Who Owns Rathdrum Mountain?
January 29, 2011
On Mondays and Thursdays, I stand outside before school on playground duty, looking to the North, where Rathdrum Mountain looms above the prairie, hoping to catch the morning sun. One rare morning when the sun was indeed shining, something quite close to the summit gave off a bright reflection, and brought to my attention a slight speck – perhaps a structure next to a bald spot on the mountain. Surely, they are not allowing development up there, are they?
I have had a growing desire to go tromp around up on the mountain, although I understand much of it is private. And tromping around private land in North Idaho is an invitation to get shot at. So, I wanted to see whether one could really summit Rathdrum Mt. without risk of Idaho separatist insurgent attacks, or at least without breaking the law.
My wife is a professional information getter, and has some wicked skills at finding perfectly free and public info about things such as land. After a bit of guided research, I am still not completely confident of summiting Rathdrum Mt, but I can say that there is certainly a good amount of land back there that is accessible. According to the internet, Rathdrum Mountain is, to a large extent, owned by the following organizations:
Patriot Investments, a Forest Capital Partner: timber investing firm out of Boston. They seem to own most of the area around the summit.
The U.S. of A. Oddly, this is different than
B of LM, Or the Department of the Interior,
The US Forest Service
Idaho Department of Lands,
All of which own other parcels;
Rathdrum City,
Inland Empire Paper Company – The Cowells! I can get a use permit for IEP lands, which stretch from Rathdrum to Mt. Spokane. I think this might be a good investment.
William Fanning, Real Estate Broker
Gale Easterday, of Easterday Ranches, a Washington-based cattle feed corporation.
Other Timber companies such as Stimson, JD, Connolly-Kroetch…
And lots of private individuals who I hope do not shoot me if I pass by the public road in front of their lots.
Now, I am being unfairly stereotypical of North Idahoans only for fun. Almost all of them are very nice. And, as an Idaho teacher, I don’t want to get in trouble with the great Gem State. It does rub me the wrong way, however, that private lands prevent access to much of the public lands of that area, and that the pristine forests of North Idaho are mostly accessible only to forestry and development. And allow me a little liberal venting after putting up with the dominant conservative rhetoric of the region.
As for the summit, Google Earth’s Satellite image of that point does show us some building there. Check these coordinates 47.846807,-116.927544.
This is on the Patriot Investment Land, bordering the USA land. Perhaps it is secretly owned by the UN, for the future site of the headquarters for the supreme world council. Forestry – the perfect cover for world domination!
