little kids were putting the christmas play. Hat was everyday life in gonzaga neighborhood. His education had to do with he oratory. In he was in shakes pierce shakespeares plays. Choir. In a church there wasnt a time when he wasnt performing. Me, i saw a video of an interview that he had with somebody at some point and they well, where did you learn your music. He paused for a moment, he says house full of music. My father sang. My mother sang. Played the piano. We all gathered around the piano sang songs and so i think performing was quite a natural for him. He actually started his show when he joined a jazz band that were a kids, they gh school werent very good musicians. Hey had one thing in common, they loved jazz. Jazz was awake to the charm of very opening. The original new orleans jazz the first jazz 1917. D, by 1920, bing was already in a little jazz band. On the see he was quick uptake. 1925, the band breaks up because the other boys are going to college. Bing was the only one in college had the band. , e and al renker didnt know what to do next, so they decided that they would go to california where bings older brother lready was, everett, he was already working in los angeles. Sister, Mildred Bailey, by the way, one of the music, names in american Mildred Bailey also came from spokane. She was already working in l. A. Have connections in l. A. We have an act. They decided to take off and took off for hollywood. That was the fall of 1925. His little room was the crosby parlor. The crosbies themselves used it kind of a music room. Both of bings sisters played the piano. Piano in here. Ing took up the drums for when he joined the band and he set up drum kit right over here, his brothers had about this and he was in here banging away at the great advantage mrs. Crosby was that these doors could be closed, but kind of crazy anyway and she was thrilled to death when bing drums for e up the singing. N here are a representation of his many, many awards. Half a century, bing as a major figure and he accumulated awards almost daily the important entertainment awards. He was in a time when could handful of stars come nate the whole celebrity world. For example, radio, these are his radio awards. Single year he was the top adio performer from about the id 1930s and his radio show continued on until the early 1960s. For holds the record continuous radio weekly programs probably will never be beaten because it goes over a years. Of 30 the records, these are just a few of them. Each officially means at least one million copies sold. By now, all his records have sold tens of millions. Dominating theas radio in the 1930s and 1940s, he had the number one radio show and he had a weekly radio show that they said when bing crosby street anda new york it was a hot day, you could literally walk blocks and hear the whole program because everybody was tuning in once a week. And he had a weekly radio show for three decades. But when he was doing that he was also the dominant movie star of the time. For example, in the 1930s he was the number one box office draw for five of the 10 years in the 1940s. A phenomenal thing when you think of the competition. It was the peak of hollywood stardom and bing was at the very top. During the 1940s he won an way. For going my the movie also won best movie and best song. When world war ii breaks out, bing crosby is absolutely the major celebrity in the country. Jumped into the work of rallying american morale. After pearl harbor, morale was shaken because nobody had expected this sudden plunge. Put together ay schedule of appearances at training bases all over the country and he did that throughout the war. He traveled to europe and to france, getting a show on the stage in france. Was that if aidea guy like bing crosby, i had seen him in the movies, listened to him on the radio, and he is here with us it was a tremendous boost for around. After the war he was decorated for his contribution to the war. Um, there is a picture of general patton with bing in france. And dinah shore. An exarmy nurse who retired in West Virginia a few years ago and they asked her, when the boys came back from the front wounded and so forth, what did they talk about . And she said, never the war. They wanted to talk about hope and about bob hope and bing crosby. They wanted distance from the harsh reality of things. Bob hope was all over the pacific. Bing crosby was in europe. So the comedy team did a lot of the morale work. It was a tremendous contribution. Of course, many stars did the same thing. The ufo was set up for this. The real point was, this, the military forces were not the only ones who needed to be involved in the war, the whole nation needed to be involved in that war. Bing understood it as a patriotic duty and he carried out as only he could come because it was the major star of the time. [indiscernible] [chatter] married five years later. Had seven children altogether. What i found pretty quickly when i started volunteering at the museum was many people did not know how many children he had, or you know, what happened to his first wife. Usually they thought that they divorced. Actually, tragically she died of cancer very young. So he remarried. In other words, they did not know hardly anything about his personal life. Bing had seven children. Only one of them ever said anything about him being mean or anything like that. That