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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Then and Now: Sunset Trailer Park

The area around Government Way, between the Sunset Highway and Interstate 90 was once occupied by Sunset Trailer Park but landscape has been radically altered by the 1960s construction of the interstate highway, major reroutes of railroad tracks and changes to local streets. The trailer park, roughly in the area behind the Boulevard Motel, was here from the late 1940s to the early 1960s and could accommodate 76 trailers. Travelers trailer parks were often associated with motels, like the nearby El Rancho Motel. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)
The area around Government Way, between the Sunset Highway and Interstate 90 was once occupied by Sunset Trailer Park but landscape has been radically altered by the 1960s construction of the interstate highway, major reroutes of railroad tracks and changes to local streets. The trailer park, roughly in the area behind the Boulevard Motel, was here from the late 1940s to the early 1960s and could accommodate 76 trailers. Travelers trailer parks were often associated with motels, like the nearby El Rancho Motel. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)
By Jesse Tinsley jesset@spokesman.com(509) 459-5378

The first camp trailers appeared behind cars in the 1920s and were mainly used by adventurous travelers on overnight journeys. In the 1930s they housed people displaced during the Great Depression.

But after World War II, travel trailers became homes for workers responding to a rapidly expanding economy. Salesmen, construction workers and others flowed wherever there was work. In Spokane, many enlisted servicemen and defense contractors lived in trailers.

The average trailer length in the 1920s was in the low 20-foot range. By the 1950s, it was common to see transient workers pulling a 35- to 50-foot trailer behind the family car.

Epitomizing and even encouraging Americans’ love of the gypsy lifestyle was the 1954 Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz film “The Long, Long Trailer.”

A 1951 Spokane Daily Chronicle story by writer Fenton Roskelley extolled the virtues of the Sunset Trailer Park at 2815 W. Ninth Ave. For obvious reasons, motels, trailer camps and rental cabins clustered around where the Sunset Highway entered the city from the West Plains.

Roskelley called the place a “spick and span Spokane trailer camp that’s becoming known among trailerites as one of the outstanding camps in the nation.”

In the 1951 story, camp resident Mrs. V.W. Shell says “We’ve lived in trailer camps all over the country. This one, we’ve found, is even better than the best in Florida and California.” Her husband was a construction superintendent, and she said the family had been living in trailers for 14 years.

The camp was developed by insurance executive Erwin Juedes and banker O.F. Kelly of Deer Park starting around 1948. It was next to, and possibly part of, another travel rest stop called Custer Cabins behind the Boulevard Motel.

Early travel trailers rarely had bathrooms, but once they were common in larger trailers, young families and retirees began choosing movable homes for their primary residences. Federal laws in the 1970s required new manufactured homes be heavier and sturdier than travel trailers.

The Sunset Trailer Park disappeared in the early 1960s, shortly before Interstate 90 was built nearby. In the early 1970s, nearby train tracks were rerouted through the area.