Skating on Lake Pend Oreille Brought to you by the Bonner County Historical Society & Museum
Before Albeni Dam was constructed, Lake Pend Oreille was much shallower than it is today. When it froze, people could walk a mile out on it. Temperatures would drop, and soon the water would become still and solid. Father Winter’s arrival would turn Lake Pend Oreille into a beautiful new landscape to be explored.
It is known that people used to skate from the Long Bridge to Dover, and the daring would continue to Laclede.
At the time, City Beach was also a lot different. It was just a bare natural beach with a single beach house. The City Beach Road acted as a dike, and water would collect down the middle of the road. When it froze it became a circular ice track. Children would take their skates to school slung over their shoulders, and at the end of the day, when that final school bell rang, they would spend their evening gliding across the frosty glaze.