was gary, his first son. He wrote a book, but he actually did not write it. He was interviewed by a writer and that writer took the interviews and put it into a book called going my own way. It was published three years after another famous book by a child of her mother, that was which madeest, millions. So when gary crosby gave permission for his autobiography to be printed, that was the model that we had. Parents,onally cruel and you have a bestselling book. Well, the funny thing is as soon as the book was published gary himself said, wait a minute, you misunderstood. I never said my dad was mean to us. I said, and i meant, that he was very strict. And i did not like a strict father. So, even gary did not really believe it. It somehow got distorted. Inwas later, um, serialized the National Enquirer magazine. Well, you know, you do not need to know more than that. National inquires only purpose is to distort or sensationalize stories. Gary crosby went on, for rivera and geraldo said, no, there was no shouting or anything like that. If you got out of line and he said you are going to be paddled for that, you got paddled. This was the 1940s, by the way. That was standard. Child upbringing. So nothing extraordinary about that. Bing crosby himself said when he became a father he learned quickly that you had to instill some discipline. So he paddled his son. He had no objection on principle. But from those few facts came out this idea. It is not anything that gary crosby said in the book. I have yet to meet anybody that really read the book. In other words, they vaguely remember reading the book. But most people have heard about it. We have a prime example of what happens to celebrities. You get pinned with these images and then there is nothing you can do about it. He thing about bings life, grew up in a place that was about as much like the 18th century as it was the 20th century. The world he grew up in was a facetoface world. He knew people personally. He did not have to read about them or be told about them. All the people, this was a kind of village, and all the people that he dealt with he knew personally. He knew people of integrity, the ones to watch out for. They were neighbors. Bing for the rest of his life treated people like neighbors. That is why the neighborhood is so important to understand. [hurried music] expo took place in 1974 and it is, at the time spokane was the smallest city in the world to ever hosted worlds fair. But it was the first environmental worlds fair, using the environment as a theme. On, i believeose 1972 is the very first earth day, and there is a great consciousness around the world about environmentalism. It became the theme and are googly the obsession of expo 1974. They were trying to create a worlds fair and a series of behaviors that corresponded to a better consciousness of the environment. In theow, we are Archives Section of the northwest museum of arts and culture in spokane. Quite a few of the records from expo 74 are here. We are looking at a very large map that was, it was one of what was called the versailles maps the birds eye maps. Before they went up and airplanes, they had these maps that put you into the imagination of the city. They are carefully worked out to show you the buildings. Seet you cant see is can is the spokane river flowing ,rom on my eased, idaho east idaho, then coming into spokane. You can see the city, the number of bridges across it. The railroads came in later. This one line that would be a series of road rail right across this part of the river. This was basically the region where this whole story takes place. In 1960 this is what spokane looked like. The river is essentially forgotten. Very ugly, urban clutter downtown. At one point, the clutter was progress. We have trained coming in trains coming in. Mills are making us a lot of money. But a variety of things happened. One of them was the specter of the shopping center. And a Big Shopping Center went up north of spokane. It is still there today, norristown. North town. With that a lot of commerce moved out of downtown and to the outside. If you look at spokane, 1930s and 1940s, the photographs look like midtown manhattan. But by 1960, most of the trade had moved to the shopping center. And the streets were almost deserted. Commerce was failing. That was what really started people thinking about urban renewal. About making the downtown more attractive. And there are a series of meetings of various kinds of people putting together a variety of ideas, but it did not get much going. Some people said that the river, the river is kind of pretty. Maybe we can make something out of that where people would want to come down and see it. One of the problems was, there was a lot of backing for this but nobody really to work on it day by day. And at that point, in the late 1960s, spokane did a nationwide search and did they hired from california a man named king cole. Believe it or not, his name was king cole. He said he was a merry old soul. We will get that out of the way. He was the real deal. He liked to say that spokane , not somebodyor with a sword, but somebody to worry. Somebody that could be sleeping on it and thinking about it 18 hours a day. Cole did that. He gathered people together, he got peoples ideas. And he and others came up with the idea ultimately of the worlds fair. Which in a town the size of spokane, about 180,000 