Mules for Sale near Bonners Ferry, ID

About Bonners Ferry, ID

When gold was discovered in the East Kootenays of British Columbia in 1863, thousands of prospectors from all over the West surged northward over a route that became known as the Wildhorse Trail. Edwin Bonner, a merchant from Walla Walla, Washington, established a ferry in 1864 where the trail crossed the broad Kootenai River. In 1875, Richard Fry, and his Sinixt wife, Justine Su-steel Fry, leased the business, but the location retained the name of the original founder and later became the town of Bonners Ferry. Before the gold rush, only a few visitors had come to the region; one of the first was explorer David Thompson, a cartographer for the North West Company. Thompson and four fellow fur traders arrived in 1808 to trade with the Lower Kootenais.