The North Idaho Centennial Trail was dedicated as Idaho's Millennium Legacy Trail on June 8,2000 at the Huetter Rest Area on Interstate 90. For more information visit Millennium Trails web site.

Communities Share the Trail

As a paved, non-motorized multi-use trail accessible by the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Spokane River Centennial Trail offers 60 miles of recreation and alternative transportation to a half dozen communities that lie in its path.  It traverses both urban and rural areas, offering a diversity of environment.  In addition the trail provides a "take off" point for several other nearby communities and recreational sites. Its users are estimated to be close to one million annually.  Organizations like the Friends of the Centennial Trail in Washington and the North Idaho Centennial Trail Foundation in Idaho act as the citizens' voices for trail matters.

The Spokane River Centennial Trail reflects the character of the Inland Northwest, an area where outdoor activities are frequent and varied.  It provides a safe place for walking, running, cycling, skating, horseback riding, and fishing-along with water sports such as canoeing, kayaking, and rafting.  Families of all ages are on the trail often, as it is a free, year-round place to spend time together in healthful, rewarding activities.

Corporate, civic, service and educational organizations adopt miles of the Centennial Trail, pledging to help maintain and preserve it.  Every year, the Spokane-based Friends of the Centennial Trail presents Unveil the Trail, an all-trail spring clean up designed to prepare the trail for each season.  Adopting organizations as well as community volunteers line each mile with wheelbarrows, trash bags, shovels, brooms, rakes and weed trimmers-leaving the trail in pristine condition.  Non-profit organizations hold fund-raising events along the Centennial Trail, the proceeds of which go back into the local services provided by these agencies.  One hospital's largest annual fund-raising event is a two-day round-trip bicycle ride from Spokane to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.  Hundreds of cyclists traverse the states, aiding the economies of local communities as well as raising funds for the hospital.  Another such event, hosted by the Friends of the Centennial Trail, is the annual Spokane River Centennial Trail celebration, held in conjunction with National Trails Day. 

Future Goals
The Spokane River Centennial Trail is already the fulfillment of Inland Northwest visionaries who recognized the treasure that is the Spokane River.  The trail "honors the past" as a pathway linking city, county, and state parks, protecting the river corridor and its wealth of cultural evidence from generations thousands of years ago.  Current trail managers and supporters "imagine the future" of the trail as an integral link in a system of interstate trails-and many such trails and connections are already being developed.  In Spokane, the Friends of the Centennial Trail is working with the Washington State Parks & Recreation Commission as well as local parks departments to build new trail and a bridge over the Spokane River.  This addition to the Spokane River Centennial Trail will open up new routes for both recreational and regional commuting trail users.  More importantly, it will allow for connection with the developing Columbia Plateau Trail, a rail-trail that eventually will begin in the southern reaches of Washington and follow a scenic route all the way to Spokane, some 130 miles.  And the Columbia Plateau Trail has the potential to connect with the Ironhorse Trail that begins in Washington's western reaches of the Puget Sound.  In Idaho, both east-west and north-south trails are being developed and extended, including trails that will connect directly with the Spokane River Centennial Trail and that will allow for many miles of "new" trail territory for trail users.  Indeed, trail developers, managers and enthusiasts foresee a near future when the Spokane River Centennial Trail-already linking two states-becomes major connector for trails leading into Montana and possibly into Oregon.

A view of the Spokane River along the Trail

A History of the Spokane River Centennial Trail
The Spokane River Centennial Trail has a rich cultural past, as the river it follows has been the Inland Northwest's lifeblood for more than 11,000 years.  Native Americans, explorers, miners, and settlers have all left evidence of their life stories along the trail.  With the blessing of our country's presidents, explorers such as Lewis and Clark, soldiers such as George Wright and John Mullan, and entrepreneurs like Frederick Post all discovered the wealth and variety of the Inland Northwest.  Direct influence on the development of the Spokane River Centennial Trail began in the early 1900s, when Spokane, Washington's city leaders hired the renowned Olmstead Brothers (planners of New York's Central Park) to guide Spokane's recreational vision.  The result of the Olmsteads' work was a concept of a series of parks located along the Spokane River, all linked by a pathway.  Later years indeed realized the development of parks throughout the city.  But instead of pathways, the Inland Northwest became a hub for a network of railroads, many of which converged at areas along the Spokane River.  Private industry also acquired large sections of the river corridor.  The work of the turn-of-the-century leaders was not forgotten, however, when planners for EXPO '74-the 1974 World's Fair-recognized that it was time to return the river to the people and to concentrate on preserving the precious river corridor.  In 1979, the Spokane County parks department proposed a bicycle/pedestrian pathway along the river.  By 1986, the concept of this pathway had grown, and collaborating planners included Washington and Idaho State, county and city parks agencies; state transportation agencies; grassroots committees; and private industry.  All worked together to realize a paved, accessible, non-motorized multi-use trail that would be built in time to celebrate Washington's centennial in 1989 and Idaho's centennial in 1990. 

During the following years, the trail has grown and been improved.  User safety and accessibility have been primary considerations in trail development, and many amenities-such as fountains, restrooms, benches and interpretive areas-have been added for the enjoyment of all who visit the trail.  The Spokane River Centennial Trail follows the same river route that generations have followed and its current 60 miles protect the river corridor, revealing the past and promising the future for generations to come.  Trail managers are working to expand the trail even farther, creating more links and an unprecedented system of connecting trails.

The Spokane River Centennial Trail in Washington is managed under an inter-agency agreement of the Washington State Parks & Recreation Commission; the City of Spokane Parks & Recreation Department; the Spokane County Parks, Recreation & Fair Department; and the Friends of the Centennial Trail.  In Idaho the trail is managed cooperatively by a joint powers agreement with the cities of Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Kootenai County and Idaho State Parks.