Sandpoint

History

Salish Tribes, specifically the Kalispel and the Kootenai, built encampments on the shore of Lake Pend Oreille every summer, fished, made baskets of cedar, and collected huckleberries before returning to either Montana or Washington in the fall. The encampments ended before 1930. The region was extensively explored by David Thompson of the North West Company starting in 1807. Disputed joint British/American occupation of the Columbia District led to the Oregon boundary dispute. This controversy ended in 1846 with the signing of the Oregon Treaty, whereby Britain ceded all rights to land south of the 49th parallel. In the 1880s, the Northern Pacific Railroad brought European and Chinese settlement to the area. In August 1888, 29-year-old author and civil servant Theodore Roosevelt visited Sandpoint on a caribou-hunting trip in the Selkirk Mountains. Roosevelt documented what a rough-and-tumble environment "Sand Point" was at that time (and for many decades following). Sandpoint was officially incorporated in 1898. Timber harvesting and railroads drove the economy for nearly a century as loggers moved in from the over-harvested Great Lakes region. Several lumber companies operated in the region from as early as 1896 to present, the most notable being the Humbird Lumber Company which operated from 1900 to around 1944. The lumber companies bought land from the Northern Pacific Railroad and built a major mill at Sandpoint and adjacent Kootenai. Lumber company-owned railroads extended into many of the local drainages including Grouse Creek, Gold Creek and Rapid Lightning Creek. Although the trees were never exhausted in the area, Humbird Lumber succumbed to the low timber prices of the Great Depression. "Stump ranches" were sold by Humbird to many families who slowly…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Sandpoint has a fairly typical inland Northwestern humid continental climate (Köppen: Dsb), with cold, snowy winters and dry summers with large diurnal temperature swings from hot in the day to very cool at night. The record low was on December 30, 1968, while the record high was recorded on June 30, 2021. The wettest month was December 1933 with of total precipitation and the most monthly snowfall in January 1969. }}

Race & ethnicity