Careywood, Idaho — Small Community on Northern Idaho's Main Road

Careywood lies along U.S. 95 south of Sandpoint, on the highway that seems determined to introduce itself to nearly every north-south trip through the Idaho Panhandle.

Timber, agriculture and transportation shaped the community. Forested hills supplied logging work while farms and homes occupied flatter ground along the corridor.

U.S. 95 now gives Careywood an unusual relationship with scale. The resident population is small, but a great deal of northern Idaho drives past.

Growth around Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene has also pushed more homes into surrounding wooded parcels without turning Careywood into a conventional suburb.

It remains rural country with a major highway running through the middle—a quiet community beside a road that is almost never quiet for long.