POBT Zone 5, Property 16, Tax 83, is presently owned by the Bonner County Historical Society. The property is located on the Kootenai access-end of the Pend d�Oreille Bay Trail (POBT) 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 5, Property 16, Tax 83, is presently owned by the Bonner County Historical Society through a gifted deed transfer from Glacier Park Company, BNSF�s former real estate division. In 1908, Northern Pacific Rail Road purchased 14 acres from the Humbird Lumber Company to build their new division point. The division point included a roundhouse, coal chute, stock yards, depot, and Beanery. In 1910, NPRR completed its Car Shop on what is now known as POBT Zone 5 Properties 16 and 18. Opened in 1910 as part of the new NP division point, the car shop was used for building and repairing freight cars until it was closed in 1914. As many as 150 men were employed in the shop, who in turn inspected and repaired as many as 1400 freight cars in a month. The shop was briefly reopened in 1922. Six years later (1929) the building was dismantled and moved in pieces to Pasco, Washington where it was rebuild for use in the Northern Pacific yards at that location. Beginning in the early 1940�s, several smaller lum