50 years ago in Expo history: The fair was proving popular with out-of-towners, even before school let out

Crowds at Expo ’74 continued to surpass expectations, totaling about 143,392 over the fair’s first three days. Officials were surprised at another statistic: Most of the visitors on the third day were from out of town. Organizers had assumed that most of the visitors in May, before schools were out, would be locals. But a random sample showed that only two of the 30 people surveyed were from Spokane. Six were young people from Vancouver, Washington, who had arrived by bus after a backpacking trip to Jackson Hole. Other visitors...