Used to seem, when the national press came calling on northern Idaho it was for the bad news – to cover the Aryan Nations “compound” in Hayden Lake, 40 miles south, or more recently to make international news out of six children and their dozens of dogs keeping officers at bay for a few days in Sagle.

But the Aryans were put out business by a civil lawsuit, and the kids vs. cops incident came to safe and sane ending. And while Sandpoint has been blessedly free of television-truck hordes for a while now, we have been catching more welcome national coverage from magazines that have discovered Sandpoint as a great place to vacation and live.

Perhaps the quirkiest is the Intuitive Flash newsletter, published by Matrix Institute, devotees of consciousness studies and ecospirituality. In a series of articles, “The 10 Best Places to Live,” the March 2002 issue featured Sandpoint and the Lake Pend Oreille region. This area has “a strong yellow vibration,” a measure of energy, that draws those with interest in higher mind and intellect. Sandpoint is not for everyone, it warns, but is best suited to high-energy types who love the outdoors.

In the Wall Street genre, SmartMoney magazine featured Sandpoint in the February 2002 Real Estate cover story, as a good place to buy a vacation home: “If you missed buying in Aspen or Steamboat Springs, where prices have gotten unspeakable over the past 15 years, consider this ski area 50 miles from the Canadian border. Sandpoint sits amid the Selkirk and Cabinet mountains, but it’s not just another Swiss Miss copy of the Alps.”

In the September 2001 issue of Outside magazine, Sandpoint warranted mention within the cover story, “10 Dream Towns,” as one of the other towns with “most beautiful scenery and most enviable outdoor recreation.” Prior to that, Sunset magazine’s May 2001 issue contained a favorable section on Sandpoint in a feature on the Selkirk Loop.

“The substance of Sandpoint hasn’t changed, but thankfully the gossip about Sandpoint has,” says past Sandpoint Mayor Paul Graves.

– Billie Jean Plaster