According to old timers, it was not the entire town, but a small area at the north end of the "Long Bridge" which achieved the name and the notoriety by hosting the odd "Necktie Party".
Over at the end of your big bridge was 'Hangtown' and it was over there that we had our necktie parties." [W.A. Baillie-Grohman] went on to tell about the time that six men were hanged at one time...
A Sandpoint paper reported in 1906 the discovery of four skeletons found by a worker while digging a ditch for a water main. At first the remains were thought to be the bodies of Indians because it was known that an Indian burial ground had been in the area. Each skeleton had been placed in a wooden coffin and one of them was a red headed woman.
One body was of a man who went into a local saloon and was taken suddenly sick and died. His sickness and death was a mystery. The red headed woman and her lover had quarreled over the dead man and the woman shot her boy friend. That was grave number two. She killed herself by an overdose of whiskey and morphine and grave number three belonged to her. The last grave was that of a man who was shot through the heart during a gambling argument.
As things slowly settled down, the town was incorporated on February 7, 1901 and in 1904 got its first town hall, a sturdy two story wooden building known as the "Apple Box", with jail cells below and council chambers above. Just five years later the second town hall, a much grander brick and concrete structure, was built at 2nd and Main. With the fire hall occupying part of the main floor for many years, that building, still standing and still in use as office space, served the city until 1994. In that year the city bought the present city hall, the former warehouse and office building of Coldwater Creek, at Lake and Ella. This is a large concrete building, nearly windowless in the eastern half, which also houses Fire Station No. 1 and the Sandpoint Police Department.
The county seat of Bonner County, Sandpoint has grown, slowly but consistently through the years, to a present population of nearly 7,500. Once the tiny community of Pend Oreille, as it grew the name was changed to Sandpoint and the city was platted in 1898.
Within the central core of town one will find a couple of dozen historic buildings, both National Register buildings and contributors to the
Sandpoint Historic District, the latter of which number 15.
Like the majority of the towns along the Northern Pacific, which laid its tracks through the area about 1880, Sandpoint, for the majority of its history depended solely on the lumber industry for employment. Tourism, however, is today making a strong bid to become the city's major industry as the city and environs have a lot to offer:
With an annual average rainfall of 33.5 inches and annual snowfall of 71.7 inches, residents experience few sub-zero days in the winter, while summer days rarely exceed 90°. The average year-round temperature is 47° and there are close to 125 frost-free days each year. The humidity level is comparatively low, the nights are generally comforting and summertime typically offers weeks of blue sky, sunny days. This is, of course, to the delight of boating, fishing, swimming, water skiing and hiking enthusiasts!
Quotes above are from
Sandpoint.com