people, that was pretentious because worlds fairs typically happened in new york. Seattle would have been a small city to have a worlds fair. But he and spokane and washington, the capital, worked on it. They worked on it a lot. King cole took numerous trips to paris where the center for worlds fairs existed and they explored the idea of having the worlds fair in this little city in the west. One of the attractions was the falls and bringing people to a place where they had the falls. So you go to General Motors or ford and he want them to exhibit in the expo, there is a town that is not well known. We call it spokane, rhymes with can. A few people still say sp okane. It was not well known. One of the points was the urban clutter would be gone and the falls would be spectacular. Like any Western River fed by the mountains, coming from mountains, it is most spectacular in the spring when the water is running. At one point they had a number representatives from ford motors and companies, they wanted to persuade them this would be a good place for a worlds fair. The trouble was it was august or september and in the water was down to a trickle. So, there are several up river dams. Naturally the Power Company was interested in seeing the fair happen. And they arranged to cut off the flow of the river entirely for a period of time while king cole and others in spokane had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the side of the falls. They carefully sat them down to where they would not be looking at the river. Then at a predetermined time, say 1 00 p. M. , kinkel said king cole said, have you seen our river . Have you seen our falls . No, no. Lets go look. The falls crashing and rolling through the city. People were very impressed. They went back to their hotel and 20 minutes later the Power Company shut off the river, so to speak. But they had made their case very well. Gettingion of course to corporations to the worlds fair, kodak for example, there was the more important question of support by the state, the nation and other countries around the world. Washington state naturally was enthusiastic it was going to be in their state. Pavilion whicha became basically a concert hall, opera house, and it is Still Standing beside the river. Along the way we were lining up other countries, japan for example cayman, as did australia australia, as did germany and iran. The clincher, probably the thing that put it on the map, was for the first time before world war ii and before world war ii, the soviet union exhibited. Not only did they come to spokane, they came in force. They built a huge pavilion and they had three theaters within the pavilion. Is irony is spokane was and somewhat more conservative, say, then other parts of the country. Andaffection for communism the soviet union was not necessarily Second Nature to folks in spokane. But on the one hand, they might be antisoviet, but on the other hand they were very prosoviet and grateful that so much had been done for our worlds fair. The opening of the fair came in early may of 1974. And about 80,000 people came to it. Richard nixon, president nixon, gave the opening speech. It is a great privilege to be here on this sparkling, Beautiful Day to speak about what this particular occasion means, not only for now and the days ahead in this summer when i hope that millions will come to see it, but looking down through the faces of history perhaps to the year 2000, 25 years from now, when we celebrate a new year that comes once in a thousand years. Back to seelook what we did now to make that a new year that was not only the greatest new year for america, but for every nation in the world. Today we speak of the of very meant in terms the environment in terms that we should, cleaning up the air and water, the legacy of parks, of all those other things that have to do with making our cities and our towns and our countryside more beautiful. For our children and for those that follow us. Environmentct of that occurs to each of us is what this magnificent expo is going to leave as a legacy. I trust some of these beautiful , it will leave a 100 acre park in the heart of the city of spokane, which was once a blighted area. Monuments be physical to what you, the citizens of spokane and the state of washington have done in putting on expo 4. 74. This was an awkward time for the president , watergate inquiries and a scandal have been going on for well over a year at this point and fairly recently the tapes were discovered that really ended up putting the nail in the coffin in terms of ending his presidency. But that was opening day and the fair went on. I think it is still a rule that the worlds fairs run for six months. About 5 Million People at the time came to see the worlds fair, which is not a large number in terms of Something Like the huge shanghai world fair of 2010, where i believe 80 Million People came. But if you take the population 20 million and the population of spokane around 200,000, a much higher proportion of people came to the spokane fair. But in a wayir, tremendously successful. Course, as of 2017, it would be 43 years ago. A lot has happened with the site since then. The park has been developed yearbyyear. Initially it took about two years to get the buildings out and to put in the graph. Grass. And more money now has come from the neighborhood. It is going into refurbishing the