Cheney ( ) is a city in Spokane County, Washington, United States. The full-time resident population was 13,255 as of the 2020 census. Cheney was officially incorporated on November 28, 1883.
The City of Cheney is located in Spokane County and is home to 13,255 residents, according to the 2020 Census. Cheney is proud of its small-town nature, which is enhanced by the diverse influence of Eastern Washington University, a public regional university with over 10,000 full-time students. The Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League held the majority of their summer training camps at EWU, from 1976 to 1985, and again from 1997 through the 2006 training camp.
Cheney developed into the city known today because of its strong ties to education, trail riding, and agriculture. This provided a strong economic base for the community and was the result of a much larger event that took place in the United States. In 1858, the last Native American defense occurred in Eastern Washington. Because isolated Eastern Washington was an area of this Native American unrest during the early part of the territorial period, it was not until the late 1860s and early 1870s that settlers made homes in the area. In the latter part of that decade, settlers attracted by plentiful water and timber and the promise of a railway line made their homes near a group of springs bubbling through a willow copse from the bank where the Burlington Northern depot now stands.
The name of the community, originally Section Thirteen, became Willow Springs, then became Depot Springs, because of its ties to the railroad, then Billings, in honor of a president of the Northern Pacific Company, and finally Cheney, Washington in honor of Benjamin P. Cheney, a director of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
Benjamin P. Cheney was the eldest son of a blacksmith who was born in 1815 in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. At age 16, he began working as a stagecoach driver between Nashua and Keene. Five years later he had become a stage agent in Boston and soon organized an express between Boston and Montreal. He later consolidated that stagecoach line with others to form the United States and Canada Express Company, which 37 years later he merged with American Express, becoming American Express's largest shareholder. The only time Cheney visited the town of Cheney was on September 18, 1883, following the "Last Spike Ceremony" which was the joining of the eastern and western divisions of the railroad. Cheney made donations to establish the Benjamin P. Cheney Academy in the town. The railroad donated of land so that the educational facility could be built. In 1880 the railroad was graded through the town, and in 1883 the town was incorporated with the streets laid out in the shape of a triangle with the base parallel to the tracks. The railroad tracks were not in a true east–west line, however, so the original town is askew with the map; the newer part of Cheney was built more to the compass.
After a series of boundary changes caused by legislative acts, Spokane County was created with a permanent county seat still to be selected. Contenders for the honor were Cheney and Spokane Falls (now Spokane). Cheney received a majority of the votes, but due to alleged irregularities at the polls, the election was won by Spokane Falls. When this was taken to court, a circuit court judge agreed to a ballot recount. Such a recount failed to materialize, however, and the citizens of Cheney took matters into their own hands.
On a night when most of the residents of Spokane Falls were at a gala wedding celebration, a delegation of armed "Cheneyites" invaded Auditor's office and took possession of the books, conducted their ballot recount which showed Cheney as the victor, and made off into the darkness with the records. The "Grand Steal" was not contested and was confirmed by a court decision in 1881.
Cheney remained the county seat until 1886 when the faster-growing Spokane Falls again brought the issue to a vote and regained the seat. From this point on, the history of Cheney revolves around the growth of the State Normal School, later Eastern Washington College of Education, later Eastern Washington State College, and finally Eastern Washington University. The fierce determination of Cheney to build and promote its college was largely to regain its lost prestige over the county seat.
When Washington became a state in 1889, Cheney was able to obtain legislation establishing one of the state's normal schools, mandatory under the Enabling Act, in Cheney. Its most convincing argument was that it already had the physical beginnings of a normal school in the Benjamin P. Cheney Academy.
Disagreement between legislators and governors resulted in three appropriation vetoes for the normal school in the next 25 years, but in each case, the citizens of Cheney somehow raised the funds to keep the college going until the next legislative session. The growth of the Cheney Normal School and the transformation of the frontier land into a thriving community were the basis for the changing attitudes in this area. The innovators who created the small community atmosphere were the women of the frontier. All of the energies that were once focused on making the West home for their families were transformed into creating a vision of preferred lifestyle choices for the youth.
