For the most rugged of millionaires

For more than 30 years, a California family has owned Memaloose Island, a graceful squiggle of land in northern Lake Pend Oreille.

But now the 13-acre island – home to towering pines, rocky bluffs and a sandy beach – is on the market. The Knight family trust is asking $16 million for the private island near Hope, Idaho, and is preparing to advertise it internationally.

“It’s not often that a completely private island comes up for sale,” said Perel McDowell, the listing agent at Coldwell Banker Resort Realty in Sandpoint. “It’s what you’d call a niche market.”

The property is rare enough, McDowell said, that she’s advertising it on www.privateislandsonline.com, which specializes in island real estate, including spots in the Caribbean, Fiji and the Great Lakes.

Ideally, Memaloose Island will pass into the hands of another family, said John Knight, who spent summers there as a teenager and later lived year-round in the island’s rustic, 80-year-old cabin.

“I’ve been a good steward of the property for a long time, and we’d like someone like-minded to be the new owner. I don’t think that’s impossible,” Knight said. “We can be picky.”

Knight was 13 when his mom tossed a packet of photographs onto the table. “Look what we just bought,” she said.

Jack and Helen Knight, who owned a heavy-equipment company, had traveled to Seattle to put on an exhibition at the 1962 World’s Fair. Jack Knight spotted Memaloose Island during a side trip to North Idaho. His fishing guide was a Realtor. The island just happened to be for sale.

The Knights paid $39,000 for Memaloose, a sum locals considered outrageous at the time, John Knight said. “In the 1960s, you could buy a waterfront lot for $600.”

Now, the island ranks among Bonner County’s most expensive pieces of residential real estate. During the past year, only two other waterfront properties were listed for higher prices: a secluded estate near Hope, advertised for $19.5 million, and waterfront acreage in Dover, listed for $18 million.

Though the Knights used the island as a private retreat, Memaloose has significant ties to regional history and culture.

The island was a short distance from the Kullyspell House, a fur trading outpost established in 1809 by the Canadian explorer David Thompson.

Memaloose Island also shows up in “Moonlight Tete-a-Tete,” one of the most recognized works of renowned Sandpoint photographer Ross Hall. During a winter hike in 1939, Hall shot a picture of two snow-covered trees leaning toward each other – fanciful silhouettes that appear to be whispering secrets. The trees frame a view of the lake that includes Memaloose Island.

“That was one of his favorite spots. He had three great photographs of the island,” said Hall’s son, Dann Hall.

Memaloose Island also figures into Dann Hall’s memories. “As kids we used to swim out there, and run barefoot over the island in the moonlight,” he said. “We loved to spook ourselves.”

Memaloose refers to “the dead” in Chinook jargon, a native trade language used in the Northwest. Indian burial sites were noted in a state archaeological survey of the island done in the 1950s or 1960s. Since state law prohibits the desecration of graves or removal of funeral artifacts, any new construction on the island would require a professional survey to ensure that nothing is disturbed, said Ken Reid, the state’s archaeologist.

Knight, however, disputes the Indian burial theory. Old-timers told him that Native Americans left their dead in litters on the island, and later retrieved the bones for interment elsewhere. “It was a spiritual spot for local tribes,” Knight said.

Representatives of the Kalispell Tribe, which has historic ties to the area, did not return phone calls last week.

Knight has fond memories of his time on the island, including the seven years he lived there alone. In 1991, he arrived in Hope with a pickup, a boat and several chain saws. The island’s one habitable building, a cabin built in the 1920s, originally had a wood stove and coal-oil lamps.

“I kind of feel that this is the best place on the lake,” he said. “Eight bazillion words wouldn’t describe it. It’s just a beautiful piece of land. There’s no neighbors, no fences. … You can look at six miles of lake.”

The surrounding area, he said, is better than a nature special on television. Over the years, the Knight family has watched black bear and bull elk swimming in the lake. Even cougars are sometime-inhabitants of the island.

“Those are things you normally don’t see,” he said.

But after spending parts of 15 years on Memaloose Island, Knight said his experience there is complete. He and his siblings decided to sell the island after their parents died. “It was a family decision,” he said.

The island was briefly listed for sale in 2003 and put on the market again last year. The family hasn’t received any serious offers, but Knight said they can afford to wait.

“We want to keep it the way it’s been used in the past. The neighbors would certainly appreciate that,” he said. “I get lots of compliments for keeping it clean and simple.”