Bonner County History - Aug. 27, 2026

Brought to you by the

Bonner County Historical

Society and Museum

611 S. Ella Ave., Sandpoint, Idaho, 83864

208-263-2344

50 Years Ago

Sandpoint News-Bulletin

and Sandpoint Bee

Aug. 27, 1976 - MILL WILL BE LARGEST 

The Brand S mill being built at Laclede will be the company’s largest of five lumber mills. Brand S will also move its headquarters there. The mill will go into operation in stages, beginning mid-September.  

•••

BCHS OFFERS SPECIAL LOCAL STATIONERY 

To raise funds for the museum being built at the Old Fairgrounds in Sandpoint, the Historical Society is selling stationery of local interest. With 15 notes and envelopes per box, the stationery has pen and ink drawings of the wooden Long Bridge, the old Farmin School, and the old Methodist Church. They can be bought for $2.75 a box at Selkirk Press, the Hallmark Shop, BiRite Drug, Sandpoint Drug, BGH Auxiliary Gift Shop, the Pine Tree, Ross Rexall and at the BCHS office in the basement of the Library.  

•••

RECORD AND TAPE STORE OPEN 

Perry and Susan Edwards became the newest members of Sandpoint’s business community with the opening of their new business, Listening Point, located on the second floor of Gunning’s Alley. The store features a versatile selection of music, from pop to country to jazz. Regular and imported French t-shirts are also offered, with a wide variety of designs available. The store’s grand opening is planned for Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with all records, tapes and custom t-shirts offered at a 10 percent discount. Brownies and milk will be served. 

75 Years Ago

Sandpoint News-Bulletin

Aug. 27, 1951 – BUMPED ON HEAD 

Avis, one of the Don Diehl twin girls, was treated at North Idaho clinic Friday for a cut on the forehead where the swing board struck her while at play.  

•••

HUGE BLAST DAMS RIVER 

Scores of spectators stood on protected vantage points on the opposite side of the Clark Fork river Tuesday noon to watch as 63,000 pounds of dynamite went off on the gorge’s south wall. The biggest blast yet on the $40 million project at Cabinet Gorge dislodged 50,000 cubic yards of rock, which thundered into the Clark Fork river, effectively damming it. It was the first major step in forming a coffer dam to block the river flow so the dam can be constructed. Now most of the water in the river flows through two 29-foot diversion tunnels.  

•••

NEW GRANDSTAND AT MEMORIAL FIELD 

The old grandstand at Bonner county’s War Memorial field has been razed, and work on a new concrete and wood stand has begun. The new grandstand, which will have dressing rooms for football teams, will harmonize with the unusual war memorial, a pylon of cedar poles, which was dedicated on Memorial day. The project is being supervised by Russell Kotschevar, Sandpoint artist who designed and built the memorial. The new grandstand is part of a long-range program for the field. Half the lumber needed for the new structure was donated by Pack River Lumber Company.

For more information, visit the museum online at bonnercountyhistory.org.