Five Mile Prairie is a neighborhood on the far north side of

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south ...

, Washington. It is located on a prairie of the same name that is atop a bluff on the northern edge of the city of Spokane. It contains the highest elevations on the north side of the city proper. Despite its elevation, however, most of the neighborhood is relatively flat prairie land. Housing development has been replacing the rural land in the neighborhood since the start of the 21st century.

History

The

Spokane people The Spokan or Spokane people are a Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau, Native American Plateau tribe who inhabit the eastern portion of present-day Washington (state), Washington state and parts of northern Idaho in the United States o ...

inhabited the area that is now known as the Five Mile Prairie for centuries before European settlers arrived. The natives named the prairie "Billymeechum" or "home of the tall grass" after their Chief and have been documented in the area dating as far back as the year 1010; extant petroglyphs remain from their presence on the rock cliffs. The first settler to inhabit the area was a homesteader named J.F. Strong, who built a house on the prairie in 1879. The Strong House is still inhabited and one of the earliest and best preserved homes in north Spokane County and listed on the Spokane Register of Historic Places. The homesteaders primarily cultivated fruit orchards and berries as well as wheat, oats, and barley. A school was built on the prairie in 1901. The name of the prairie was changed to "Five Mile" in 1908, in reference to its distance from 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 ...

Downtown Spokane Downtown Spokane or Riverside is the central business district of Spokane, Washington. The Riverside neighborhood is roughly bounded by I-90 to the south, Division Street to the east, Monroe Street to the west and Boone Avenue to the north. The ...

. The bulk of the Five Mile Prairie that is within the city limits of Spokane was annexed in 1966. Additional annexations of smaller areas of land subsequently took place in 1975, 1979, 1984 and 1986.

Geography

The Five Mile Prairie is almost an island of the

Columbia Plateau The Columbia Plateau is an important geology, geologic and geography, geographic region that lies across parts of the U.S. states of Washington (state), Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It is a wide flood basalt plateau between the Cascade Range a ...

surrounded by lowlands cut by 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 o ...

and

Little Spokane River The Little Spokane River is a major tributary of the Spokane River, approximately long, in eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a rural area of forested foothills and a farming valley north of the city of Spokane along the Idaho– ...

. Surrounded by cliffs to the north, east, and west, the 3400-acre prairie sits atop a high circular table or

mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge, or hill, bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and standing distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks, such as shales, capped by a ...

of granite and basalt rock looking over the city below. The south-facing slopes of the Five Mile Prairie neighborhood rise about 400 feet. The hill gets higher to the north, reaching more than 400 at its apex in the neighborhood. Atop Five Mile Prairie the land is largely flat. It is defined by bluffs on all sides. To the north the Little Spokane River runs and to the south and west the Spokane River runs. Bluffs of a few hundred feet mark all sides of the neighborhood, though some go beyond city limits.

Transportation

Five Mile Prairie is not served by the region's public transit provider, the

Spokane Transit Authority Spokane Transit Authority, more commonly Spokane Transit or STA, is the public transport authority of central Spokane County, Washington, Spokane County, Washington (state), Washington, United States, serving Spokane, Washington, and its surrou ...

. Though the Five Mile Park & Ride, Country Homes Park & Ride and the Fairwood Park & Ride are all located just below the Five Mile Prairie bluff. The neighborhood does not conform to the city's street grid. Instead, it takes on a much more suburban approach with winding roads and cul-de-sacs common.

Demographics

As of 2017, there were 4,691 persons living in Five Mile Prairie across 1,524 households. 41.4% of those households had children and 33.9% of the population was 19 years or younger, compared to 21.9% citywide. Rentals make up 11.9% of the households in the neighborhood, compared to 45.3% citywide. Persons of color made up 8.1% of the population compared to 15.1% citywide. The median household income was $93,212, compared to the citywide average of $44,678. 45.1% of the population had a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 29.5% citywide, and 14.9% had a high school diploma at most, compared to 24.6% citywide. 14.1% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, compared to 54.5% citywide. 91.9% of residents were born in the United States or its territories. Of those who were not, 13.9% come from Mexico, 13.4% from Iraq, 9.6% from Saudi Arabia and 5.9% from Canada.

Education

While the Five Mile Prairie neighborhood is part of the city of Spokane, like the rest of the prairie it is part of the more suburban

Mead School District Mead School District No. 354 was a public School district serving Mead and North Spokane communities for over 100 years. Over 10,000 students attend the 18 schools in the district which consists of two high schools, an alternative high school, ...

. The southwestern half of the neighborhood feeds into Skyline Elementary, which is located in the unincorporated northwest of the prairie. The northeastern half feeds into Prairie View Elementary, which is located on the unincorporated northeast of the prairie. Both schools feed into Highland Middle School, also on the northwestern portion of the prairie. The public high school serving the neighborhood is

Mead High School Mead High School (also Mead Senior High School, MHS) is a four-year public secondary school in Fairwood, Washington, United States, on the north side of the Spokane urban area. MHS is one of two traditional high schools in the Mead School Di ...

, in nearby Fairwood.

References

{{Geographic Location , Center = Five Mile Prairie , North = Unincorporated Spokane County;

, Northeast = Country Homes , East = Country Homes; Town and Country , Southeast = Town and Country , South = Balboa/South Indian Trail , Southwest = Balboa/South Indian Trail , West = Unincorporated Spokane County, North Indian Trail , Northwest = Unincorporated Spokane County, North Indian Trail Geography of Spokane, Washington Neighborhoods in Spokane, Washington