LAKES, MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS, music, art and culture. Those are the images many people have of Sandpoint, Idaho, a town of 7,300 located in the tip of the Idaho Panhandle only 60 miles south of the Canadian border. That image has been amplified around the country as the town has attracted national media attention. Sandpoint was named “Most Beautiful Town in the USA” as judged by USA Today and Rand McNally; in addition, Sunset magazine named Sandpoint one of the West’s best small towns, National Geographic Adventure labeled it a great adventure town, and Outside magazine listed it among 20 dream towns. The accolades just keep pouring in! The Long Bridge leads you to Sandpoint and the northwest shore of 43-mile-long Lake Pend Oreille, at an elevation of only 2,070 feet. Surrounded by the Selkirk and Cabinet mountains, Sandpoint offers outstanding recreation in all four seasons. The Selkirk and Cabinet mountains are frontal ranges of the Rocky Mountains. The Selkirks extend 300 miles north into Canada, with a spectacular glaciated landscape and peaks up to the 8,000-foot range. No less stunning to the east, across Lake Pend Oreille from town, are the Cabinet Mountains, also offering superb hiking, mountain biking, camping and wilderness experiences. Snow-filled winters appease downhill and Nordic skiers, snowmobilers, winter campers and ice skaters alike. Schweitzer, elevation 6,400, has some of the best skiing and boarding conditions in the Northwest, and is only an 11-mile drive from downtown. Schweitzer Mountain Resort boasts 2,900 skiable acres, with 92 trails plus open bowl skiing. Summers are warm and sunny. With City Beach downtown, anyone can access the lake to swim, go for a boat ride, water ski, play tennis or hoops, or simply sunbathe and picnic. Lake Pend Oreille’s 111.3 miles of shoreline make it the fifth largest lake in the western United States. Anglers can get their hookful of the giant Kamloops and mackinaw trout that sometimes exceed 30 pounds. Sandpoint also offers boat rental shops, stand-up board rentals, kayaks, canoes, lessons and tours. Up at Schweitzer, you’ll find plenty of fun in the sun with a new zipline, hiking, mountain biking and chairlift rides that take you to the top of the mountain for unforgettable vistas. Several golf courses are within easy reach. The closest is just two miles from downtown, the well-kept 9-hole Elks Golf Course featuring its new clubhouse on Highway 200. The next closest, just 8 miles east of Sandpoint, is the world-class, 18-hole Idaho Club on the shores of the Pack River and Lake Pend Oreille. Two more 18-hole courses are found within the county at Priest Lake Golf Course in Coolin and StoneRidge Golf in Blanchard. Another 9-hole course is located about 30 miles north of Sandpoint, Mirror Lake Golf in Bonners Ferry. Sandpoint has spawned a complementary artistic and cultural community. A number of nationally recognized artists make their home here, and there is also a very active performing arts community with frequent offerings of music, dance and drama. The Pend Oreille Arts Counci (POAC) brings national acts that include ballet, opera, classical music and popular performance art works. The historic Panida Theater, built in 1927 as a vaudeville theater, has been acquired by a nonprofit community group and is operated as a performing arts center that attracts a wide range of musical and dramatic acts. The Panida also hosts a cinematic series of foreign and independent films, the Global Cinema Cafe. You can admire its Spanish revivalist architecture at 300 N. First Ave. Several art galleries are located throughout town, and often you’ll spot artwork at various businesses that house their own collections or revolving exhibits through ArtWalk, sponsored by POAC. And in summer, The Festival at Sandpoint stages one of the Northwest’s premier musical festivals, featuring classical music from the Spokane Symphony Orchestra and popular acts ranging from country to jazz, pop, the blues and more. Over the years the Festival has hosted America, Dwight Yoakam, Peter Frampton, The Pretenders, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, BB King, Robert Cray, Nanci Griffith and many others. More music offerings are sponsored by POAC in the summertime, including the Summer Sounds at Park Place every Saturday from May to September. Sandpoint’s calendar is busy year-round with annual special events: Winter Carnival in February; the Stomp Games in March up at Schweitzer; the K & K Fishing Derby and Lost in the ‘50s in May; Summer Sampler in June; 4th of July Celebration and Sandpoint Wooden Boat Festival in July; Festival at Sandpoint, Arts and Crafts Fair, Long Bridge Swim, Bonner County Fair & Rodeo in August; Schweitzer Fall Fest, Idaho Draft Horse and Mule International and the Scenic Half marathon in September; Harvestfest in October; Thanksgiving Fishing Derby, Holly Eve, Holidays in Sandpoint in November; and continuing Holidays in Sandpoint and New Year’s Eve celebrations in December. Sandpoint reached its official 100th birthday on Feb. 7, 2001. To celebrate, a Centennial Commission directed the production of a film, “Sandpoint, at the north end of the Long Bridge,” and dedicated a new city park. The centennial’s theme, “Bridging the Century,” was fitting since bridges have been a part of the town’s history for more than 120 years. The first railroad bridge was built by the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1882, officially connecting the area to the east to pioneers and prospectors and establishing Sandpoint as a bustling railroad, mining and timber town. Today, there’s no mining and timber makes up a smaller piece of the economic pie, but there are still plenty of bridges – a symbol of Sandpoint. No matter which direction you come from into Sandpoint, you’ll cross over water on a bridge. Arguably the most recognizable one is the Long Bridge. Our southern portal has drawn people in over a dazzling mile-plus-long stretch of water since the first bridge – then the longest wooden bridge in the world – was finished in 1909.