park further. So not only was the fair beneficial immediately in terms of transforming downtown spokane, but now the better part of 50 years later there is still momentum that began there that is part of the spirit of that place, the spirit of the place of the middle of spokane falls. [birds cawing] Historic House a to the public, one of our purposes is to tell the story of the community through a house. I think ehouse offers a different kind of exhibition style than a gallery. And the Historic House, people can relate to it in different ways. Lots of people leave live in different kinds of houses, so it is a way to connect. We use it as a bridge to talk about all the kinds of people who may have come through the door, what the community was like around it, what some of the issues were at the time. Even beyond that, how did spokane fit into the bigger National Picture . The house was designed by kirtland cutter, a wellknown architect here in town and beyond. And it was built as one of eight houses designed and built at the same time, 1897 and 1898. All of them look at different on the exterior with a mix of styles on the interior. The home is fairly basic, i would say. The river coming through the town, power came to spokane and lighting and electricity came really early. Really early after its invention. So this was furnished with electric lights, which is fairly rare for that time. We are standing in the den. This is at the lowest level. The only finished rim in the basement area of the campbell house. And it is finished to be a game room for mr. Campbell and his friends. They moved here primarily for the mining operation. They had investors in the ohio area that were looking to take the money they have made with the steel mills and invest in the west. So they sent mr. Campbell and his partner john finch out to the Silver Valley of Northern Idaho to look at some of the mines being explored, or potential mines. And they liked what they saw and a sense back word sent back word. And they invested the investors funds and as some of their own. So when the mines became successful, so did fence and campbell. You can imagine the owners sitting around at the table talking about all kinds of issues. They were really frustrated with the railroads because they felt they were being charged exorbitant rates for the rail transportation of their ore. So there was a lot of conversation about how to work with the railroads. There was also a fair amount of concern about labor unrest in 1892 in wallace. And in 1899 again. So i think some of that may have prompted the mine owners to come into spokane instead of staying near the mines. House needs to tell as many stories as it can, stories about a lot of different kinds of people. And i think one of the best ways we can do that is to feature some of the employees, the servants that worked in the house that helped make it take. There was tick. There was a lot of work to manage a household like this. We know from reconstructing the records and letters and the city directory we have come up with the names of 104 people that worked here over the 26 years the campbells live here. There was a gardener, a cook, and at least an upstairs made and a downstairs maid. So about 57 employees that helped make the place operate. And in being able to identify all these people we have been able to build biographies for them, so it is a wonderful way to talk about the people that worked here. I think one of my favorites is iris, who was a young swedish girl whose sister had actually left sweden and moved to whitefish, montana and earned enough money to send a passage that to her sister. 1918 to america. She went to whitefish. She did not speak english, so she got off at the wrong train stop and kind of went through the story of not decided to stay in whitefish. She came to spokane. There were many scandinavians staying in spokane. But what is really wonderful is we have a whole series of letters written from her family to her, both in whitefish and while she was working here at campbell house. And after she married and lived in spokane. So for a long time the family had these swedish letters and they had never seen a translation, so we were able to find a translator and the letters are extremely poor net. Poignant. 1919, sweden was involved in world war i. It was impacting the country tremendously. It turns out iris came from a very poor family, a very poor farming family. The letters break your heart when they ask please send us extra cash, any clothes you are not using. The length of time it took for some of those to travel. Whether it was a letter, check, or clothing, it is obvious when you start to read through the letters. I wanted to show a couple of these that i think a really, really interesting. Here is the envelope. Iris, spokane, washington. Januaryter was posted 30, 1919. On the back it was opened by the sensor, so you can tell it was basically world war i and things are being censored in the mail. She writes a little letter here. Again, it is all in swedish. In the translation one of the phrases is, i want to ask if you and alma can help me by send me 10. This is from her sister in sweden. I want to buy a coat in the near future. If you could send me money it would be a big help. It would cost at least about 50 krone. I have money from my wages,. But not very much i wish many times you could send cloth, but it probably