When established, the North West Company's farthest outpost in the Columbia River region was the first ever non-Indigenous settlement in the Pacific Northwest (South of present-day 49 degree latitude border).

Prior to the arrival of the white traders, the site of what would become Spokane House was a gathering place for area tribes who came to catch and dry salmon, which contributed to its development as a trading post.

The second Spokane House saw use as a major post in the interior Oregon Country until the NWC was absorbed by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821.

During a general tour of the Pacific Northwest, Spokane House was abandoned by George Simpson in 1825, in favor of a new post that became Fort Colvile.

The arrival of an expedition originating in St. Louis led by W. Price Hunt along with sorely needed supplies and reinforcements from the Beaver early in 1812 allowed to company to establish more trade posts to compete against the NWC.

This party was directed to create "a district headquarters for trade in what is now eastern Washington and Oregon, northern Idaho, and western Montana.

The PFC laborers had as Ross recalled:"a snug and commodious dwelling-house, containing four rooms and a kitchen; together with a comfortable house for the men, and a capacious store for the furs and trading goods; the whole surrounded by paling, and flanked by two bastions with loopholes for musketry.

It became was the North West Company's central depot in the Oregon Country interior but problems with the location of Spokane House were evident.

In particular he found many lazy, "the very scum of the country... the most unruly and troublesome gang... are under no control & feel their own independence, they therefore require very superior management to make anything of them..."[8] Simpson reduced the employees stationed at Spokane House for 1825 by seven, leaving only fifteen.

This was due to several reasons including, the distance of Spokane House from the Columbia River, the scarcity of fur bearing populations in the area, and the abundance of fish and promising agricultural prospects at the latter location.

A steep bluff is located immediately to the south of the flat where the Spokane River tumbles over Nine Mile Falls.