Coeur d'Alene's basin was dammed twice: first by gravel, when an outburst flood dropped a hundred meters of it across a river valley, 18,000 to 13,000 years ago; then by concrete, nine miles downstream, in 1906. What collected inside it is the harder inheritance: somewhere between 44 and 75 million metric tons of it, laced with arsenic, lead, zinc, and cadmium, blanketing most of the lakebed. It sits inside a federal mining-cleanup zone, though no remedy was chosen for the lake itself. There is no plan to remove it — only to manage it where it lies. What holds it there is oxygen, nothing else. The deep northern water still carries enough near bottom to keep the metals inert; the shallow south end, where both feeder rivers arrive, has already tested below the line where they start to leach. Scrub the water too clean, some warn, and the zinc attempting to suppress algae stops working — then a bloom eats the very oxygen holding the sediment down.
curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
The facts
- Surface area 108.8 km² usgs-3dhp · lake-level · as of Jul 12, 2026
- Nearest town Len Landing · 3.7 km osm-overpass · lake-level · as of Jul 12, 2026
- Bird species (within 25 mi) 162 ebird-api-v2 · lake-level · as of Jul 12, 2026
- Bird diversity index 0.93 ebird-api-v2 · lake-level · as of Jul 12, 2026
- Median home value $618,767 census-acs-2024-b25077 · block-group-level · as of Jul 12, 2026
- Water clarity Clear curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
- Night sky Some skyglow curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
- Surroundings Resort — a shoreline built for visitors curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
- Water origin Natural lake with a regulated outlet curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
In more detail
- Climate
- four-season; cold winters (~32°F mean), mild summers (~67°F); ~28 in precip/yr noaa-normals-1991-2020-descriptor · lake-level · as of Jul 12, 2026
- Public access
- Coeur d'Alene Lake has extensive, multi-jurisdictional public access. Kootenai County runs 5 fee boat ramps (Mica Bay, Harrison, Carlin Bay, Spokane Point, Sunup Bay) plus 5 free launches (Fuller's Landing, Gould's Landing, Harlow Point, Kidd Island Bay, Neachen Bay). BLM operates Mineral Ridge (east shore) and Blackwell Island (Spokane River outlet) boat launches. Heyburn State Park (IDPR), at the lake's south end and within the Coeur d'Alene Reservation, has 2 marinas and 3 ramps (Rocky Point, Chatcolet, Benewah) plus 2 public swim beaches (Rocky Point, Plummer Point); the City of Coeur d'Alene maintains a downtown public beach/boat launch at City Beach/Independence Point. Fees/permits: Kootenai County ramps: $4/day or $20/year (ID-registered), $8/day or $40/year (out-of-state). BLM Mineral Ridge & Blackwell Island: $12/day or $80/year annual pass (valid at both). Heyburn State Park: standard IDPR day-use fee applies (exact amount not confirmed on park page); Chatcolet Marina moorage $2,950/season. City of Coeur d'Alene beach/launch: no fee information found.. Sources: kcgov.us (fetched 2026-07-12); blm.gov (fetched 2026-07-12); parksandrecreation.idaho.gov (fetched 2026-07-12); epa.gov (search-extraction 2026-07-12); cdaid.org (fetched 2026-07-12). curated-web-harvest · lake-level · as of Jul 12, 2026
- Dogs and pets
- high — 17 dog parks within 25 mi (OSM); state rule: On Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation (IDPR) lands, pets must be confined or controlled on a leash no longer than 6 feet, may not create a disturbance, and are prohibited from any swim area or beach (except service animals). Owners must clean up after pets and may not leave them unattended; park/program managers may designate specific off-leash exercise areas. (IDAPA 26.01.20.175 (Idaho Dept. of Parks and Recreation, Public Behavior rule), fetched 2026-07-12); Heyburn State Park's own visitor page states: "Pets: Yes on a 6-foot leash," consistent with the general IDPR rule (no lake-specific override found). (parksandrecreation.idaho.gov, fetched 2026-07-12); Per a third-party review site, City of Coeur d'Alene signage says "No dogs allowed in the park" for City Park proper, though leashed dogs are permitted on paths in City Park/McEuen Park/Riverstone Park, and a small dog area is claimed near the beach. (tripadvisor.com, search-extraction 2026-07-12) curated-web-harvest · lake-level · as of Jul 12, 2026
- Property tax
- 0.44% ACS effective-rate proxy (2024 ACS 5-year; Kootenai County anchor: $2,267 median real-estate taxes paid ÷ $518,700 median owner-occupied home value; Idaho proxy 0.49%, -0.05 percentage points). census-acs-2024-property-tax · county-level · as of Dec 31, 2024
Where it’s heading
Rising hand-rated for v0.1 · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
Rising, documented: Kootenai County grew 23.7% 2010–2020 (Census) and a further 9.9% by July 2024 (Census PEP); the Idaho Dept. of Labor (2026-03-31) names it one of three counties carrying more than 75% of the state's 2025 growth, ~93% of northern-Idaho growth from in-migration; building-permit applications rose 45% in 2021 (2,426 units authorized) and the county's own page records a 176% rise in the single-family median over ten years; the Coeur d'Alene Tribe's lake plan calls it 'one of the fastest growing counties in the region.' Hedge: price growth has decelerated from +35.7% (2021) to roughly flat in 2024–26 — deceleration, not decline. The lake's water-quality trendline is separately contested in print (NASEM recovering vs IDEQ/Tribe declining) and is not what this rating measures.