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.
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!
The county seat of Bonner County, Sandpoint has grown, slowly but consistently through the years, with a present population of nearly 7,500. 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.
Quotes above are from
Sandpoint.com
The entry from the American Guide Series book
IDAHO: A Guide In Word And Picture follows.
SANDPOINT 67 m. (2,086 alt.; 3,290 pop.), the
seat of Bonner County, is enviably situated on LAKE PEND D'OREILLE which is fourth or fifth in size of the fresh-water lakes lying wholly within the United States. Formed by the drainage from Flathead Lake in Montana through the Clark Fork River, it has a shore line of
125 miles and an extreme depth of 1,800 feet. It abounds in trout and whitefish and affords attractive campsites along its shores. This city, served by three railroads, is also the junction of U S 195 and State 3 (see Tour 11). Of unusual interest is the SANDPOINT BRIDGE upon US 95 at the southern extremity of the city. Though not spectacular in comparison with the great bridges of the world, it nevertheless spans the lake for a distance of two miles.
From IDAHO: A Guide In Word And Picture, Page 302