The Pend d�Oreille Bay Trail (POBT) is located in northern Idaho�s Bonner County (population 40,700), and includes the cities of Sandpoint, Ponderay, and Kootenai. POBT curves along the shoreline of Lake Pend Oreille, the largest natural lake in Idaho. The rapid expansion of timber and mining industries began in 1896 after the completion of Northern Pacific�s railroad corridor. Industrial activities included lead smelting and refining, lumber mill operations, railroad round house facilities, coal docks, and repair. Starting in the mid-1960s, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers installed rip rap along the project�s shoreline to protect the railroad grade from flooding and erosion, which created a rudimentary shoreline trail that locals began to use. Following several decades of discussions between the cities of Sandpoint and Ponderay about a possible greenway and public parks on this stretch of northern lakeshore, a broad-based citizens committee was created in 2006 to set project planning in motion. The project rapidly gained wide community support and in 2008 the Friends of Pend d�Oreille Bay Trail (Friends) was formed. The Friends secured technical assistance from the National Park Service Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance program to engage the community in developing a trail �concept� plan. After a two-year public process, the award-winning Pend d�Oreille Bay Trail Concept Plan was published in 2010. That same year, Ponderay hosted a community �Vision-to-Action� workshop conducted by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, to spur ideas about the community�s future In 2009, a coalition consisting of IDEQ, Bonner County, Sandpoint, Ponderay, and Kootenai was awarded a $650,000 Brownfields Coalition Assessment Grant by the EPA. Under the grant, IDEQ completed Phase I�s on 19 properties, Phase IIs on 11 properties and ABCA�s on 2 properties. IDEQ has utilized 128(a) funds to conduct Phase IIs on 5 properties, ABCAs on 2 properties, and limited area-wide planning activities including survey and outreach. Of the 19 properties assessed, only 2 require cleanup. Once the Coalition�s Brownfields assessments were completed, Sandpoint and Ponderay approved an agreement with private owners to acquire more than 1 mile of shoreline property totaling $1,600,000. IDEQ provided Phase Is for AAI. Sandpoint completed the first two purchases in 2011 and 2012; Ponderay completed the third purchase in 2013; and the Friends of POBT raised funds to assist Ponderay with the fourth purchase in 2014. While the current trail stretches over 1.5 miles, the final project is envisioned as a 2-mile trail and 15- to 20-acre municipal park system connecting three shoreline communities� Sandpoint, Ponderay and Kootenai�to each other and to nearby neighborhoods in Bonner County.
Former Use: POBT Zone 1, Property 2, Humbird Mill Landing Lots 2 was part of the Humbird Mill formed in 1900 when John A. Humbird and Frederick Weyerhaeuser purchased the 2-year-old Sandpoint Lumber Co. adjacent to the Northern Pacific Rail Line. The Humbird Mill site covered a large area between Sand Creek and Lake Pend Oreille. The plant contained a saw mill, lath mill, planing mill, car house and machine shop, dry kilns, loading sheds, dressed lumber shed, lumber yards, transfer shipping sheds, 90-foot-tall refuse burner, 100,000-gallon water tank, laydown areas, storage buildings, blacksmith facilities and, in later days, a club room for employees Sanborn map, 1921. The plant layout was functionally divided by the Northern Pacific tracks. The sawmill fronted Lake Pend Oreille on the east side of the tracks. A conveyor ran under the tracks to the west side and the planing facilities. The conveyor included an oil room located at the adjacent parcel: Lot 2 less Tax 1. Humbird Mill liquidated its operations in 1931. The Humbird Mill was torn down and Lot 3A Humbird Landing Site and Tax 3 of Sec. 14/15 and shoreline 200 feet of Lot 2 less Tax 1 were p