Amenities

Public trail with parking and port-a-potty.

History

The Pend Oreille Bay Trail runs along the waterfront from roughly the Windbag Marina to what is known as Black Rock, and was formally established in 2022 as a public recreational area for hiking and biking. As naturally attractive as it is now, this shoreline was the industrial epicenter of the cities of Sandpoint, Ponderay and Kootenai from the 1880s through the 1930s. During the fall and winter months when the lake is low, the remains of many wooden pilings can be seen, as well as the ruins of two separate industrial complexes.  

On the southern end of the trail, hikers can see the concrete remains of the large Humbird Lumber Company sawmill. Humbird, part of the Weyerhaeuser consortium, took over the failing Sand Point Lumber Company at the end of 1900 and soon built it into a thriving operation. For more than three decades, the Humbird Lumber Company was synonymous with Sandpoint, as this mill was far and away the chief employer of the town, and was a high-production mill even by today’s standards. The circular foundation of the large waste burner are visible all year round, while the remains of the sawmill can be seen when the lake recedes in winter. 

During those decades, the bay along this trail was nearly always filled with logs floating in storage awaiting processing. Outside the log booms, you could see steamboats both small and large coming and going. Some towed masses of logs to add to those already secured, while others brought freight, mail and passengers to the city docks located roughly where the Windbag Marina is today. The entire bay was aptly known as the Humbird Mill Pond. The stubs of very old pilings that you can see during the colder months are the remnants of these log booms, docks and landings.

On the northern end of the trail, you will find the area known as Black Rock, the site of the Panhandle Smelting and Refining Company. This area is not currently accessible to the general public due to heavy soil contamination with dangerous levels of lead and arsenic from the smelting process. This smelter operated at varying levels of activity from 1903 until mismanagement and resulting litigation forced its closure in 1909. The black rock that you can see from the barrier gate is the slag heap left by the refining operation. Raw ore containing lead, zinc, silver and copper arrived by rail and by steamboat from mines located primarily in British Columbia. This smelting operation was the impetus for the establishment of the town of Ponderay.