Priest Lake
Priest Lake is a lake in Idaho, United States, in the northernmost portion of the Idaho Panhandle, northeast of Spokane, Washington. The northern end of the lake extending to within of the Canada–United States border. The primary lake, lower Priest, is long and over deep. Upper Priest is connected by a thoroughfare to lower Priest. History The history of the lake dates back almost 10,000 years to the end of the last ice age. After the vast glaciers that had covered most of the area receded and vegetation started to regrow, humans started to resettle the area. That is evident from historical artifacts found in the area and ancient rock art along the lake. In the early 19th century fur trappers established trade with the native Kalispel tribe. In the 1840s Jesuit priest Pierre-Jean DeSmet began working with the Kalispel tribe along the nearby Pend Oreille River. From the tribe's information about Priest Lake, De Smet was able to create a map and named the lake Roothaan Lake for one of his superiors in Rome. The name would not stick though and in 1865 Captain John Mullan, a U.S. Army Captain who was traveling through the area under orders to