Bragging rights: six things Kootenai County can claim

Every place has bragging rights. Kootenai County has a few nobody else can match. Here are six, each one checked against the record.

1. A golf green that floats

The 14th hole at The Coeur d'Alene Resort Golf Course is a par 3 hit to a green sitting out on the lake. The green was installed in September 1990 and unveiled that fall; the course opened for play in spring 1991. It covers about 15,000 square feet and weighs more than 5 million pounds. Cables anchored to the lake bottom let the staff move it, so the shot can play a different length from one day to the next.

The resort calls it the world's first and only floating, movable island green. Golfers ride a boat out to putt.

2. A boardwalk that floats, too

Right next door, a floating boardwalk wraps around the resort's marina. It runs about 3,300 feet, from Independence Point in City Park to the foot of Second Street. The World Record Academy lists it as the longest floating boardwalk in the world. It is free and open to the public.

3. Hundreds of bald eagles, every winter

Each winter, from November into February, migrating bald eagles stop at Lake Coeur d'Alene to feed on spawning kokanee salmon, mostly around Wolf Lodge Bay, Higgens Point and Beauty Bay.

The Bureau of Land Management has counted them every year since 1974. The all-time high came on Dec. 20, 2023: 409 eagles in one count. The numbers swing a lot from year to year with the kokanee, and they usually peak in late December.

The season is starting now. The BLM posts its weekly counts online and holds its Eagle Watch at the Mineral Ridge boat launch each December.

4. The Northwest's biggest theme park

Silverwood, just off Highway 95 in Athol, is the largest theme park in the Pacific Northwest. It covers about 413 acres with more than 70 rides, slides and shows, plus the Boulder Beach water park. It is also described as the northernmost theme park in the United States.

The Norton family opened it in 1988 and ran it for three generations. This year Herschend, the family-held company behind Dollywood, bought the park. Both companies say Silverwood will stay Silverwood, with the same name and team.

5. Once the biggest "city" in Idaho

In 1942, the Navy built Farragut Naval Training Station on the south end of Lake Pend Oreille. Within months, about 55,000 people lived there, more than any city in Idaho at the time. It was the second-largest naval training center in the world, behind Great Lakes near Chicago.

About 293,000 recruits trained there before it closed after the war. Today it is Farragut State Park. The old brig still stands as the Museum at the Brig, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

6. A trail from the state line to the eagles

The North Idaho Centennial Trail runs about 24 miles, paved the whole way, from the Washington state line through Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene to Higgens Point. At the state line it hooks into the Spokane River Centennial Trail and keeps going to Nine Mile Falls, Washington. The first miles opened in 1990. The last link, between Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls, was finished in 1996.

What did we miss?

This is a start, not the whole list. What's your county bragging right? Tell us, and we'll check it out.