Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Sprague, WA

Sprague is a small city in Lincoln County, set at the junction of Interstate 90 and State Route 23, northeast of Sprague Lake and about 36 miles southwest of Spokane.

First settled by William Newman, who established an inn there, the settlement was originally called Hoodooville after local character William 'Hoodoo Billy' Burrows.

Sprague was platted in 1880 and named for John Wilson Sprague, a Civil War Union general who became a Northern Pacific Railroad executive.

The Northern Pacific made Sprague a construction headquarters and major division point, and the city was officially incorporated on November 28, 1883.

Sprague won an 1884 election to become the Lincoln County seat, an honor it held for just over a decade.

A fire destroyed Sprague on August 3, 1895, and after the Northern Pacific Railroad chose not to rebuild in town, the county seat was moved to Davenport in 1896 following a controversial vote.

At its 1890 peak Sprague counted 1,689 residents; the 2020 census counted 495 people in 206 households.

Mary Queen of Heaven Catholic Church in Sprague, whose present Gothic Revival building was erected in 1902 just south of the original 1883 church, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

Sprague's climate lies between semi-arid and dry-summer continental, averaging about 14.5 inches of precipitation a year, though summer temperatures have reached as high as 110 degrees.

Notable Sprague natives include poet Mary Carolyn Davies, author of 'A Casualty List,' and philosopher and educator Scott Buchanan.