Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Priest River, ID

Priest River is a city in Bonner County, Idaho, in the Idaho Panhandle, located at the mouth of the Priest River on the Pend Oreille River.

The city's population was 1,696 at the 2020 census, down from 1,751 in 2010, and the city covers 3.84 square miles, of which 3.69 square miles is land.

Priest River was for more than half a century a proud timber town, its economy based on giant white pine, ponderosa pine, larch, and Douglas fir from the Selkirk Mountains.

The White Pine Lumber Company's mills in Priest River manufactured Idaho white pine, cedar, fir, and larch products, and a fire that started in the mill in August 1905 destroyed the mill and about 25 small residences before a shift in the wind saved the rest of the town.

From 1916 through the 1940s, annual spring log drives on the Priest River during high water drew thousands of visitors, with logs sorted at Priest River according to the company brand marked on their ends.

East of Priest River, Italian immigrant families settled a farming community known as the Italian Settlement, or The Settlement, where they built a school and church; the school was consolidated with Priest River in 1939.

Priest River's timber-town past is preserved in the Marylyn Cork Priest River Historical Collection, about 1,800 photographs digitized with grant funding from the Idaho Humanities Council and held through the West Bonner Library District.

Priest River stands about five miles from the Washington border at Newport and about sixty miles from Spokane, at the foot of the long valley leading to Priest Lake and the Canadian boundary.

Priest River's ZIP code is 83856.