on the
Coeur d'Alene River, 1855 The
Coeur d'Alene people called themselves in
their language, a
Salishan language, meaning 'those who are found here' These Native Americans lived along the rivers and lakes of the region, in a territory of extending from eastern Washington to Montana; these tribes primarily located their villages and camps near food gathering or processing sites. The
Oregon boundary dispute (or Oregon question) arose as a result of competing British and American claims to the Pacific Northwest of North America in the first half of the 19th century. The British had trading ties extending from Canada and had started settlements at
Fort Vancouver and at
Fort Astoria on the Pacific coast near the mouth of the
Columbia River. The
Oregon Treaty of 1846 ended the disputed joint occupation of the area in present-day Idaho when Britain ceded all rights to land south of the
49th parallel to the United States. In another territorial dispute, the U.S. government through
Washington Territory Governor
Isaac Stevens began to negotiate treaties that would begin to move the various tribes of the region onto reservation lands to make way for American settlement. This angered the Coeur d'Alene, as several treaty re-negotiations continually reduced their tribal lands. These talks and increasing settler encroachment sparked
armed hostilities between the native Coeur d'Alene,
Spokane and
Palouse and the settler populations that resulted in an initial victory for the tribes at the
Battle of Steptoe Butte but were followed up with
George Wright's campaign that subdued the natives. In 1859, with U.S. funding in place, Governor Stevens appointed
John Mullan to survey the interior of the Northwestern United States for possible railroad routes and oversee the construction of the
Mullan Road that bears his name, from
Fort Walla Walla on the Columbia River through the Rocky Mountains to
Fort Benton on the
Missouri River. With the
discovery of gold in the western United States and the establishment of
Idaho Territory in 1863, there was an increase in settlers to the region. When General
William Tecumseh Sherman was commander of the U.S. Army during the
Indian Wars and following the defeat of General
George Armstrong Custer at the
Battle of Little Big Horn, he erected several forts in the west. The village became the location where ore from the mining district was ferried and transferred to the rail lines from
steamboats that traveled down from the
Coeur d'Alene River from the
Cataldo Mission. The township was officially incorporated by petition on August 22, 1887. In the 1890s,
two significant miners' uprisings took place in the
Coeur d'Alene Mining District, where the workers struggled with high risk and low pay. In 1892, the union's discovery of a
labor spy in their midst, in the person of
Charlie Siringo, a sometime cowboy and
Pinkerton agent, resulted in
a labor strike that developed into a shooting war between miners and the company in
Burke Canyon. When the
mine owners planned to reduce wages of some workers to offset increased operating costs, the miners declared a strike against the reduction of wages and the increase in work hours and demanded a "
living wage" be paid to every man working underground – the common laborer as well as the skilled in a stand for
industrial unionism. To restore order to the state of rebellion in
Shoshone County, Governor
N. B. Willey declared
martial law and sent federal troops to arrest and detain the union miners, but not before dozens of casualties including six deaths and the destruction of the Frisco Mill. Labor disputes between some company mines and the union continued into the next decade. A similar
labor confrontation in 1899 took place after the union was launching an organizing drive of the few mines not yet fully unionized, where miners working in the
Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines were receiving fifty cents to a dollar less per day than other miners. With no success in the effort, on April 29, 250 union members seized a train in
Burke at gunpoint, according to the engineer, Levi "Al" Hutton. At each stop through Burke Canyon, more miners climbed aboard what was dubbed the "Dynamite Express" toward the site of the $250,000 Bunker Hill mine near
Wardner; the miners then carried 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg) of dynamite into the mill and completely destroyed it. The crowd also burned down the company office, the boarding house, and the home of the mine manager. Like in the 1892 strike, martial law was declared by Governor
Frank Steunenberg and wholesale arrests and mass incarcerations were done to bring back order. The bombing assassination led to a nationally publicized trial in
Boise. The
lumber industry from the eastern US began to inventory the timberlands, acquire land, and invest in facilities across much of northern Idaho. From 1900 to 1915, there were hundreds of homes constructed across 70 newly platted additions. With the advent of the automobile and the internal combustion engine, trucks and chainsaws, the felling and transporting of trees became more productive and efficient and lumber production reached its height in the late 1910s and 1920s; in 1925 there were seven lumber mills operating in the area and they were producing 500 million board feet of lumber. After the
