Four Lakes, Washington — Junction Between Farm Country and Spokane

Four Lakes has spent most of its history being useful because routes meet there.

Railroads helped establish the community southwest of Spokane, where surrounding farms needed transportation and a small service point. The nearby lakes supplied the name, but the junction supplied the work.

Highways later changed the relationship without eliminating it. Spokane and Cheney became easy enough to reach that residents could live in Four Lakes while working, shopping or attending school elsewhere.

That pulled the community in two directions. Wheat fields and open ground still tie it to the rural Palouse edge, while commuter traffic ties it to metropolitan Spokane.

Four Lakes never needed a large downtown to make sense. Its center has always been movement: first trains and farm traffic, now highways connecting several different versions of Spokane County.