The Farragut Shooting Range is located on a site that was formerly a military training range as part of the Farragut Naval Training Station established by the U.S. Navy in September of 1942. The base was established in response to military training needs for World War II. It took only six months from the start of construction until the first of the 293,381 recruits who passed through Farragut Naval Training Center arrived for training. In total the Farragut Naval Training Station took four years to build and required 22,000 workers for construction. The base cost over 100 million dollars and became the second largest base in the world at the time of its construction.
On June 6, 1946, Farragut Naval Training Center was decommissioned, as surplus to U.S. military needs. From 1947 to 1949 the base was used as the site of Farragut Technical College. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) began to acquire the Naval Base property in 1949, when it purchased 4 separate parcels that border Lake Pend Oreille. Acquisition was completed in 1950 when the United States transferred 3,854 acres to the IDFG with a conditional deed stating that the property must be managed for wildlife conservation purposes; thus, Farragut Wildlife Management Area (WMA) was established.
In 1964 IDFG deeded 2,566 acres of the Wildlife Management Area back to the United States government. The U.S. government in turn transferred these 2,566 acres to the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation (IDPR) with a conditional deed that it be used as a Public Park. In 1965 the Idaho legislature passed legislation establishing Farragut State Park. Later, IDPR transferred 80 acres of abandoned railroad right-of-way back to the U.S. government who then gifted it to Kootenai County as a public recreation trail. In 1991 IDPR accepted a donation of 5 acres of private land adjacent to the Park.
Today the IDFG and the IDPR cooperatively administer by formal agreement 1412 acres of Farragut Wildlife Management Area and 2,491acres of Farragut State Park. The Farragut Shooting Range is located on the Farragut Wildlife Management Area owned by IDFG. The range has played host to a broad range of users including military and law enforcement training, organized competitive shooting events, individual recreational shooters, and educational activities such as youth shooting clinics. It was in continued use by the Idaho citizenry from 1946 to 2007 when it was temporarily closed by court order for safety and noise mitigation improvements. The range reopened to public use in 2013 and use continues to the present. Daily operational oversight of recreational activities at the range is jointly administered by the IDPR and IDFG.