The History of Idaho, The Gem of the Mountain, by James H. Hawley, Volume I, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1920:
BONNER COUNTY
"On February 21, 1907, Governor Gooding approved the act creating Bonner County from the northern part of Kootenai County, with the following described boundaries: 'Commencing at a point where the township line between townships 53 and 54 north intersects the boundary line between the State of Idaho and the State of Washington; thence east on said township line to the northeast corner of township 53 north, range 3 west; thence north on range line between sections 36 and 31 to the northeast corner of section 36, township 54, range 3; thence due east six miles to the northeast corner of section 36, township 54, range 2 west; thence south along the range line between ranges 1 and 2 to the northeast corner of township 52 north, range 2 west; thence east on the township line between townships 52' and 53 to the present county line between Kootenai and Shoshone counties; thence north along the west boundary line of Shoshone County to the northwest corner thereof; thence in an easterly direction along the summit of the Coeur d'Alene Mountains to the west line of the State of Montana; thence north along the boundary line between the states of Idaho and Montana to the international boundary between the United States and Canada; thence west along said international boundary to the northwest corner of the State of Idaho; thence south along the line between the states of Idaho and Washington t0 the place of beginning."
The boundaries as above described included the present County of Boundary, which was cut off from Bonner by the act of January 23, 1915. Bonner County was named for Edwin L. Bonner, who established a ferry across the Kootenai River in 1863, where the Town of Bonners Ferry now stands. The act creating the county fixed the temporary county seat at Sandpoint, the location of the permanent seat of justice to be decided by the voters of the county at the general election in 1908. At that election a majority of the votes were cast in favor of Sandpoint and a courthouse was soon afterward erected.
Lake Pend d'Oreille, one of the most beautiful bodies of water in the Northwest, lies in the central part. Through this lake flows Clark's Fork, and the western part is drained by the Priest River. In the valleys of the streams and along the shores of the lake are the richest agricultural lands in Northern Idaho, where the rainfall is sufficient to carry on farming without the aid of irrigation. Heavy forests of pine, fir, hemlock and tamarack originally covered a large part of the county and lumbering is an important industry. Excellent transportation facilities for the products of the farms and sawmills are afforded by the Northern Pacific, the Spokane & International and the Great Northern railways, which center at Sandpoint and radiate in all directions.
Sandpoint, the county seat, located on the north shore of Lake Pend d'Oreille, is the principal city, though there are a number of villages in the county, with a population of from 100 to 400 each, to-wit: Albany Falls, Cabinet, Clark Fork, Colburn, Elmira, Harlem, Hope, Kootenai, Laclede, Ponderay, Priest River, Sagle, Severance, Valley and Westmond. Most of these villages are on some of the railway lines and are shipping points of greater or less importance. In 1910 (before Boundary County was set off) the population of Bonner County was 13,588, and in 1918 the assessed valuation of property was $16,261,681."
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