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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Clark Fork (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Clark Fork. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Name Variations for Clark Fork ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might occur.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Clark Fork: Clark Frk.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the west contained birth and death records; the county to the north contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Clark Fork is located in Bonner County.

To see how the shape of Idaho's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Bonner County: Boundary, Kootenai, Lincoln, Shoshone, Sanders (MT), Pend Oreille (WA) & Spokane (WA).

Below are the counties that are near Clark Fork. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Clark Fork:

  • Bonner County     (The home county of Clark Fork)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Clark Fork, with the one closest to Clark Fork listed first.
    • Cabinet ‑ Historic
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Cabinet is located in Bonner County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cabinet
    • East Hope
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
      • East Hope is located in Bonner County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Hope
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 231 people
    • Hope
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Cedar Creek
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Cedar Creek is located in Bonner County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Creek
    • Boyer
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Boyer is located in Bonner County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boyer
    • Lakeview
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Lakeview is located in Bonner County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview
    • Algoma
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Algoma is located in Bonner County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Algoma
    • Sagle
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Kootenai
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Ponderay
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Sandpoint
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Dufort
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Dufort is located in Bonner County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dufort
    • Westmond
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Westmond is located in Bonner County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westmond
  • Boundary County
  • Kootenai County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Clark Fork, with the one closest to Clark Fork listed first.
    • Bayview
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Belmont
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Belmont is located in Kootenai County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belmont
    • Athol
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Lincoln County (MT)
    • Troy
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Troy is located in Lincoln County (MT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Troy
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 982 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Troy <1>
  • Sanders County (MT)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Clark Fork, with the one closest to Clark Fork listed first.
    • Heron
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Smead ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Smead is located in Sanders County (MT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smead
    • Noxon
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Tuscor
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Tuscor is located in Sanders County (MT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tuscor

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Clark Fork, see our County-by-County Page for Clark Fork.

Cemeteries Near Clark Fork ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Clark Fork.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Clark Fork - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Clark Fork covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Clark Fork, with the one closest to Clark Fork listed first.

  • Clark Fork Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Cabinet Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Hope Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Old Hope Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Heron Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Clara Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Drake Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • Pack River Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pack River Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Pack River Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located 8 miles [12.9 km]<3> to the northeast of Sandpoint.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #80594 <2>
  • Lakeview Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Lakeview Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the southwest of Sandpoint.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #80533 <2>
  • Westmond Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Gold Creek Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Noxon Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<4>

While we didn't find Clark Fork in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Clark Fork.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Clark Fork, with the one closest to Clark Fork listed first.

  • Heron
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Kootenai
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Sandpoint
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Cocolalla
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
  • Noxon
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Athol
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Tuscor
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Tuscor is located in Sanders County (MT)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tuscor

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Clark Fork. See our List of 1890's Communities around Clark Fork.

Newspapers Published in Clark Fork ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 18 newspapers that have been published in the area around Clark Fork.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Clark Fork, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Clark Fork.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Clark Fork:

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Clark Fork) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Clark Fork, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.