Sandpoint is the center and seat of Bonner County. In recent years it has developed a diverse economy and experienced a rapid growth of population with increases of cost of living and stressing the environment. The economy is based on tourism in the summer and the multitude of outdoors activities available and the winter with Schweitzer ski resort close by. Next to the mountains Sandpoint's major feature is Lake Pend Oreille, the largest natural sweet water lake in the Rocky Mountains, about 60 miles long and 6 miles wide.
There are several national distributing company headquarters here, among them Coldwater Creek an apparel online mail order and retail business, Lighthouse known by its salad dressings and a variety of smaller manufacturers, service businesses and a few box stores. Sandpoint is surrounded by 4 other smaller towns.
Sandpoint is a great town that has to offer a lot. Due to articles in national magazines and newspapers it has been discovered about three years ago and is experiencing a high influx of people and rising costs of living. A multitude and national know artists call Sandpoint their home, has retirement community and vacation home owners. A good overview and impression of Sandpoint is provided by www.sandpointonline.com, demographic and climate data (mixed with advertising) is available here and for photos of Sandpoint you can view this slide show.

The town of Sandpoint, located in North Idaho of the US has a population of estimated 7000 - 8000 currently. The county somewhere around 35000 - 40000. It is located between Washington State and Montana, about an 1.5 hour drive form border to border. It is the economic center of Bonner and Boundary county. The Canadian border in the North is about 60 miles away. Sandpoint used to live from forestry and farming. Today, Sandpoint is a tourist town in Summer due to the beautiful lake water front beaches, and in the winter due to its proximity to Schweitzer, a ski resort about 30 minutes away. The largest employers are one of the fastest growing online and store selling apparel companies that started out as mail order company, the hospital and school district, a national marketed line of salad dressings and food specialties and a constant influx of small manufacturing and service oriented businesses. The main economic boom in the last 3 years has been residential construction. Due to advertising in national magazines and papers, Sandpoint has become known as one of the best small towns in the US to retire (of course that is changing now as everyone wants to be there) and a sudden increase of buyers of land and homes that increased property prices a t least by 100% within 2 years and much more for waterfront and view properties. Sandpoint is known for its artistic and cultural events, one of them the "Sandpoint Festival" that has seen world class musicians perform in front of an enthusiastic audience and the Panida (preserved by community efforts), which similarly brings world class events, theater, music, etc. to the town. The population is mostly white and has a diversity of lifestyles and communities - farming, outdoors enthusiast, families, alternative health practitioners, professionals, green community, etc.

Sandpoint faces a myriad of challenges some due to the rapid development, some for a long time already: The Rock Creek Mine, a planned silver and copper mine in the headwaters of the tributary of Lake Pend Oreille. Until now it has been fought successfully and the start of operation has been prevented. The so called By-pass, a three lane highway right through the hart of the city along Sand Creek, destroying a whole riverbed, parallel to the main business street and just a few yards away from the public city beach. The railway wants to extend its service, which runs along the same route. Zoning and planning is not able to stem the pressure of developers and businesses that need land and want to build larger, higher, faster and use more of the old concepts. The sewage and water plants needs to be renewed, low cost housing is hard to come by, it has a high rate of homeless people. The local long time citizens can less and less afford living in this area as the prices increase and the minimum wage is low.