The Battle of Four Lakes
Geography
Cheney is located at (47.488634, -117.578581), at an elevation of .
Cheney is at the highest point on the railroads between Spokane and Portland and sits atop the route of the gentlest gradient from the Spokane Valley to the Columbia Plateau, which was the reason for much of its early growth and railroad activity. The town is built on rolling Palouse hills overlooking Channeled Scablands carved out by the pre-historic Missoula Floods to the south and east. These scablands now host "pothole" lakes and wetlands, and are home to Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge. There are numerous lakes, along with the Spokane River and Little Spokane River, that are located within of Cheney that provide abundant recreational opportunities such as boating, swimming, water skiing, and fishing.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which, is land and is water.
Nearby cities and towns
- Spokane
- Medical Lake
- Airway Heights
- Four Lakes
Climate
Cheney is located on the edge of the semi-arid region leading up to the foothills of the Selkirk Mountains, where the summers are hot and dry, and winters are cold, wet, and windy.
Metropolitan area
Downtown historic district
Located approximately four blocks from the EWU campus, Historic Downtown Cheney offers a traditional mix of retail and service businesses as well as government offices. In 1999, Eastern Washington University, the City of Cheney, and the downtown business community formed a university/community partnership called "Pathways to Progress." Pathways to Progress quickly adopted the tenets and principles of the Main Street approach to downtown revitalization, formed a board of directors, and began the process of becoming a 501c(3) nonprofit corporation. Pathways to Progress is not a registered 501c(3) nonprofit corporation.
Immediately, Pathways to Progress undertook several major projects, including pedestrian streetscape enhancements along First Street (Main Street), and College Avenue. Additionally, Pathways facilitated talks between EWU and a private developer that led to the construction of Brewster Hall, a mixed-use student residence in the downtown core.
Pathways to Progress is no longer an active organization.
Downtown Cheney has since evolved into a more traditional "university district", hosting numerous community festivals, a farmers' market, and businesses catering to the college crowd.
Cheney's downtown area is also home of the Cheney Historical Museum which is dedicated to gathering, preserving, and sharing information and artifacts concerning the history of the Four Lakes, Marshall, Cheney, Tyler, and Amber districts of southwest Spokane County in eastern Washington. Volunteers open the museum at various times by season and by appointment as well as engage in research and preserving and caring for the collection. Another historic site, the Sterling-Moorman House, is also under development.
Downtown Cheney is the region's gateway to the Columbia Plateau Trail and the Fish Lake Trail, both of which explore the unique geology of the Great Ice Age Floods.
Fairchild Air Force Base
Fairchild Air Force Base, located approximately north of Cheney and established in 1942, has been a key part of the U.S. defense strategy and its personnel are a substantial portion of the Cheney community. Originally established as a World War II repair depot, it has transitioned over the years from a Strategic Air Command bomber wing during the Cold War, to Air Mobility Command air refueling wing during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Today, Fairchild's aircraft and personnel make up the backbone of the Air Force's airborne refueling tanker fleet on the West Coast. Fairchild's location north of Cheney and west of Spokane, resulted from a competition with the cities of Seattle and Everett in western Washington. The War Department chose Spokane for several reasons: better weather conditions, the location from the coast, and the Cascade Range providing a natural barrier against possible Japanese attacks.
Fairchild Air Force Base is also the United States Air Force's primary training facility for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape Techniques (SERE). SERE is a U.S. military training program developed at the end of the Korean War to provide service members with training in the Code of Conduct, survival skills, evading capture, and dealing with being taken prisoner. It was created by the U.S. Air Force but was expanded to the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy after the Vietnam War. The SERE school at Fairchild AFB is intended to train aircrews, special forces, and other service members who operate in dangerous areas and are thus more likely to be captured.