Bonner County

Bonner County was established on February 21, 1907, with its county seat at Sandpoint. It was named for Edwin L. Bonner, who in 1864, established a ferry on the Kootenai River where the town of Bonners Ferry is located. The ferry became an important site in emigrant travel between Walla Walla to the placer and quartz mines in British Columbia. Bonner was the 22nd county created in the state.

Return to County Profiles Main Page, or page to next county, Bonneville.

County statistics:

County Seat: Sandpoint
Population: 41,403 (2009 estimate)

Bonner County website

Borders:  Boundary, Kootenai, Shoshone, Washington state and Montana

Interesting Facts:

Bonner County borders Washington state and Montana. It is 9th in population size in the state and the 14th largest county in area. The federal government owns approximately 44 percent of the county. The local economy strongholds are forest products, tourism and mail-order catalog.

One of the earliest settlements in Bonner County is Seneaquoteen, which is derived from and Indian word meaning "crossing of the waters." It refers to an early river crossing at that point. The settlement began as a Hudson Bay Company trading post and served as the county seat of Kootenai County for a short time in 1864. The name "Seneaquoteen" has also been recorded as Sineacateen, Seneaguoteen and Seneacquoteen.

The name "Sandpoint" comes from a journal entry in 1809 by David Thompson. He mentions a point of sand as a location. Settlement of Sandpoint dates back to 1880.

The Green Monarch Ridge consists of low-lying mountains extending 4 miles southeast of Green Monarch Mountain.  There is some controversy over whether the Green Monarch mine was named for the mountain or vice versa.  The latter seems to be more likely, since a 1912 USFS map lists the mine but not the mountain or the ridge.  The name Green monarch is applicable to both the mine and the mountain since the ore taken from the mine was green and the mountain is green from the many trees.

Famous Bonner County natives and residents:

Forrest Bird (1921- ) is an inventor who developed a prototype mechanical ventilator that is widely used for acute and chronic cardiopulmonary care. The ventilator, invented in 1955, was revised to create a ventilator for infants, the "Babybird." It is responsible for reduced the rate of breathing-related infant mortality from 70 percent to 10 percent. He has received numerous awards for his scientific innovations, including two Lifetime Scientific Achievement awards. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1995. Originally from Massachusetts, Bird now resides in Sagle. In 2007, he opened the Bird Aviation and Invention Museum to showcase his inventions.

Jerry Kramer (1936- ) moved to Idaho in his youth and went to high school in Sandpoint. He attended the University of Idaho on a football scholarship. He was drafted in the fourth round of the 1958 NFL draft and became an offensive lineman and kicker for the Green Bay Packers, where he helped the team win five NFL titles and the first two Super Bowls during his eleven-year career (1958-1968). He was selected as an All-Pro in 1960, 1962, 1963, 1966 and 1967. He was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 1975.

Sarah Heath Palin (1964- ) is the first woman nominated to share a Republican presidential ticket.  She was selected by John McCain as his running mate for the 2008 presidential election.  Palin, who in 2006 was the first female elected as the Governor of Alaska, was born in Sandpoint, and graduated from the University of Idaho.

Marilynne Robinson (1943- ) is an award-winning American author who was born in Sandpoint.  Her first novel, Housekeeping, was released in1980 and won a Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.  Her second novel, Gilead, came out in 2004 and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and the Ambassador Book Award.  Her third book, Home, published in 2008, was also acclaimed, as a finalist for National Book Award and receiving the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Nell Shipman (1892-1970), a pioneer in early film production, was born Helen Foster-Barham in British Columbia. With her husband, Ernest Shipman, she produced the most successful silent film in Canadian history, "Back to God's Country." She produced several films in the 1920s at a studio she maintained in Priest Lake.

(Sources include The Idaho Blue Book; Idaho Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary; County Profiles of Idaho.)