would not go through the mail anymore. So you get a sense of personal family struggles. We have photographs iris brought with her to remember her family by. We have her inspection card as she came into the country. Papers, her immigration papers as well. So i think, you know, being able to put a real story to the idea of working in a house like this helps us a great deal. So you know, touring a Historic House, it is fun to see the physical aspects of what is there, but i hope people catch on to some of the issues and concerns that people had in the past and how they dealt with that kind of thing. Today, we are in the university archives, special Collections Department where we are looking at the International Military tribunal for the far east, what we call the tokyo war crimes. These papers relate to the child that went on from the allied against the 20 a military people and civilians responsible for starting world war ii. At this military tribunal, it was established by having 12 different judges from told different 12 Different Countries and 12 different attorneys from various countries that would put these individuals on trial. One of the key people on the ki,ense was general hida general of the imperial army, also Prime Minister. He was the one responsible for the decision to bomb pearl harbor in 1941. So the papers, there was a graduate in 1929 who was actually at the trials. He was a friend of the american prosecuting attorney named joseph keenan, and he had become ill and he asked his friend will mahoney to come to japan and help him and cover for him when he was ill. He stayed. He was only supposed to be there for a couple years. He stayed on for the trial and he helped. And he brought four boxes of materials back to the u. S. One went to the national archives, the other set came toe to visit, modern here his alma mater. This is a map of tokyo. After the war, the american troops came to japan and they were involved with the occupation of japan. This is a city map of tokyo showing the places that the american soldiers could go visit while they were in the city. It points out different places like the imperial palace or different religious centers, or the lincoln center. This was a map set up for the american soldiers. On the back, they give them more support about where they can visit. Make your stay pleasant and profitable. Here are some things you should stay and do during your visit to tokyo. So we have, there are places whatcan go, places to eat, was in the city itself, maybe sites to visit in town. What i have in front of me assistant nine of me is fixing at pages of the charges against the general. This is the original format. This acidic paper was hole punched. I wanted to read the charges that deal with pearl harbor. Sente japanese was approximately at the same time the pearl harbor attack occurred, the plan to carry out such an undertaking without due notice failed to conform to the established International Procedures pertaining to the commencement of hostilities and violated International Treaties and assurances to which japan was a party signatory. He admitted he was the primary responsible for the attack on pearl harbor and the United States and british possessions. He said the cabinet was jointly responsible and is a Senior Member he was the one chiefly responsible. He maintained the army chief of staff and navy chief of staff also bore responsibility. O admitted that he knew and after the attacks were made and in an effort to in the rescript waserial issued on december 8, declaring war on the United States and the british empire. So this document shows how they and how hisg tojo actual words show his involvement with the attack on pearl harbor. In front of me i have the documentation, about five folders dealing with the prisoner of war conditions during world war ii. This is a report of the prison camp shanghai, these are accusations. Conditions, deplorable. Food, inadequate. Water supply, inadequate. No water after being obtained for 24 hours. No fuel for fire is furnished. Insufficient blankets. In winter, temperatures falling to 20 degrees below zero. No food issued. No soap issued. No medical supplies. 1942 in american pow that escaped from the camp was recaptured and tried and under the provisions of the Japanese Military law, found a deserter and is sentenced to 10 years confinement. And the next part read the defense evidence. December, 1942, the p. O. W. Was treated fairly and justly. And this was International Red cross was highly delighted when they inspected the pow camp. Pow one is from the camp. 10 men died of a result of hardships that happened between the ship and the camp. And has a shirt, pants shoes. About 400 grams of rice, little vegetables per day. The staff consisted of one sergeant and to private. The p. O. W. Doctor and assistance were beaten every morning by the japanese sergeant. Many knockdown. Many of the sick were first to work and every day some patients were being up. Many of them died. During the tokyo war crimes tribunal, it was decided not to prosecute the emperor and his family for the war crimes, because they felt General Macarthur and trim and thought it was appropriate that i have him still in office and it would help with the occupation. They would have his support and the japanese people would be more willing to have the occupation by having the emperor still around. Another collection