Expo '74, officially known as the International Exposition on the Environment, Spokane 1974,
was a world's fair held May 4, 1974, to November 3, 1974 in
Spokane, Washington
Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Canada ...
in the
northwest
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
It was the first
environmentally themed
world's fair
A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...
and attended by roughly 5.6 million people.
The heart of the fair park grounds was located on Canada Island, Havermale Island, and the adjacent south bank of the
Spokane River
The Spokane River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northern Idaho and eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a low mountainous area east of the Columbia, passing through the Spokane Valley and the city of ...
, comprising present-day
Riverfront Park, in the center of the city.
With the exception of two pavilions, all of the major buildings were modular structures assembled on the site. The fair had 5.6 million visitors
and was considered a success, nearly breaking even, revitalizing the blighted urban core, and pumping an estimated $150 million into the local economy and surrounding region.
In proclaiming itself the first exposition on an environmental theme, Expo '74 distanced itself from the more techno-centric world's fairs of the 1960s. The environmental theme was promoted in several high-profile events, such as a symposium on United Nations
World Environment Day
World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated annually on 5 June and encourages awareness and action for the protection of the environment. It is supported by many non-governmental organizations, businesses, government entities, and represents the ...
(June 5) attended by more than 1,200 people including many international representatives, and ECAFE Day for the
United Nations Economic Council for Asia and the Far East
The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC; french: links=no, Conseil économique et social des Nations unies, ) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields ...
(June 14) that discussed regional environment issues.
History
![FMIB 34204 Spokane Falls, Spokane, Washington](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/FMIB_34204_Spokane_Falls%2C_Spokane%2C_Washington.jpeg)
Industrialization around the Spokane Falls
Spokane was initially settled in the late 1800s along the
Spokane Falls
Spokane Falls is the name of a waterfall and dam on the Spokane River, located in the central business district in downtown Spokane, Washington. The city of Spokane was also initially named "Spokane Falls".
History
The Native American name for ...
of the
Spokane River
The Spokane River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northern Idaho and eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a low mountainous area east of the Columbia, passing through the Spokane Valley and the city of ...
, a site which was chosen because of the
fall
Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March (Souther ...
s'
hydropower
Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, converting the Pot ...
potential to support a late 19th century city and its economy.
As Spokane began to grow over its early years, the area would become heavily industrialized with numerous sawmills, flour mills,
and hydroelectricity generators. Railroading would eventually develop around the falls by the early 20th century.
All of the industrialization would engulf and obscure the area from public access and view.
The presence of railroads within the downtown core was noted by the
Olmsted Brothers
The Olmsted Brothers company was a landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape architect Frederick Law ...
in 1908 when they began to develop a master plan for parks in the City of Spokane.
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. Spokane would go on to become the site of four transcontinental railroads, including Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Union Pacific, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, as well as regional ones like
Oregon Railway. By 1914, Union Pacific had built their own station on the park's site, along with elevated tracks leading up to it.
The heart of Downtown Spokane would become a hub for passenger and freight rail transport and remained that way for several decades.
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
The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic grou ...
.
Additionally, the high volume of train traffic created a very noisy downtown,
and numerous at-grade railroad crossings were causing traffic congestion issues.
Beginnings of a world's fair
By the 1950s, the core of Downtown Spokane began to empty out due to
suburbanization
Suburbanization is a population shift from central urban areas into suburbs, resulting in the formation of (sub)urban sprawl. As a consequence of the movement of households and businesses out of the city centers, low-density, peripheral urba ...
,
a trend that was prevalent amongst many American cities during this time.
This trend sparked
urban renewal
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
discussions in Spokane and in 1959, a group called Spokane Unlimited
was formed by local business leaders to try and revitalize Downtown Spokane. The group would hire New York-based
Ebasco Services
Ebasco Services was a United States-based designer and constructor of energy infrastructure, most notably nuclear power plants.
History
The company was formed from the Electric Bond and Share Company, a holding company that sold securities of elec ...
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 in the central business district.
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.
However, efforts to pass bonds to fund the construction were overwhelmingly defeated by Spokane voters over the next couple years,
and by 1963, Spokane Unlimited had to revise its vision.
