COEUR d'ALENE - The American flag that was mysteriously flown from the top of a tree on Fourth of July Pass earlier this year has now mysteriously vanished.

"We don't know what happened to the flag either," said Panhandle National Forest spokesman Jason Kirchner. "The flag isn't there anymore, but the lights and equipment are still up there."

The flag - which was high atop a Ponderosa pine on the north side of the highway around mile marker 27 - was illuminated by a solar lighting system at night that made it clearly visible from Interstate 90.

The Forest Service sent professional tree climbers to the tree in August in an attempt to remove the flag, but they opted to leave it in place because the tree looked too dangerous to climb.

"They said it was not worth pursuing," Kirchner said, adding it is illegal to erect a monument on national forest land.

He said Forest Service workers noticed the flag was missing about a week ago and went up there to see what might have happened to it.

"They looked all around the area and it doesn't appear that it blew down or anything like that," Kirchner said. "We know that someone was maintaining the flag throughout the summer, so our best guess is that person probably took the flag down for the winter season."