"First platted as separate city four miles from downtown Spokane in 1892, from it's earliest settlement Hillyard has been darkly controversial, fiercely independent- and sometimes violent. With a terrible Native American legacy, the area once known as "Wild Horse Plain" eventually became a railroad town in the shadow of the Great Northern Railway's East Spokane manufacturing, fueling and repair facility- very mush with the ire and prophetic curse of railway founder James J. Hill. Prohibition in Washington (1914-1933) transformed Hillyard into a dark area of illegal bars, houses of prostitution, murder and intrigue. On June 22, 1902 and December 18, 1915 railroad and streetcar disasters originating in Hillyard killed many people. During WWII and following, the Alcoa Aluminium Plant in Hillyard (later owned by Kaiser Aluminium) created devasting (and perhaps permanent) ground water pollution in the Hillyard area, as did the century of diesel fuel and oil spills in the Great Northern (now BNSF) train depot area. Mount St. Michael- rising the the northeast of Hillyard- has been the scene of fanatical religious separatists, one claiming to be Pope Adrian VII and perhaps a spiritual precursor to the Apocalypse. Among the businesses in Hillyard, there are stories of curses, witches and paranormal hauntings. Four serial killers (Robert Yates, John Craven, Douglas "Donna" Perry, and John Wayne Thompson) are associated with Hillyard. Is there a solution to Hillyard's troubled egregore and paranormal spiritual mindset?" -- back cover