Growing family looking for land or small farm/homestead in Idaho panhandle -- Sandpoint-Bonners Ferry area -- suggestions/guidance/insights much appreciated.

-- Robert Powers (rtp@indra.com), January 19, 2002

Answers

Type in "realtor.com", click on the city name and see whats there, also read land catagory in the old answers at the bottom of question page.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), January 19, 2002.

Sandpoint is expensive, you may want to consider an area like Priest River , or Bonner's Ferry is also more affordable. What would you like to knoe about the area?

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 19, 2002.

I lived in the Sandpoint-Bonners Ferry area for 10 years. Boy, am I glad to be FROM there!

-- bruce (rural@inebraska.com), January 19, 2002.

Is that where the uni-bomber used to live?

-- Gary from Mn (hpysheep@midwestinfo.com), January 20, 2002.

Gary: No he lived in Lincoln, MT. Richard Butler lived in Bonners Ferry area, as did the woman who was holed up with her five kids for a week hiding from anyone who could have helped her family. Truly weird people live there and in MT.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 21, 2002.

No, Richard Butler lived in the Hayden Lake area, not very far from Spokane Washington, and quite a ways from Bonner's Ferry.

The McGuckin family lived in Sagle, which is near Sandpoint. I didn't see anything weird about her or her family. Do you mean to say that if your kids had seen their mother deceived by cops and arrested, when she was looking for help, that they should then trustingly go along too? Right after their father died? They shouldn't be at all upset that their mother has now disappeared? I think the whole thing was very sad, and it suffered tremendously the media's reports on it, of which at least half were outright lies.

Do you know why that story got so much coverage? Because it happened here, in north Idaho. Similar incidents have occurred elsewhere, all the time, yet you'll never hear about them, except maybe in the local news.

I am sick and tired of this beautiful place being characterized as a hotbed of racist weirdos. People who live here or have taken the time to get to know the area, know better.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 21, 2002.

Here is the proof to back it up. When you comapre the size of Idaho to the other states, we don't have a signifigantly higher number of hate groups than other states, and there are many other states that have a LOT more. Take a look and see the U.S. map of hate groups

By the way, the Aryan Nations group in Hayden Lake has been efeecively disbanded, the building torn down, etc. Even before that, they were a small group, smaller than most church congregations. Now take a look at Nebraska, Lincoln is where the headquarters of the Neo Nazis is located. Yet, we never hear anything about Lincoln, Nebraska!

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 21, 2002.

Gee, I suppose anyone who goes to a church or synagog could be possibly a member. The dots are out of position on the MT map.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 22, 2002.

Wow, did you see the criteria for being on that list of hate groups? It doesnt take any volient acts or even violent speach. All it takes is a belief that "denigrates" any other groups that believes differently than you do. Historical, biblical Christianity has always said that there are two groups: those saved and going to heaven, and all the rest, who are on their way to eternal damnation. Guess this is hate speech now, and could turn you into a dot on a police map. Welcome to the United States of Amerika.

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), January 22, 2002.

Before we go off the deep end here...every little town in every little old state has it's share of weirdos and racists and bigots. You might not read about 'em in the paper, or see 'em on the tv, but they're out there and we, who live in these little ole towns know about some of them. Here's a few you might know of: 1. The Crazy old "cat lady" - you know, the one who has 100 cats and is slightly off her rocker. 2. Weirdo living off in the woods in the camper (gosh, don't know what he's up to) 3. Racist idiot who (yep, right here in my own little ole town) painted a Nazi swastika on his place of business right downtown. Said he felt like he was living in Germany cause he couldn't sell beer to minors.. 4. Weido sex offenders - yep every town has one - you just might not know it yet. Ours hid for over 40 years, but finally got caught making porn movies of kids (seems like the police had to hush that one up quick - too many upstanding citizens on tape.. 5. Your generalist - hates everybody and everything.. 6. Your specialist - only hates one particular type of person, religion or other "thing" but does it very well. 7. The religious right 8. The religious left 9. The unreligious cults and devil worshipping folks 10. Politicians of every ilk.

Now does anyone disagree? Now I don't know of a unabomber in my town yet, but we did have a some kids making meth in a lab which could have blown up a few miles from here..does that count?

Maybe Idaho or Montana gets more than their fair share of the kooks and weirdos because the rest of the country uncovers them first and sends them packing. and where can they hide best? the places where folks are the most tolerant and not so likely to blunder upon them as generally there just isn't that many people up in those states...

Or maybe, Idaho and Montana get singled out because they really don't have that many weirdos so it gets to be BIG NEWS when one is discovered. Me, I kinda think it is a combination of all the above. Maybe my town's camper guy moved to Montana and became their problem?

Now that we've got that all cleared up... I got offered a job in Idaho not too long ago and would have went in a minute except my family won't move...but one day, ya'll might see me with my Mr. Biggles, the cat, sittin in my rocker and say - "well there's that crazy cat lady...

Take care

-- Cindy (colawson@mindspring.com), January 22, 2002.

I've only visited northern Idaho. It sure is cold and frozen in the winter, but everyone seems adapted to it (chains and such). The hot springs across the Canadian border make up for it! There are some in Idaho too. The mountains are newer than the ones I'm used to...read that higher and more peaked than the Appalachians. Nobody seemed to have natural gas there. Water service might be an issue from what I hear. It was really beautiful there. I liked riding the train through the northwest of our country to get there. Glacier Park...wow!

Trust me, weirdos are everywhere, so why not join them in a place you find appealing?

-- Anne (Healthytouch101@wildmail.com), January 22, 2002.

That map was shocking. I saw some hate groups listed an hour or so from me. I never heard of them. If I had a chance I would move to Northern Idaho. It is really beautiful up there but what would you do for a job?

-- debbie (bwolcott@cwis.net), January 22, 2002.

With the logging industry shutting down, the aluminum factories already closed, there isn't much to do these days. My brother lives over in Kalispell and he sees the damage the enviros have managed to do over a period of a decade. They tie up logging sales in courts, they seek to remove people from the land. Don't believe me, go to www.earthfirst.org and read their mission statement.

Hayden Lake, fyi, is just north of Coeur d'Alene, not near Spokane, but everything is closeby (within 100-mi). The reason ID & MT get all the grief is b/c their state officials don't do anything to prevent it. Polebridge, ne of Columbia Falls, is a prime example: Last year two people, who were hiding out from a NM warrant, killed a guy who was camping, burning his body in the process. The once a year visit by state trooper's coincided with a USFS "no-burn order", these two were arrested and finally charged (4-wks later). Then there's the truly weirdo in Great Falls, who over a period of time, killed and served up his victims to the neighbors.

Sure we all have weirdos and wackos living in our areas (even in WY), but law enforcements' job is to try to prevent them from doing harm on us. I say "try to", b/c that mission statement on the side of the vehicle is a joke "to serve and protect". In my town that means sitting in front of the bars at 2AM, waiting for the drunks to approach their cars, while the "crack" addicts are breaking into our homes. It's sitting at the top of Dead Indian Pass waiting for the lumbering motorhomes to make an illegal left turn into the parking lot, rather than ticketing the moron from CA, who thinks he's on the autobahn, doing 98 in a 65.

We don't have race and hate groups as much as we have Christian do-gooders who turn and run, the first sign of trouble. We have good people in small towns all across the west who for one reason or another, decided to set down roots and stay for a while.

Maybe you'll join us sometime.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 23, 2002.