They hired King Cole,
who had recently worked on some urban renewal projects in California, to execute EBASCO's urban renewal plans in Spokane.
In light of the failed votes, Cole formed a
grassroots
A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...
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.
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
The Bureau international des expositions (BIE; English: International Bureau of Expositions) is an intergovernmental organization created to supervise international exhibitions (also known as expos or world expos) falling under the jurisdiction o ...
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.
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 The business and occupation tax (often abbreviated as B&O tax or B/O tax) is a type of tax levied by the U.S. states of Washington, West Virginia, and, as of 2010, Ohio, and by municipal governments in West Virginia and Kentucky.
It is a type of gr ...
that the Spokane City Council passed in September 1971 after a ballot bond measure to provide local funding failed the month prior.
The event was officially recognized by then-President
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
in October 1971, and the following month, the Bureau of International Expositions gave their sign-off on the event as well.
Construction
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.
The railroads were consolidated onto the
Northern Pacific Railway
The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, whic ...
lines further to the south in Downtown Spokane,
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
The Bureau international des expositions (BIE; English: International Bureau of Expositions) is an intergovernmental organization created to supervise international exhibitions (also known as expos or world expos) falling under the jurisdiction o ...
until
Knoxville, Tennessee
Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Di ...
held the
1982 World's Fair
The 1982 World's Fair, officially known as the Knoxville International Energy Exposition (KIEE) and simply as Energy Expo '82 and Expo '82, was an international exposition held in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Focused on energy and ele ...
eight years later (although the
Spokane metropolitan area
The Spokane–Spokane Valley Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of Spokane and Stevens counties in Washington state, anchored by the city of Spokane and its largest suburb, Spo ...
is still smaller than the
Knoxville metropolitan area
The Knoxville metropolitan area, commonly known as Greater Knoxville, is a metropolitan statistical area centered on Knoxville, Tennessee, the third largest city in Tennessee and the largest city in East Tennessee. It is the third largest metro ...
). 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."
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
The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
,
General Motors
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
, and
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
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
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
did not have a fair pavilion but it sponsored the musical group
Up with People
Up with People (UWP) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Up with People stages song and dance performances promoting themes such as multiculturalism, racial equality, and positive thinking.
History
Archives
The UWP Archives i ...
that performed during the summer at the fair.
Logo
Expo '74's official logo debuted in March 1972 and was designed by Spokane artist Lloyd L. Carlson.
The logo is a stylized
Möbius strip
In mathematics, a Möbius strip, Möbius band, or Möbius loop is a surface that can be formed by attaching the ends of a strip of paper together with a half-twist. As a mathematical object, it was discovered by Johann Benedict Listing and Augu ...
, an endless three-dimensional form, which was chosen to symbolize the continuity of life and mankind's relationship with the environment.
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.
Opening day
US President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
presided over the fair's opening ceremony on May 4, 1974,
where he addressed a crowd of some 85,000.
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,
and urged nations to work together to clean up the environment around the world.
The opening of Expo '74 occurred in the midst of the
Watergate Scandal
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...
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.
The hecklers were ignored by Nixon, who continued to give his opening day remarks.
In keeping with the fair's environmental theme, other opening day events included the release of 1,974 rainbow trout into the Spokane River,
and releasing 1,000 pigeons into the sky.
The fair
Nations with an official presence at the fair included
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
,
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
,
Republic of Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its east ...
, the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and the
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
.
[ 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 Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...
. (The artistic director for the project was film director Jonathan Dawson
Jonathan Dawson (24 November 194110 August 2013) was an Australian academic, filmmaker, film and literary critic and broadcaster.
Biography
Jonathan Dawson was born in Melbourne. At Melbourne University he graduated in English Honours and won ...
). However, writer Calvin Trillin
Calvin Marshall Trillin (born 5 December 1935) is an American journalist, humorist, food writer, poet, memoirist and novelist. He is a winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor (2012) and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts an ...
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
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''.[
One piece of technology that made its debut at Expo '74 was the ]IMAX
IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating.
Graeme F ...
movie theater. The original theater, built inside of the United States Pavilion, had a screen that measured , 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.'
