Bonner County

Priest Lake has worn three names, and each one tells a story. In 1846, Jesuit priest Pierre-Jean De Smet mapped the lake and named it Roothaan Lake, for his superior in Rome. In 1865, Captain John Mullan — building the road that would bear his name from Walla Walla to Fort Benton — renamed it Kaniksu, from the Kalispel word for "Black Robe," the name Native people gave the Jesuit missionaries. The name that stuck honors the Jesuit priests who kept a base camp at Kalispell Bay in the 1840s.

The Bonner County Board of Commissioners will not decide the fate of the proposed Long Bridge Marina expansion this month after all. The board continued its hearing on the conditional use permit for the third time on Oct. 7, leaving the decision to a resumed hearing Thursday, Nov. 5 at 10 a.m.

The delay came at the request of the applicant, Long Bridge Land Holding Company, LLC, represented by HMH Engineering, which opted to wait until a full board could be seated following the absence of Commissioner Brian Domke.

Bonner County's 2026 general election season opens next week. Early voting begins Monday, Oct. 19, and on Tuesday, Oct. 20, local media will host a candidate forum for Idaho Legislative District 1 and the Bonner County Board of Commissioners.