Bonners Ferry

Boundary County · dedicated 2025 · US-2, milepost 503.7

Edwin Bonner established a ferry across the Kootenai River to transport prospectors. It gave a future town and county their names. In 1864, British Columbia’s Kootenay gold rush drew miners to Canada. Steamboats began working the river in the 1880s; railroads arrived in the 1890s. Area forests attracted lumber companies, and the fertile river valley brought farmers. Bonners Ferry—then in Bonner County—became a commercial hub. In 1915, Idaho’s legislature carved Boundary County out of Bonner County. Ironically, the county named for Ed Bonner’s ferry now lies south of here, and Bonners Ferry is the governmental seat of Boundary County.

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Bonners Ferry

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