1929 stock market crash and during the
Great Depression, the lumber industry demand began to wane and by the mid-1930s about half the woodworkers in North Idaho were laid off and the surviving mills were producing only 160 million board feet of lumber per year. Although it was a tough time, accomplishments during the Depression years included the establishment of Coeur d'Alene Junior College (North Idaho College) in 1933, the construction of Northwest Boulevard through the
Works Progress Administration program in 1937, and the building of the popular Playfair Pier amusement park on the lake in the early 1940s. The Playfair Pier opened on July 4, 1942 (and existed until 1974) in City Park and included a variety of rides and attractions such as a miniature roller coaster, a Ferris wheel, a carousel, and some of the usual
carnival games. Coeur d'Alene benefited from its proximity to the
Farragut Naval Training Station, established in 1942 on the south end of
Lake Pend Oreille, which employed 22,000 people and needed 98 million board feet of lumber to build 650 buildings. Due to the scenic lake, tourism has always been a factor in the local economy. In the early 1900s, it had become popular in Spokane to travel and picnic in the park, shop in town, and take steamboat cruises on the lake and up the
Saint Joe River. However, tourism began to become a mainstay of the economy with the completion of highway infrastructure projects in the 1950s and 1960s, and the Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce began to promote the city as a tourist destination as well. As tourism increased, there was more demand for lodging facilities, convention space, restaurants, and cultural activities. By 1976, the city had over 30 motels with about 1,500 rooms. On June 14, 1958, the city hosted the first Diamond Cup Hydroplane race, which was one of the largest events in its history and garnered national publicity and media coverage. The event was attended by 30,000 people, and it was considered a success by the Diamond Cup organizers. The race was held at Lake Coeur d'Alene for the next eight years; it was discontinued due to persistent difficulties in raising funds for the event. Tourism has taken on even more prominence and has become one of the main drivers of the local economy since the start of the 1980s, when there was new investment into recreational tourism in the area. In 1982, a $2 million Wild Waters aquatic theme park was built, and in the spring of 1986 there was the opening of the $60 million ($ in dollars), 18-story Coeur d'Alene Resort. The waterfront resort featured a well-manicured frontage and a publicly accessible floating
boardwalk that gave visitors the impression of a park-like environment and attracted the attention of publications nationwide. The actions of the
Aryan Nations, a
white supremacist group founded by
Richard Butler in 1974, also attracted media attention. Butler's acolytes, many of whom were transplants like him, were linked to several robberies, murders, and three bombings, including the bombing of a
Spokesman-Review office. The Aryan Nations went bankrupt and ceased operations in 2000 when the
Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit after the assault of a Native American woman. The lawsuit resulted in a $6.3 million judgment and the closure of their Hayden compound. in 1994. In the 1990s, the Coeur d'Alene area starting experiencing substantial population growth; many of these initial transplants came from California, citing earthquakes, crime, and overcrowding as reasons for their move. This northward migration coincided with watershed events such as the
1992 Los Angeles riots and the
1994 Northridge earthquake. Additional rides such as the
Timber Terror and
Tremors roller coasters in the 1990s and the Boulder Beach
water park in 2003 made Silverwood into a regional theme park, which attracts visitors primarily from the Spokane,
Tri-Cities, and Seattle areas of Washington as well as some from the Canadian provinces of
British Columbia and
Alberta. According to Census Bureau data in 2018, the city and county were among the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the nation. The newest transplants are still mainly from other western states and are moving for economic as well as political reasons, seeking a lower cost of living, more affordable housing, an outdoor lifestyle, and a place that is more conservative. In June 2022, 31 members of the hate group
Patriot Front, including leader
Thomas Rousseau, were arrested after appearing at the city's
Pride parade. The group maintains an active presence in Coeur d'Alene. In 2023, the city was noted as a target of
American Redoubt-related immigration. Firefighters responding to a brush fire near Coeur d'Alene on June 29, 2025
were ambushed by a sniper gunfire. Two firefighters were killed. The sniper, 20-year-old Wess Roley, was found dead several hours later. The fire was thought to have been purposely set to enable the ambush. ==Geography==