Pathways to Progress

Pathways to Progress is a private non-profit organization dedicated to the revitalization of historic downtown Cheney. It represents a partnership between the City of Cheney, Eastern Washington University, downtown businesses and the greater community. We follow the tenants of the Main Street Program developed by the Nation Trust for Historic Preservation in the late 1970s.

A few years ago, we spun-off the Cheney-Palouse Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute. That organization, also a private non-profit, is working to establish the route of the great glacial Lake Missoula floods across north Idaho, through eastern and central Washington and along the Columbia River gorge to the Pacific Ocean as a National Geologic Route. this would be primarily an automobile route. They are also dedicated to providing public education regarding the great ice age floods and the unique landscape they produced.

The Cheney-Palouse Chapter is also pursuing the establishmentof a non-motorized trail system that would followthe route of the floods, roughly paralleling the automobile route. The Centennial Trail through the City of Spokane and western most Valley, and Columbia Plateau Trail represent significant segments of this non-motorized ice age floods trail system. If these could be knit together via the Fish Lake Trail, a significant part of the Chapter's goal would be accomplished. The members could then focus on completion of the Columbia Plateau Trail to the Tri Cities.

Ice Age Flood Institute Trial Information