Deer Park

Deer Park photographs

From “Nine Miles Falls“, we move to Deer Park. In Deer Park, a small town of three thousand inhabitants, I lived the best years of my adolescence with the Losh family, my “American family”. In my memory, when I think of my hometown, I don’t think of Cienfuegos, my hometown in Cuba: I think of Deer Park…! I would give anything to throw back the movie of my life and return to Deer Park, where I should have stayed forever.

Deer Park is a city in Spokane County, Washington, United States. The population was 3,652 at the 2010 census, up from 3,017 in 2000. North of Spokane, the city of Deer Park was officially incorporated 114 years ago on June 24, 1908. Deer Park got its name when railroad surveyors saw deer grazing in the area. It was settled in 1889 when a railroad siding was built for the Spokane Falls & Northern Railway. Soon the Standard Lumber Company sawmill was established by William Short and George Crawford to provide the lumber needed to rebuild the nearby city of Spokane Falls (later renamed Spokane) following the great fire of 1889. By 1900 the population of Deer Park was approximately 300 residents. In addition to the sawmill, the community consisted of three general stores (owned separately by P. Kelly, Dan Weis, and A. Baldwin), a blacksmith and harness shop, a livery and feed stable, Jeff Moore’s hotel, Dr. Prince’s drug store, a public school with approximately 75 students, and a Congregational church led by Rev. F. McConaughy. By this time there were as many as eight sawmills within ten miles of Deer Park, all of which got their supplies in, and employed residents of, the town.Arcadia Apple Orchards Company was established around 1906, and orchards of apple trees were planted on the land surrounding Deer Park which had been cleared by the logging activity. The municipal airport east of the city was built during World War II and dedicated 78 years ago in August 1944 with three paved runways, all at 6,100 feet (1,860 m) in length.^[7]^[8]^[9] During the early 1960s,^[10]^[11]^[12] an Atlas missile site (567-1) near the airport was operated by the 567th Strategic Missile Squadron of Fairchild AFB. Soon obsolete, the site was decommissioned in 1965 and sold for salvage in 1967.

Our home was 5 miles from the village of Deer Park, in what is known as “Wild Rose Prairie“. From Spokane we had to take the Monroe Road.

Monroe Rd. on the way to our home.

Before arriving at our home, we had to go through the cemetery of the region, where every month we buried a neighbor.

Wild Rose Cemetery

After making a big decision, I decided to visit the old Losh home, where I was so happy in my teens. It was occupied by another family that had bought it and that treated me with great deference. They were indescribable moments, in which I remembered such pleasant moments.

Visiting my “old home”.

Then Siomi and I toured the region, felt with full of wheat and flowers.

Around the fields

Deer Park

Then we went to the small village of Deer Park and toured it. There are about five miles from what was our home and about 50 from the city of Spokane. The center of the village remains practically the same as it was half a century ago, however the growth in the outskirts of the town is noticeable.

“Downtown” Deer Park

After having breakfast in what would be the downtown of Deer Park, we went to tour the whole town, street by street … remembering the years ago.

Driving around Deer Park

1St Restaurant

A few decades ago, my American family, the Loshes, opened a restaurant near the center of town. They called it “Breadboard Restaurant”. It was quite a success at first, but perhaps too big for the small town of Deer Park. Also: no bar. The restaurant ended up closing and both the Loshes and the paternal grandparents lost their respective homes, since they had given it to the bank as guarantors of loans. Grandpa and Grama Losh went to live with their other son and the Loshes moved to the West Coast.

Siomi and I spent hours in the new “1St. Street Restaurant“.

1st Street Restaurant

Schools

Finally, I wanted to visit my old school. Impossible to relate all the memories. The old high school is now the middle school and the new one, which is already over 30 years old, looks like a university: impressive!

Deer Park schools

The last hours in Deer Park were spent shopping at the “new” Yoke’s supermarket.

How sad are the memories: when they tear down our soul…!

Index

On our way to Idaho Falls

Yellowstone (Montana – Wyoming)

Spokane, Washington

Deer Park, Washington

Canada

Index of our trips