The long days of summer may seem to drag on forever. Then, out of nowhere, it's almost October and the nights are outpacing the days.
Summer is a time to be outside and take full advantage of the sun's lasting light. Fortunately for me, it's also the time of year when my work responsibilities relax. My laptop's harsh blue light can easily be traded for the warm natural glow.
Which is why it may seem strange to say that I'm making my summer count by editing Wikipedia. No, not wasting my days in an apartment behind closed blinds, hunched over a laptop typing away. I'll save that for later.
I mean walking around Spokane taking photographs of our historic districts. Did you know there are 15 such districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places within city limits?
Other days I'll hit the road for a trip through small towns and communities around the area.
I'll never forget the day in August 2022 when I looped north through Chattaroy, Milan, Elk, Deer Park, Denison, Tumtum and Suncrest with a camera in hand. Not to mention places that no longer exist, like the ghost towns of Buckeye and Hazard.
Many of these locations had a Wikipedia page before I made that trip, but few were longer than the paragraph above, and even fewer had photos to provide a sense of place.
For a city of its size, Spokane has a robust community of people working to add knowledge of our region to Wikipedia. But there's always room for more, and that's the great thing about Wikipedia: Anyone can join in.
It doesn't have to be like writing a college research paper, poring over sources and learning how to cite them. Over the past few years that I've been working to document the geography and history of the Inland Northwest, one notable building or town at a time, I've found that it's actually a ton of fun.
Wikipedia exists in the online sphere, but it's led me away from my laptop and out the door as much as anything else, and I'm looking forward to the roads it leads me down once again this summer. ♦