we have here that is related to the tokyo war crimes is this manuscript that we have of shinzo the buddhist priest hired by the americans to work with the men who were at a prison, the place where the military criminals were housed after the end of world war ii. So i want to read from his meetings. Tojo beforees with his execution. This is something that he wanted the public to know. The trial is over and have a filled my duties to some extent, i am filled with relief. The sentence as far as i am concerned is deserved. I am sorry i was not able to assume the responsibilities by myself, and that i brought my colleagues struggle. I sincerely regret it. At least the trial, nothing carried up to the emperor, and with the that point i am comforted. Only for those of my countrymen that have suffered, my death sentence does not insult me for my responsibilities. I am sorry for that. I wish avoiding saying anything about it at this time. The atrocities committed against prisoners, i fully regret and believe deplorable. It is fully my own responsibility that i was unable to drive home in the army and elsewhere the traditional been elvis of the japanese traditional vanilla vents of the japanese people. I do not want people to misunderstand this. This was brought about by the descriptions on small parts of the army. That the entire japanese are not so. I only hope the people of the world do not misunderstand. In other words, i want them to realize it was misconduct on the part of the military. In front of me is a folder titled the summation of the prosecution. It was with the prosecutors stated prior to going to judgment. It says may it please the tribunal to borrow a phrase from an agent law. We have reached the closing of the gate. We have been engaged in preparation and presentation of the evidence for the last two years in this case. There remains the summation and judgment of the court. It is indeed a very long period for any criminal trial, but there are many reasons and ample justification thereof. The matters under inquiry are not all of the nature of those with which our domestic tribunals have been concerned in criminal proceedings. From here we are examining events of the great historical vitally affecting the world, occurring over 14 years. This has required calling witnesses from all over parts of the world in a production of important state documents brought from faroff countries in europe, the United States, in addition to those on earth from the archives of the japanese government. Even in japan, the search for came only documents after a long and persistent effort. Spoken from the getgo was immediately behind development of aviation. Both commercially and militarily. They decided to start something, a military base here in spokane, because it wouldve made the area than most northern military base in the country. It was a good spot, because at the time it was an old golf course that nobody was using. So it had a lot of open area, lots of space. That was what you needed back then for taking off in Different Directions and different wind speeds. It was a great location. Really, ever since then spokane has been 100 behind developing aviation here. So apparently we are in the historic field brake hanger. 1933s ground broken in with the fdr new deal program to combat the great depression. It was finished in 1934. At the time that was touted through the newspapers across the country as one of the most modern hangars in america. It was the home base for our first squadron that was formed 116th4, which was the observation squadron. Which is here today, which flies. Founded here in the sixth of august, 19 to four. 1924. It was made up of enlisted men and officers from the great war, world war i. And it was barebones. The first couple hangars were just sheet metal hangers that were torn down from the old airfields over in the battlefields of france and they were brought here and rebuilt. And the First Mission of the observation squadron, observation being the key name, was aerial photography. Aerial photography was deemed crucial to the army back then because it would be a will to help locate enemy movements behind enemy lines, and it was really a strategic, more of a strategic item for the army back then. There was not an air force yet, so it fell to the army. It helped with bombs on target. They would spot the artillery, make sure it was getting to where it needed to go. The very first aircraft that landed here was actually a famous american one, really during world war i it was our biggest conservation, dh4 to havilland. It was a bomber fighter. But it had a huge engine, which was our biggest conservation to world war i. America was lagging behind as far as Aviation Technology, behind the european countries. We had not yet invested in developing our Aviation Technology at the time. But the b12, manufactured in the states, was put into american dh 4s, and it was a huge engine. 