St. Maries (pronounced like "St. Mary's") is a city in north central Idaho, the largest in rural Benewah County and its county seat. Its population was 2,402 at the 2010 census, down from 2,652 in 2000. History The townsite was selected by Joseph Fisher, just southwest of the confluence of St. Maries River and St. Joe River, to provide a location for a sawmill, first built in 1889. The rivers and lake systems provided rapid transportation systems for floating logs to the mills and utilizing steamboats to transport finished products to market. From the city, the St. Joe River flows west, through several lakes and into the south end of Lake Coeur d'Alene. The Pacific Extension of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road) arrived in 1908. The city was established in 1913 when Benewah County was formed from southern Kootenai County. In 1915 St. Maries was named its county seat. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land. The St. Maries River to the east and the St. Joe River to the north frame the city. Climate According to the Köppen climate classification system, St. Maries has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb). Demographics 2010 census As of the census of 2010, there were 2,402 people, 999 households, and 641 families living in the city. The population density was . There were 1,092 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 96.0% White, 0.3% African American, 1.1% Native American, 0.6% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.2% from other races, and 1.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.6% of the population. There were 999 households, of which 32.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.4% were married couples living together, 12.2% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.5% had a male householder with no wife present, and 35.8% were non-families. 31.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 2.88. The median age in the city was 40.9 years. 24.5% of residents were under the age of 18; 7.8% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 22.7% were from