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Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Bonner County, Idaho.
Official Website
Bonner County was formed on February 21, 1907. It was named for travel entrepreneur Edwin L. Bonner, a ferry operator.
In 1864, the Idaho Legislature created the counties of Lah-Toh and Kootenai. Kootenai County initially covered all of present-day Bonner and Boundary counties and a portion of present-day Kootenai County. It also overlapped part of the existing boundary of Shoshone County. Sin-na-ac-qua-teen, a trading post in present-day Bonner County on the south shore of the Pend Oreille River near Laclede, was named county seat. The government of Kootenai failed to organize due to lack of settlement within the county boundary. In 1867, the legislature repealed the act that created the two counties and consolidated them into a county that retained the Kootenai name. Rathdrum became the county seat when Kootenai County organized in 1881.
The tiny portion of Bonner County south of the 48th parallel and east of Shoshone County was not in any of Idaho's counties from 1863 to 1907, the longest time frame any non-county area existed in the State of Idaho. The Idaho panhandle north of the Clearwater River's basin was in Spokane County, Washington, prior to Idaho's creation as a territory in 1863. When Idaho defined its original counties by February, 1864, it attached the former Spokane County area to Nez Perce County for judicial purposes. Legislators creating Kootenai County in December 1864 lacked knowledge of the geography of the area and failed to fully include the non-county area within the county boundaries of Kootenai or Lah-Toh. The non-county area was fully included within Bonner County when it was formed in 1907. Boundary County was formed from Bonner County in 1915.
Adjacent Counties
- Boundary County
- Lincoln County, Montana
- Sanders County, Montana
- Shoshone County
- Kootenai County
- Spokane County, Washington
- Pend Oreille County, Washington
Cities & Communities
- Blanchard
- Careywood
- Clark Fork
- Cocollala
- Colburn
- Coolin
- Dover
- East Hope
- Hope
- Kootenai
- Laclede
- Lamb Creek
- Nordman
- Oldtown
- Outlet Bay
- Ponderay
- Priest River
- Sagle
- Sandpoint
- Vans Corner
- Westmond
Cemeteries
Links
Pacific Northwest National Trail (part)
Coeur d'Alene National Forest (part)
Kaniksu National Forest (part)
Kootenai National Forest (part)
National Register of Historic Places