224 horsepower, that will get you going. When the plane arrived in spokane, people were fighting to see it. It was the only one. The other ones that arrived where the jennys. It was a common nickname. But it was pretty much just fabric wings, wooden framework, held together by a metal wire. I mean, if you think, if you talk about that to a pilot today and he says you are not, i am not getting in that. But this was better occupation. But this was their occupation. In fact, our first officer casualty in our unit was james phelps, au tenant a lieutenant that flew during world war i and was the editor of a local newspaper here. He was in a jenny. Flyas a newspaper man ing a newspaper man around the field. Noseden it came in it over because the engines were so big, yet the body was light enough that a man could lift up the tail to turn it around midfield. So when he was coming in for the landing the airplane stalled they crashed, and both perished. It was 1927 and within a couple months they named the airfield park water in his honor. Westu think about the wild as the exploration westward in america, the 1920s was really the expansion of exploration upwards across the country. The air was the new frontier. Really, when it comes to promoting military aviation, here and at other fields, it comes down to the unit commander who was in charge of the airfield at the time. Bye locally it was taken on major john whom a road that leads here was renamed in his honor. He was a huge name here between 19. 41927. To get people enthusiastic, he would purposely do something out here at the field. 1925 was the first air show. 1926 they did air maneuvers. They were opening up in the countryside and going out to wenatchee. And in 1927, he was interested in getting the air races here in spokane, which was a huge deal. A town this small would not have an air races event, it was usually cleveland or new york. But he personally flew his military plane all the way to new york city to talk to these promoters of the air racers and said, you want to have the next one. In spokane one in spokane. These people are enthusiastic, it will be a big show. And it will be exciting and you will get a lot of publicity and money. And he successfully talked them into it. At the time, spokane was the smallest, ever hosted these. Byn it came back, he was met Charles Lindbergh who had just flown within months, his famous flight to paris. And Charles Lindbergh and his famous spirit of st. Louis was right out front in front of these doors. And the major was shaking his hand, welcoming them for the september air races. It was a big event, a huge event. Just like he had promised. It drew 99,000 people. 10,000 people. For this area, almost the entire population of the town. So you know people from all over the northwest were coming to this location. Seattle, montana, idaho, they were all coming to see the show for four days in september. It was the first time the air races had ever made a profit over the expenditures. So it really put spokane on the map for aviation back then. War, the47, after the squadron was reformed under the command of burkett or wallace who by our standards was the first Brigadier General in aviation unit. They are, for ground military, but he was the first to do it as air military. He was instrumental in groundbreaking for the, what they called it at the time the super airport that was built out at what is currently Spokane International airport. Was originally called and was renamed geithner field after a famous aviator. B51s fromflying the world war ii era. We were coming into the jet age. Germany sort of kick started the jet age with their jet fighters during the war. Roll themhey did not off of the Assembly Line fast enough with the it experienced pilots to change the war. But it was clear that the jet fighters were very advanced. None of our airplanes could keep up with them. At their how even best moments it was difficult for a good pilot to knock down one of the jet aircraft. So it was clear to experts at the time that the jets would be the future. As technology developed, the first jets to come here were the shooting stars, f80s. But the engines were underpowered. Having a massive range of an airfield, it was not long enough jetshe jets, the fighter to take off from. It would take the entire course of the runway, and then you would need a bump at the end just to get off of this particular field. So the new super airport, which they named geithner airport, became the location of our fighter jet squadron. 6th when we the 11 moved out there in 1948. And for a while it was the only squadron assigned to protect the northwest air approaches for america. We were, the squadron was the shield of keeping america safe for quite a long time. In 1976, the department of defense decided to repurpose those National Guard squadrons and give them over to ariel ref ueling. Which was not new technology, it was well developed in 1976. And it was a little consternation is for the pilots. Put it in perspective. For 20 years, 20 or 30 years, these guys have been fine supersonic fighter jets. Fighter jets, fighter pilots, man. King of the skies. Then they are told you will get these gigantic air refuelers and fly those. What . You are taking me from a porsche to a bus, what are you doing . There were some grumblings. But when they told him where they would be going, ok. It is not a glamorous fighter jet, but you will not be home anymore. Was home, youome never left. You might have flown to seattle, but you came back. But with the kc 135, you are going places. You had to go to guam. You are going to japan, to the philippines. You are going to germany. Great britain. That is where it was taken in. The pilots are going, ok, i can do some Vacation Time while doing my drill work. We are in. Since 1976, weve been doing refueling out there the air force base. There