In 1974 the World’s Honest had its smallest-ever host: Spokane, Washington. To organize for the occasion, dubbed Expo ’74, town remodeled its crumbling downtown railyard, which sat alongside the banks of the Spokane River, right into a 100-acre fairground. The positioning featured America’s first IMAX theater, a gondola strung over Spokane Falls, and a classic 1909 Looff Carrousel, amongst different sights.
From Could to November, some 5.6 million folks attended the honest and seen reveals from 10 international locations, together with Australia, which displayed a mannequin of the newly accomplished Sydney Opera Home, and Japan, which constructed a proper backyard on website.
From left: Jason Hummel/Courtesy of Go to Spokane; Christine Tran/Courtesy of Gander & Ryegrass
Close by is the Fox Theatre, a 1931 Artwork Deco masterpiece that was as soon as a 2,300-seat movie show and is now dwelling to the Spokane Symphony. After taking in a efficiency, pop in to Barrister Vineyard, a former auto warehouse that at present pours Washington varietals, like Cabernet Sauvignon from the Walla Walla Valley.
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For dinner, take pleasure in a six-course meal at Gander & Ryegrass, the place chef Peter Froese’s Italian-influenced dishes may embody kohlrabi risotto or pork with chanterelles. Or go to Indigenous Eat for bison tacos, fry bread, and “three sisters” soup, made with corn, squash, and beans.
The town’s classic scene is equally various. Teleport Classic & Co. sources horsehide-leather jackets, band and sports activities T-shirts, denim, camp blankets, and workwear from throughout the Pacific Northwest, in addition to Colombia, England, and France. In addition they have a fridge stocked with beer, laborious seltzer, and cider, so you possibly can sip whilst you store by the eras, in true Spokane fashion.
A model of this story first appeared within the October 2024 challenge of Journey + Leisure underneath the headline “Sparkle Metropolis.”