Sandpoint, Idaho

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Sandpoint, Idaho
City
Location in Bonner County, Idaho
Location in Bonner County, Idaho
CountryUnited States
StateIdaho
CountyBonner
Incorporation1898
Area
 • Total4.7 sq mi (12.3 km2)
 • Land3.9 sq mi (10.1 km2)
 • Water0.8 sq mi (2.2 km2)
Elevation
2,096 ft (639 m)
Population
 (2000)
 • Total6,835
 • Density1,750.9/sq mi (676.0/km2)
Time zoneUTC-8 (Pacific (PST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-7 (PDT)
ZIP codes
83862, 83864, 83888
Area code208
FIPS code16-72100
GNIS feature ID0398095
City Beach on Lake Pend Oreille, Sandpoint

Sandpoint is a city in, and the county seat of, Bonner County, Idaho, United States.Template:GR Its population was 6,835 at the 2000 census.

Sandpoint's major industry is tourism and recreation, thanks to its proximity to scenic Lake Pend Oreille and Schweitzer Mountain Ski Resort. It is the headquarters of Coldwater Creek, a women's apparel retailer, and the venue for the largest film festival in the Inland Northwest, the Schweitzer Lakedance International Film Festival.

Sandpoint is on the International Selkirk Loop and two National Scenic Byways (Wild Horse Trail and Pend Oreille Scenic Byway).

Economy

Local businesses that flourish in and around Sandpoint include Litehouse (a national salad dressing manufacturer), Coldwater Creek (a national clothing and apparel marketer), Quest Aircraft Company, Encoder Products, and Percussion Aire (medical instrumentation).

Since 2002, Sandpoint has been home to Quest Aircraft[1] the manufacturer of the Kodiak, a ten-seat, single-engine, turboprop airplane designed and produced to meet the needs of missionary and humanitarian organizations that travel to remote regions of the world.

History

The Salish Tribes, specifically the Kalispel and the Kutenai 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.[2]

In the 1880s the Northern Pacific Railroad brought European and Chinese settlement to the area.

In August 1888, twenty-nine year old author and civil servant Theodore Roosevelt, visited Sandpoint on a caribou-hunting trip in the Selkirk Mountains[3] 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 after as lumberjacks 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 company was the Humbird Lumber Company that 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, Grouse Creek, Gold Creek and (Rapid) Lightening Creek. Although the trees were never exhausted in the area, Humbird Lumber suffered and finally succumbed to the low timber prices of the Great Depression.

"Stump ranches" were sold by Humbird to many families who slowly cleared much of the valley land of tree stumps. Farming and ranching became the third business behind lumber and railroads prior to the "discovery" of Lake Pend Oreille as a sports fishery in the 1950s. The economy was given a boost during World War II from Farragut Naval Station, a training center for the US Navy located at the southwestern end of Lake Pend Oreille.

The opening of Schweitzer Mountain Resort in 1963 turned the area into a year-round tourism destination. The beauty of the surrounding Selkirk and Cabinet Mountains and Lake Pend Oreille have kept Sandpoint a tourist favorite for water sports, hunting, hiking, horseback riding, fishing and skiing.

In the 1980s and 1990s nearby Coeur d'Alene and Hayden Lake attracted nationwide publicity when white supremacist Neo-Nazi groups (most notably the Aryan Nations) set up headquarters in the area. Many Sandpoint residents reacted negatively to such groups; some formed the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force in opposition. In 2001 the Aryan Nations lost a lawsuit filed against them.[4] The lawsuit bankrupted the organization and forced them to give up their Hayden Lake property and disband.[5]

In August 2006, Sandpoint and the Panida Theater were host to the first ever International Film Festival in Northern Idaho. The Schweitzer Lakedance International Film Festival, as it is now known, held the second iteration of this film festival September 9th-16th, 2007. With outdoor independent film screenings at the scenic Sandpoint City Beach and the Historic Panida Theater, and multiple workshops and panel discussions, Sandpoint now hosts the largest film festival in the Inland Northwest. This festival, along with The Festival at Sandpoint, and Lost-in-the-50's, among other events, continue to build Sandpoint's reputation of being an arts and culture capital of Northern Idaho and the Inland Northwest.

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Rail transportation

Amtrak serves Sandpoint, operating its Empire Builder daily in both directions between Chicago, Illinois and Seattle, Washington/Portland, Oregon.

Notable past and present residents

Demographics

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 6,835 people, 2,873 households, and 1,680 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,750.9 people per square mile (676.7/km²). There were 3,188 housing units at an average density of 816.7/sq mi (315.6/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 96.24% White, 0.12% African American, 1.01% Native American, 0.41% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.47% from other races, and 1.71% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.46% of the population.

There were 2,873 households out of which 31.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.5% were married couples living together, 13.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.5% were non-families. 34.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 2.94.

In the city the population was spread out with 25.8% under the age of 18, 9.8% from 18 to 24, 26.9% from 25 to 44, 22.0% from 45 to 64, and 15.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 87.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $32,461, and the median income for a family was $41,596. Males had a median income of $35,533 versus $20,795 for females. The per capita income for the city was $20,643. About 14.9% of families and 18.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 27.9% of those under age 18 and 5.1% of those age 65 or over.

References

  1. ^ http://www.questaircraft.com
  2. ^ http://www.sandpoint.com/Community/RememberingIndians.asp
  3. ^ http://www.sandpoint.com/Community/teddyroosevelt.asp
  4. ^ "Attorney Morris Dees pioneer in using 'damage litigation' to fight hate groups". CNN. September 8, 2000. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  5. ^ "Keenan v. Aryan Nations". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2000. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  • [1]Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian, Northwestern University, Digital Library Collections, "Kalispel", Page 51

External links

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