is a constant threat of military aviation history here from 1924 always a presentday. He can remember when it began in an old jalopy over the Columbia River. Tires blew out like firecrackers and the radiator steamed up with the regularity of a geyser. James stepped out and said, friends, someday this will be the garden of eden. Water will flow out of the soil and the desert will bloom. Countless people will come here and busy settlements will rise out of the sagebrush. James sullivan was a man that on ,orn in 1876 import her michigan in port huron, michigan. He studied law. After, he started a law practice there but found out there was not much there. So he left for Washington State, specifically to go to seattle. He had married in 1905 and they cannot the seattle, washington to start a law practice. Unfortunately, he did not have enough work. Seattle was not booming at the time and there was no need for more lawyers, so he went back to working with this dads business, construction. After a year of doing that, he ended up going to teach on the faculty of Washington State Normal School in bellingham, washington. Which we now know as western Washington State university. And then he left the university for a small town in central washington, where he got his law acceptance and it started practicing. And here is a picture of him on the side in his law office where he did a lot of cases dealing with land fraud and land claims. Importantamation was because he saw that these poor farmers needed to work in these terrible conditions where they did not have enough water to keep the crops alive. I have some pictures. This is the Columbia Basin area showing how there is nothing there but sagebrush. No water. This was taken in the early 1930s. And in this picture, you can see the dust storm has taken over and made a hard to grow crops in these conditions. So we received this collection pearl,mess widow, and her daughter. He had died in 1949 and luckily had kept copious notes, everything he had had been kept. Every piece of paper. In 1929, he started the Columbia River development league. The idea was to promote the idea of the larger dam, mattel da the tall dam. He worked with farmers and was able to get the support of the bureau of reclamation to actually support the idea and Good Government help. In 1933 a new commission is started. And he was voted as the general secretary, which was mainly the leader of this organization. His job was to go to the federal government and get funds to help build the dam. During this time of promoting the dam idea, he had limited funding. He was on a shoestring budget. He was getting some money from commissions that were charging the farmers were asking them to donate money to help with the idea, so it was a grassroots effort until the state got involved. Then the federal government got involved. In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt started donating 20 million. Another 20 million in 1934. And another 20 million in 1935. At this point roosevelt thought it was important to reclaim the land, help the local farmers build. It would help the state as well as the federal government, so they wanted more people coming into the area to establish it. There was more for the state of washington. If you have a greater population and more farmers being sustainable there. The benefits for the American People is the dam would create power to help generate billions and construction and buildings and construction, in seattle and beyond. So it made electricity a lot cheaper for the northwest residents and beyond the area. In order to build such a large structure, you need to hire a lot of men. And there was not a city that could handle that many people, so they built their own city for this. Companyain construction walsh,led mason, prepared kerr come and company. And they built the first town called mason, named after mason. The city supplied all their needs. There was a school, games, High School Games against other cities. It is now part of the cooley city itself. Here is a blueprint map of the town of mason. You see in the center there is the circle. Roosevelt avenue going through that. Interior housing on either side. On the side they had streets named after trees, on the side where plants or flowers. You have barberry, rhododendron. On the side you have cedar, birch, fir, and to spruce. Those are some of the names. Completed,e dam was it was considered one of the largest concrete structures in the world and it contains 12 million cubic yards of concrete. It was started in 1933 and finished in 1944. And more added in 1974. It is 4200 feet long. Completed, hewas retired because now he has spent his life working on this project and he died in 1949. Our visit to spokane washington is in American History to the close of. And we exclusive. And we should it today to introduce into cspans city tour. Where we have traveled to u. S. Cities bring in the literary scene and Historic Sites to our viewers. You can watch more of her visits at cspan profiling interview with dr. Ben carson. Remarks on todays terror attack in london from british Prime Minister theresa may and president trump. Later, the discussion about the state of u. S. Transatlantic relations with europe. Next, cspans profile interview with ann carson. Ben carson. He talks about the childhood challenges he faced and what made him want to become a doctor. This is ju