Ponderay, Idaho
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1901 and the latest in 1996. It stands in the Sandpoint census division. It lies in ZIP code area 83852. It stands on Little Sand Creek. The Survey maps it on the Sandpoint quadrangle. 1,289 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,126 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresPonderay grew from 1,137 to 1,289 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 1,137 | |
| 2020 | 1,289 | +152 (+13%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 17 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1901 USGS Sandpoint quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1911 USGS Priest Lake quadrangle1:250000
- 1911 USGS Sandpoint quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1913 USGS Priest Lake quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Sandpoint quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1963 USGS Sandpoint quadrangle1:250000
- 1968 USGS Sandpoint quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1984 USGS Sandpoint quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1996 USGS Sandpoint quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
63 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 63 fires within 5 miles of Ponderay between 1992 and 2020, burning about 382 acres in total. 23 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Natural | 23 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16 |
| Debris and open burning | 15 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 4 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 September 1995 | Natural | under an acre | Idaho Department of Lands | SCHWEITZER MTN |
| 4 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.6 acres | Pend Oreille Area Office | EAGLE CREST |
| 3 September 2016 | Natural | under an acre | Idaho Department of Lands | LONE PINE |
| 2 September 2011 | Natural | under an acre | Idaho Department of Lands | GREENHORN |
| 2 September 2011 | Natural | under an acre | Idaho Panhandle National Forest | CITY OVERLOOK |
| 1 September 2009 | Natural | under an acre | Idaho Panhandle National Forest | ECHO RIDGE |
| 8 August 1994 | Natural | under an acre | Idaho Panhandle National Forest | not named |
| 7 August 1994 | Natural | under an acre | Idaho Department of Lands | SCHWEITZER CREEK |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 25 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 25 workings within 5 miles of Ponderay: 13 past producers, 8 occurrences, 2 producers, 1 unknown. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Gold, Silver, Iron, Copper, Gold. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Hill Mine | Gold, Silver, Copper, Bismuth | Past Producer | Surface/Underground | |
| Boyer Mines | Zinc, Silver, Lead, Copper, Gold | Prospect | ||
| Hayes Mine | Silver, Lead | Occurrence | ||
| Hayes Prospect | Lead, Silver, Copper | Occurrence | Vein | |
| Iron Deposit Prospect | Iron, Copper, Gold | Occurrence | ||
| Iron Deposit Prospect | Gold, Copper | Occurrence | ||
| Iron Occurrence | Iron, Silver | Occurrence | ||
| Kootenai | Lead, Silver | Occurrence | ||
| Kootenai Prospect | Zinc, Silver, Lead | Occurrence | 1928 | |
| Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
4 since 2010Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ponderay in 4 storm reports between 2010 and 2019: 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 flood, 1 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2014 | Flood | Ponderay | $25,000 | Standing water reported across the area. A mobile home park in Ponderay was hardest hit with one trailer inundated with two feet of water inside the home. Damage costs were estimated. |
| August 2019 | Hail | Ponderay | - | The Ponderay town office reported hail up to the size of 1 inch blanketing the ground. |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ponderay | - | Estimated wind gusts of 60 miles per hour were observed from a thunderstorm. |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ponderay | - | High wind gusts from a thunderstorm blew down several trees. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Ponderay | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1518349 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 398008. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.








