Amenities

Boat ramp, dock, and shore launch. Limited parking.

History

The Pack River flows south with many twists and turns into Lake Pend Oreille, and while the Pack River Flats are covered with water for most of the year now, this was not always the case. Prior to the completion of the Albeni Falls Dam in 1955, this area was subject to annual spring flooding. Once the flood waters receded, a rich natural meadow returned on the delta year after year. Regional tribes camped here to gather native plants and graze their horses, and members of the Kalispel Tribe continued to use the area well into the twentieth century.

These same lush meadows attracted newer settlers. In 1882, John George Hawkins came from California to the Lake Pend Oreille region to work as a carpenter for the Northern Pacific Railroad. He helped build the long trestle at Sandpoint as well as the one across Pack River Flats, and probably others. Within a year he was joined by his wife, Mary, and three children. By 1885, the Hawkins family had settled at the edge of the meadows here, where the Sunnyside Peninsula meets the Pack River Flats. 

In 1887, they got permanent neighbors when government survey crew member William Ashley and his family bought land nearby. Last we checked, descendents of both the Hawkins and Ashley families still live in the area. They erected a monument to their ancestors on the end of the railroad abutment at the edge of the lake.

The Albeni Falls Dam resulted in some of the Hawkins’ family hay meadows becoming submerged. The Corps of Engineers paid the family $30 an acre for the lost land.