A bizarre checkerboard pattern etched into the forests of northern Idaho has captured global attention after an astronaut aboard the International Space Station snapped a striking image of the area from space. The photo reveals an enormous grid of dark and light squares surrounding the Priest River, forming a vast natural “chessboard” that spans several miles.
The geometric arrangement isn’t a mystery of alien origin or a recent human creation. Instead, it’s the result of a land management strategy dating back nearly two centuries, intended to balance timber harvesting with forest regeneration. This unexpected visual phenomenon offers a rare glimpse into the long-term effects of systematic forestry on natural landscapes.
The image was taken on January 4, 2017, by an unnamed astronaut with the NASA/ISS program. According to Live Science, the photo shows a patch of land near Whitetail Butte in northern Idaho, approximately 40 miles south of the Canadian border. While this distinctive grid appears especially vivid under a blanket of snow, the pattern remains faintly visible even during the summer, due to differing shades of green across the alternating forest plots.
Legacy of a 19th-Century Forest Policy
The origins of the chessboard pattern date back to a forest management initiative developed in the 1800s. Foresters divided the land into a grid system, with each square measuring around 130,000 square meters—the size of roughly 24 football fields. Timber was selectively harvested from alternating squares, leaving the others untouched to maintain ecological balance and promote regeneration.
According to NASA’s Earth Observatory, this system ensured that the cleared areas could be replanted and allowed to regrow before future harvesting. Once the new trees matured, the process repeated in reverse, creating the alternating dark and light pattern seen from space. While simple in design, this method helped preserve forest health while maintaining the timber industry that was vital to the region’s economy at the time.
Snow Reveals the Checkerboard From Space
The dramatic contrast visible in the photo comes largely from seasonal conditions. In this instance, freshly fallen snow had settled on the saplings growing in the cleared sections, creating bright white squares. The darker squares, meanwhile, are densely forested with mature trees, which absorb more light and appear shadowed in the low sun of late afternoon.
The image was captured just before sunset, and the angle of the sun contributed to the visibility of long mountain shadows, highlighting the topography surrounding the Priest River. The checkerboard spans around five miles across at its widest point and includes an estimated 185 squares, though not all are visible in the frame. As noted by Live Science, this kind of clear spatial layout is rare to see from space, especially when caused by human land use rather than natural geology.
Transformation of Logging Practices Along the Priest River
The Priest River has long been central to the region’s timber trade. In the early 20th century, felled logs were transported along the river using a method known as “log driving.” Workers would ride atop floating rafts of timber, using poles to guide them downstream toward sawmills—a risky and skill-intensive job.
This practice was discontinued in the 1990s as priorities shifted toward recreational uses of the river. Today, timber is moved primarily by road, and faint lines of logging roads are still visible cutting diagonally across several squares of the checkerboard. These remnants of a different industrial era add another layer of human history to the landscape captured in the astronaut’s photo.
