SANDPOINT INFORMATION

ABOUT SANDPOINT AND SURROUNDING AREAS

Are you dreaming of a place where incredible skiing is just minutes away? A place where you’re a short drive from wilderness where the deer and the antelope really do play? A place where you can see opera or live theater without searching for parking or fighting traffic? A place with mountains at your front door and rivers pulsing through the heart of vibrant communities? If your answer is “yes”, then Sandpoint, Idaho is the place for you!
Sandpoint is a small resort town in Northern Idaho just 75 miles from Spokane, Washington. It is located on the banks of Lake Pend Oreille, one of the largest freshwater lakes in the lower 48 states. In recent years, Sandpoint has gained even greater standing as a resort town by its connection to Schweitzer Mountain Resort, a winter ski basin known for its quality powder snow.

Graced by the Cabinet Mountains to the east and the Selkirk Mountains northwest of Sandpoint, this region is classic “North Woods” country. The land here offers a rich rural life to those who love the great outdoors. The list of outdoor activities seems to have no limit: skiing, fishing, hunting, telemarking, sailing, golfing, bird-watching, white-water kayaking… everything from the most daring and vigorous sports to the most serene past-times.

These surroundings have attracted many notable artists and musicians who contribute to a rich cultural heritage. They, like many of the Sandpoint “natives”, migrated here to enjoy the insurmountable beauty of the mountains, the many lakes and plentiful green forests. Some actors and musicians of note who now call Sandpoint home include Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Clint Eastwood and Harrison Ford. It’s a little known fact that the Idaho Panhandle has one of the highest numbers per capita of millionaires.

Yet unlike more remote settings, Bonner, Kootenai and Boundary counties collectively enjoy a thriving economy in recent times. Sandpoint is the proud home of Litehouse Dressings and Coldwater Creek, which are two homegrown, nationally recognized companies.  These companies provide hundred of area residents with good-paying jobs. Anchor companies like Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Fred Meyers have noticed Northern Idaho’s growth as well, building to meet the rising demand, which includes many Canadians who visit for recreation.

Sandpoint Airport recently expanded its airstrip to accommodate an increasing number of corporate jets and dozens of sport and recreational private planes. Though Spokane International Airport is only one and a half hours away, demand for daily flights in and out of Sandpoint (direct to Seattle and Boise) has brought a strong consideration from McCall Air.

Sandpoint looks larger than it is due to the fact that three independent communities have grown in recent times to the point that the undiscerning eye would not know of the civic separation. From the air, Ponderay, Kootenai and Sandpoint look like one town. Yet each has its own city hall, city officials and police officers. An expansion of waterfront condos and lake properties has created a nearly complete line of housing connecting city limits of each.

Ponderay is probably the fastest growing town in Bonner County. It has more available land for commercial and residential development. Its boom appears to be due to the strong likelihood that the Sand Creek Byway will soon be constructed on the Burlington Railroad right-of-way, directly east of Sandpoint’s busy downtown.
Ponderay still has an old part of town, a small sector of residential streets east of Highway 200. But it’s barred more or less from lakefront development by the fact that Burlington Northern owns the wooded right of way along the clay shores of Kootenai Bay.

Kootenai, a smaller town immediately east of Ponderay has some older houses still available but is also seeing new construction. But Kootenai is a very small township compared to the land available in Ponderay. Across the highway toward the lake from Kootenai is a popular community development known as Ponder Point, which generally contains higher income housing by virtue of its proximity to the big pond.