The fair also featured the interactive movie system Kinoautomat
''Kinoautomat'' was the world's first interactive movie, conceived by Radúz Činčera for the Czechoslovak Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. At nine points during the film the action stops, and a moderator appears on stage to as ...
. Pacific Northwest Bell
Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company was an AT&T majority-owned Bell System company that provided local telecommunications services in Oregon, Washington, and northern Idaho. Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company was formed on July 1, 196 ...
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.
Legacy
After the event closed, the exposition site became the city's Riverfront Park,[ containing the former U.S. Pavilion and a clock tower (part of a ]Great Northern Great Northern may refer to:
Transport
* One of a number of railways; see Great Northern Railway (disambiguation).
* Great Northern Railway (U.S.), a defunct American transcontinental railroad and major predecessor of the BNSF Railway.
* Great ...
rail depot that was demolished for Expo '74), which are featured prominently in the park's past and current logos.
Several structures built for the fair are still standing. The Washington State Pavilion still stands and is used as the Spokane Convention Center
Spokane Convention Center is the primary convention center in Spokane, Washington, in the northwest United States, and consists of two interconnected buildings along the south bank of the Spokane River in downtown Spokane. The facility, owned and ...
and the First Interstate Center for the Arts
The First Interstate Center for the Arts is a 2,609-seat theater and entertainment venue in Spokane, Washington, Spokane, Washington (state), Washington. It is located in Downtown Spokane along the south bank of the Spokane River adjacent to the ...
. The building constructed to house Spokane's iconic Looff Carrousel was disassembled in March 2017 (it housed a German beer garden during the fair), with a new building planned. The carrousel originated in Natatorium Park, which closed in 1967, and was restored for the World's Fair. An additional six structures, including the Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
Pavilion, were moved 150 miles south to Walla Walla Walla Walla can refer to:
* Walla Walla people, a Native American tribe after which the county and city of Walla Walla, Washington, are named
* Place of many rocks in the Australian Aboriginal Wiradjuri language, the origin of the name of the town ...
where they were re-purposed to be used as classrooms and a performing arts theater for the Walla Walla Community College
Walla Walla Community College (WWCC), often referred to as just “CC” locally, is a multi-campus community college in southeastern Washington state.
History
Walla Walla Community College was founded in 1967 by Peter Dietrich when the region ...
.Expo ‘74 Spokane: China Pavilion
/ref>
The original covering of the US pavilion was a thick vinyl sheeting that was not designed to last. It was allowed to remain until it began to deteriorate, become unsightly and was thought a safety hazard. When the city opted to remove the covering, chunks of the thick vinyl could be purchased as keep-sakes. The tent design itself with its heavy cables was not intended to stay up, however the people of Spokane voiced the opinion that it should remain as a unique architectural statement, and a monument to the 1974 exposition.
Souvenirs used to be sold at The White Elephant in Spokane, but their recent closure means that they can no longer be purchased from that location.
Entertainment and famous visitors
Dance: Cheremosh Ukrainian Dance Company Cheremosh Ukrainian Dance Company ( uk, Український Танцювалний Ансамбль "Черемош", translit. ''Ukrayinskiy Tantsyuvalniy Ansambl "Cheremosh"'') is a Ukrainian dance company based in Edmonton, Alberta and a lea ...
See also
* ''Expo '74
Expo '74, officially known as the International Exposition on the Environment, Spokane 1974, was a world's fair held May 4, 1974, to November 3, 1974 in Spokane, Washington in the northwest United States. It was the first environmentally themed ...
'', special Amtrak service between Spokane and Seattle
*List of world expositions
The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) sanctions world expositions. Some have been recognised retrospectively because they took place before the BIE came into existence.
The designation "World Exposition" refers to a class of the largest, ...
*List of world's fairs
This is a list of international and colonial world's fairs, as well as a list of national exhibitions, a comprehensive chronological list of world's fairs (with notable permanent buildings built).
1790s
* 1791 – Prague, Bohemia, Habsburg m ...
References
External links
Spokane Expo '74
Official website of the BIE
Riverfront Park: Still an attraction 30 years after fair
PBS Documentary - Reflections by the River: Expo '74
{{Authority control
World's fairs in Washington (state)
1974 in Washington (state)
History of Spokane, Washington
Environmentalism in the United States
History of environmentalism