It's tough to locate Real Historical Miniatures shops, as I believe there are less than 100 in the country. Here is my brief synopsis of the stores carrying anything Historical in the East (e. g, east of the Cascades):

Spokane

Gorilla Bob's Adventure Outpost 9324 N Division (Just North of the Division "Y" across the Parking lot from McDonald's) PHONE: (509) 468-3974 E-mail: goribob@aol.com Website: http://www.gorillabobs.com <
>Brief Overview: G-Bob's has very little in the way of historical miniatures (some board games and a few packs of RAFM 25mm WWII). They are primarily a Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Comics store. They do have a spacious game room, and John and Jason may be good resources for finding area gamers. The store also offers network gaming with hourly rates.

Editor's Note: I received the following from the owner of Gorilla Bob's:

Sadly I have to announce the closing of Gorilla Bob's as of July 31st. The mall is making changes and we will not be able to stay there. Here's what will happen over the next month.

Dates and Hours - Gorilla Bob's will be open regular hours til July 31st (Everyday I 1pm-6pm, Wed and Fri til 11pm, Sat til 9pm). We will still have Friday night Magic and Wednesday night Gaming till July 31st.

The Inventory - We will be selling everything that is in stock at 20% off til July 31st. The good, the bad and the ugly. Some items will be at 40% off.

Merlyn's
IN Browne (Across the Street from Thudpucker's) PHONE: (509) 624-0957 E-mail: goribob@aol.com Website: http://www.gorillabobs.com
Brief Overview: Merlyn's was recently acquired by Gorilla Bob's, and also offers an in-store gaming area and network computer games. For Historicals, they carry 1/285 WWII and Modern Micro Armor, 1/72 Plastic Figures, several different magazines, board games, and they recently started carrying Easy Eight's Battleground WWII products. John Waite, the owner, has been making an effort to carry a wider variety of late.

Palouse Area

Gamer's Paradise (inside Wally's World of Hobbies) 254 E. Main Pullman, WA (Kitty-Comer from US Bank)
Brief Overview: See Randy's article on page 4 about his own store.

Hodgins Drug and Hobby 307 S Main Moscow,ID (Downtown, Next to US BANK) (208) 882-5536 <
>Brief Overview: No game room, but they do carry a lot of different historicals. Hodgins has a wide selection of 15mm WWII, ACW, Napoleonics, and Ancients, 25mm Battleground WWII, Old-West and Ancients, a huge selection of board games, tons of Osprey's, and lots of interesting models. If you join the free "Players Club", you get 10% off hobby purchases. On the flip side, if you are looking for anything beyond the existing stock (which has existed there for quite some time) you need to order it. Hodgins has really changed their focus to Games Workshop products so the selection is there, but hidden away in boxes in most cases with the exception of the Old Glory stuff. Josh has recently tried to add a small 4'x6' game table.

I've been gaming in the Spokane area for about 20 years. The area is comprised primarily of small groups that do not communicate much. The only real bridge between them seems to be Game Faire (every April at SFCC) It's a mixed convention that usually attracts several historical gamers including SGR, the closest thing to an actual club on this side. I first really noticed this situation when I moved down to the Palouse area. I game with two different groups that have been in the region for years, playing in the same small towns and the two groups didn't really even know each other existed.

As long as I am on the subject, here are the local conventions:

Game Faire -End of April
Spokane Falls Community College
http://www.gorillabobs.com/
The biggest gaming con in Eastern Washington. Historical games have been well represented in years past with lots of Microarmor, 15mm ACW, 1/2400 Naval, 1/1200 Age of Sail, and 20mm WWII. This year I ran 20mm Skirmish games including WWII Italian vs. British, 1973 Israeli vs. Syrian and a 200? British vs. Serbian game. Next year I'm thinking about trying to do a 15mm Nappies game. As a bonus, GMs who volunteer to run at least 2 sessions (8 hours) of games receive free admission for the whole weekend.

Sterlingcon
July 22nd,23rd - in Spokane. Only the 2nd year of its existence. Put on by the Scots 'Guard Regiment (SGR). Last year was small, but comfortable with 20mm WWII skirmish games the whole weekend (1/2 hosted by me, the other half by Kris Sweigert), 15mm ACW, and 1/1200 Age of Sail I'm not sure If I'll be able to attenj this year.

Incon 2000 -October 27 - 29, 2000 (tentative)
Spokane Downtown Double Tree Inn 322 N. Spokane Falls Ct., Spokane, Washington
for reservations, call (509) 455- 9600 http://incon.skywalk.com
Standard Sci-Fi/Fantasy Con with a game room. The plus side is that the gaming is open 24 hours. Usually a poor showing from historical wargamers. You usually can count on some WWII Microarmor, Micronaughts and possibly 15mm ACW.

Moscon 22 August 25 - 27, 2000 University Inn Moscow,ldaho
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/ Chamber/9963
Another standard Sci-Fi/Fantasy Con with a game room. Last year there was Microarmor, 15mm ACW, 1/300 Scale WWII Air, 1/2400 Scale WWII Naval, and, of course, 20mm WWII skirmish (The St. Lo terrain I used at Enfilade! was built for this convention.)

I've left out RadCon, but I really have no info on it. But there it is, my brief review of Gaming Options for those of us who believe that the East Side extends beyond Bellevue.