Happyflowerlady
Vagabond Flowerchild
- Location
- Northern Alabama
Many people have not heard that one of the most secret submarine-testing areas is located in North Idaho, hundreds of miles inland from any kind of ocean. Farragut military training camp was located near Lake Pend Oreille, (pronounced Pon-der-ay) at Bayview, Idaho; but the navy also built a submarine testing base nearby on the lake.
The lake is well over 1,000 feet deep in some areas, and a lot of it is in fairly remote places where not a lot of people would be going.
The Naval Base was built during the Second World War, and is still in use today.
Since I grew up in Sandpoint, right next to the lake, we had heard about submarine sightings from people, and whenever we crossed over the bridge, I always watched for submarines.
There used to be big logs floating down the river and into the lake, and as we were driving across the lake/river, I can remember seeing one such log make its way almost up to what was called “The Long Bridge”, and then it suddenly vanished. I didn’t ever see it re-emerge, so I always thought that I might have seen one of the submarines.
More information about the naval base and the submarines:
https://jalopnik.com/the-navys-most-vital-and-secretive-submarine-base-is-in-1590794426
Here is a picture of Lake Pend O’reille, and you can see where Farragut Naval Station was located, and the submarine base would have been somewhere near there along the waterfront. Sandpoint was where the designation changed from Lake to River. West of the bridge, it was river, and east of the bridge was considered to be lake.
The lake is well over 1,000 feet deep in some areas, and a lot of it is in fairly remote places where not a lot of people would be going.
The Naval Base was built during the Second World War, and is still in use today.
Since I grew up in Sandpoint, right next to the lake, we had heard about submarine sightings from people, and whenever we crossed over the bridge, I always watched for submarines.
There used to be big logs floating down the river and into the lake, and as we were driving across the lake/river, I can remember seeing one such log make its way almost up to what was called “The Long Bridge”, and then it suddenly vanished. I didn’t ever see it re-emerge, so I always thought that I might have seen one of the submarines.
More information about the naval base and the submarines:
https://jalopnik.com/the-navys-most-vital-and-secretive-submarine-base-is-in-1590794426
Here is a picture of Lake Pend O’reille, and you can see where Farragut Naval Station was located, and the submarine base would have been somewhere near there along the waterfront. Sandpoint was where the designation changed from Lake to River. West of the bridge, it was river, and east of the bridge was considered to be lake.
Last edited: