The Bunker Hill Mining Company is a mining company with facilities in Kellogg and Wardner, Idaho.
Simeon Reed bought the Bunker Hill Mine and Mill, and incorporated the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining and Concentrating Company on 29 July 1887. John Hays Hammond was hired to manage the mine, and a new concentrator, The Old South Mill, became operational in 1891, capable of 150 tons per day. Hammond became president on 2 July 1891, followed by Nathaniel H. Harris on 15 June 1893, when company headquarters were located in San Francisco. William Henry Crocker, of Crocker National Bank, served as treasurer, in addition to being the major stockholder. [1]
When the mining boom began in the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho mining district, the area was lightly inhabited. The Bunker Hill and the Sullivan companies built a boarding house for miners in 1887. [2] By 1894, the company employed 332 workers, and in the late 1890s, the company built single-family houses to attract family men. In 1900, the company opened a company-built Kellogg school building, contributed to the construction of local churches, and started a loan program so employees could own their homes. [1] : 23, 26, 35
Frederick Worthen Bradley, a college-educated engineer, became president in 1897 and remained so until 1933, when Stanley A. Easton took over. [1] : 13–14, 35
On 11 July 1892, violence erupted during a strike at two nearby mines, the Gem and the Frisco in Burke-Canyon, resulting in the deaths of 3 union members, a Pinkerton detective, and a nonunion worker. Protesting a 1 April 1892 wage cut, after a 1 Jan. 1892 lockout, the union men forced the closure of the Bunker Hill mine. Governor N.B. Willey declared martial law and the military moved in to restore order. The mine was operational again on 19 July 1892. [1] : 12–13
The office of the mining inspector during the period 1893 to 1909 was occupied by men who were closely identified with the industry. A cave-in on 23 Feb. 1894, at the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mine took the lives of three men, shortly after the first state mining inspector took office in 1893. A coroner's jury investigated the incident and issued a report which stated, in part, [3] [1] : 19
We earnestly and emphatically call upon Mine Inspector Haskins to visit these mines immediately and demonstrate that he is willing to enforce the law if there should be any infraction thereof, and that he wears not the collar of any individual or corporation... [4]
The Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mine manager commented upon annual inspections of the enormous mining complex, declaring that the visits were "rather a perfunctory affair" which accomplished little. He argued that an employer would never run an unsafe mine because economic considerations prevented it. [5]
Bradley also wrote Harris, "In working the mine we are sure to kill a certain percentage of our men." Between March 1893 and Feb. 1894, 15 fatalities occurred at the mine, yet the mine continued to operate under the fellow-servant rule doctrine. [1] : 19
A stronger inspection law was passed in 1909. [3]
Yet, between 1911 and 1912, there were 11 fatalities. Only with the passing of the Idaho State Workman's Compensation law, was indemnity determined for each injury or death, rather than settled by company benevolence. [1] : 56–59
In 1899 the Bunker Hill Mining Company had paid more than $600,000 in dividends, and was considered profitable. [6] Miners working in the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines were receiving fifty cents to a dollar less per day than other miners. [7] The Bunker Hill Mining Company operated the only mines in the district that were not unionized, and the only mines that paid less than union scale of $3.50 per day. [8] The Bunker Hill company employed Pinkerton labor spies to identify union members, who were immediately fired. [8]
The Western Federation of Miners launched an organizing drive at the Bunker Hill Mining Company. [1] : 39
After declaring that the company would rather "shut down and remain closed twenty years" than to recognize the union, Superintendent Albert Burch fired seventeen suspected union members. He demanded that all other union men collect their back pay and quit. [6]
On 29 April 1899, union miners hijacked a Northern Pacific train in Burke and drove it to Wardner, the site of a $250,000 mill of the Bunker Hill mine. The miners set off three thousand pounds of dynamite, destroying the mill. Two men were killed, [9] one of them a non-union miner, the other a union man accidentally shot by other union miners. [10] Fire also destroyed the company offices. [1] : 27–29
Governor Frank Steunenberg declared martial law, and federal troops took over on 4 May 1899. Over 700 men were arrested, and three People's Party commissioners and sheriff, were impeached and removed from office. A new and more efficient mill was in operation in 3 months, with a greater capacity. Additionally, miners were required to take an oath of non-union membership in order to get a permit to work. [1] : 30, 32
The eight-hour day had been a major issue for the Western Federation of Miners throughout the West. [11] In 1900, after the Western Federation of Miners had been crushed in Coeur d'Alene, the Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mine operated with a ten-hour shift, seven days a week. [12]
Years later Harry Orchard, who had assassinated former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg, claimed to have helped to light the dynamite charges at the Bunker Hill mill. [13] However, two Coeur d'Alene residents testified that Orchard was with them in Mullan, Idaho playing poker when the mill was dynamited in Wardner. [14]
Orchard also admitted to bombing Bradley's home on 7 Nov. 1904, which left Bradley blind and deaf for two months and scarred his face and body. [1] : 48
Idaho passed an 8-hour work day law in 1907, and in 1919, Bunker Hill agreed to the 8-hour day with the Mine, Mill and Smeltermen's Union No. 18, which included travel to and from their work site within the mine. [1] : 81–85
The Bunker Hill Co. employed a total of about 7000 people from 1902 to 1912, with about 460 men working the mine in 1915. In 1907 built a hospital, and a YMCA building that included a gymnasium, swimming pool and bowling alley. The company improved the water system in 1912, and constructed a sewer system in 1913. They then paid for a YMCA baseball diamond and playground in 1916. During WWI, the company offered rent-free housing for dependents of employees serving in the military. Between 1915 and 1923, the Bunker Hill Co. paid an average annual dividend of about $1.5 million, about 50% of the initial capitalized stock of $3.2 million. [1] : 41, 54–57, 75–76
The company built and operated its own lead smelter in Smelterville, Idaho, starting on 5 July 1917, but continued to use the ASARCO smelter in Tacoma until 1 February 1930. In 1920 the company gained a controlling interest in the Northwest Lead Co., which made lead plumbing supplies and white lead. The company then was able to mine, mill, smelt, refine, manufacture, and market lead. The company then constructed an electrolytic zinc plant after purchasing the Star Mine in Burke. Bunker Hill formed an equal partnership with Hecla Mining to develop the Star Ore and develop the zinc plant, calling the company the Sullivan Mining Company. The Star ore was accessed and mined from an almost 8000 foot tunnel from the lower workings of Hecla Mine. The tunnel was started in 1921, and the zinc plant was operational by October 1928, and used Dr. U.C. Tainton's process. The Tainton process used sulphuric acid to combine with the zinc, forming a sulphate solution, followed by electrolysis to remove the zinc. The product was called Bunker Hill 99.9 percent zinc. Tainton was paid a 10% royalty in return for Bunker Hill to have exclusive rights within the county. A cadmium recovery system was added to the zinc plant in 1929. In addition to the Star ore, Bunker Hill acquired zinc-lead-silver mines in the Pine Creek District, which they developed from an extension of the Kellogg tunnel. [1] : 72–73, 86–91, 102, 128 [15]
In 1924, while incorporating in the state of Delaware, the company set aside 300,00 shares of preferred stock for employees. Bunker Hill stock was listed on the New York Curb Exchange in 1926. By 1926, the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining Company was Idaho's largest employer. During the Great Depression, Bunker Hill kept production at pre-depression levels to keep its workers employed at the same wages, even if it meant an operating loss for the company. [1] : 88, 96–97, 99
During WWII, Bunker Hill added an antimony electrolytic plant, and because of the manpower shortage, employed about 200 women. In 1942, the miners were finally able to organize, voting to join the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers. After the war, the company built a boarding house capable of accommodating several hundred, 5 apartment houses, and 48 single family homes. By 1956, the company owned 107 houses, the land under another 188-220, and allowed employees to purchase them. In 1949, the company reached an agreement with the miner's union to provide dependent medical care in addition to a sickness and accident policy, with the company covering half the costs. [1] : 88, 124, 128, 132, 140
In the 1950s, the company bought out the Hecla Mining Co.'s interest in the Sullivan Mining Co., changed its name to the Bunker Hill Company, and moved its headquarters into the Bunker Hill Building at 660 Market Street (San Francisco). On 29 March 1955, John D. Bradley, Frederick's son, took over as company president. In 1956, the Bunker Hill Co. bought Northwest Lead Company and Associated Lead & Zinc, which became their chemical products division. After a 7-month strike, Northwest Metal Workers took over representation of the 1800 Bunker Hill workers in 1960, before becoming United Steelworkers of America Local No. 7854 in 1970. At that time, Bunker Hill employed about 2800 employees at its Kellogg complex. Corporate headquarters moved from San Francisco to Kellogg in 1962. On 26 July 1965, the company sold 1,590,000 shares in an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. That led Gulf Resources & Chemical Corp. to purchase Bunker Hill stock in a hostile takeover bid. On 28 May 1968, Bunker Hill stockholders agreed to the merger ending Bunker Hill's 81 years as an independent company as Bunker Hill was replaced by Gulf Resources Corp. on the exchange. Bunker Hill reported financial losses of $4.563 million in 1970, $3.85 million in 1971, and $9.037 million in 1973. The company then recorded profits of $25.953 million in 1974, $6.912 million in 1975, and $6.037 million in 1977, before recording another loss of $9.037 million in 1977. The Bunker Hill mine and smelter complex closed in 1982, due to lower metal prices, and lower EPA limits for lead. Over 2000 people were then left unemployed. [1] : 134, 137, 141, 151, 158, 160, 162, 164–166, 171, 180, 202, 208
Kellogg is a city in the Silver Valley of Shoshone County, Idaho, United States, in the Idaho Panhandle region. The city lies near the Coeur d'Alene National Forest and about 36 miles (58 km) east-southeast of Coeur d'Alene along Interstate 90. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 2,120, down by a third from its population in 1980.
Wardner is a city in Shoshone County, Idaho, United States. Located in the Silver Valley mining region, the population was 188 at the 2010 census, down from 215 in 2000.
The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was a labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into sharp conflicts – and often pitched battles – with both employers and governmental authorities. One of the most dramatic of these struggles occurred in the Cripple Creek district of Colorado in 1903–1904; the conflicts were thus dubbed the Colorado Labor Wars. The WFM also played a key role in the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905, but left that organization several years later.
Frank Steunenberg was the fourth governor of the State of Idaho, serving from 1897 until 1901. He was assassinated in 1905 by one-time union member Harry Orchard, who was also a paid informant for the Cripple Creek Mine Owners' Association. Orchard attempted to implicate leaders of the radical Western Federation of Miners in the assassination. The labor leaders were found not guilty in two trials, but Orchard spent the rest of his life in prison.
Asarco LLC is a mining, smelting, and refining company based in Tucson, Arizona, which mines and processes primarily copper. The company has been a subsidiary of Grupo México since 1999.
There were two related incidents between miners and mine owners in the Coeur d'Alene Mining District of North Idaho: the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor strike of 1892, and the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899. This article is a brief overview of both events.
The Coeur d'Alene River flows 37 miles (60 km) from the Silver Valley into Lake Coeur d'Alene in the U.S. state of Idaho. The stream continues out of Lake Coeur d'Alene as the Spokane River.
Frank Robert Gooding was a Republican United States Senator and the seventh governor of Idaho. The city of Gooding and Gooding County, both in southern Idaho, are named for him.
The Hercules Mine was one of the richest lead/silver mines in the Coeur d'Alene Mountains in Burke, Idaho. It was discovered by Harry L. Day, a bookkeeper and clerk, and Fred Harper, a local prospector. In 1923 the mine owners founded the Day Mines, Inc. company. Other investors in the mine include August Paulsen, Levi Hutton, and May Arkwright Hutton. It eventually became the primary mine of the Hecla Mining Corporation.
Edward "Ed" Boyce was president of the Western Federation of Miners, a radical American labor organizer, socialist and hard rock mine owner.
Burke is a ghost town in Shoshone County, Idaho, United States, established in 1887. Once a thriving silver, lead and zinc mining community, the town saw significant decline in the mid-twentieth century after the closure of several mines.
Silver Mountain Resort is a ski resort in the northwest United States, located in the Silver Valley region of northern Idaho, just south of Kellogg and Interstate 90 in Shoshone County. Originally opened as "Jackass Ski Bowl" in January 1968 on Wardner Peak, it was renamed "Silverhorn" in 1973 following an ownership change. With planned improvements, most notably the gondola from the city of Kellogg and expansion on Kellogg Peak, the name was changed to "Silver Mountain" in the summer of 1989.
The Silver Valley is a region in the northwest United States, in the Coeur d'Alene Mountains in northern Idaho. It is noted for its mining heritage, dating back to the 1880s.
Burke Canyon is the canyon of the Burke-Canyon Creek, which runs through the northernmost part of Shoshone County, Idaho, U.S., within the northeastern Silver Valley. A hotbed for mining in the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Burke Canyon now contains several ghost towns and remnants of former communities along Idaho State Highway 4, which runs northeast through the narrow canyon to the Montana border.
Hecla Mining is a gold, silver and other precious metals mining company based in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Founded in 1891, is the second-largest mining company that produces silver in the country. This area is known as the Silver Valley (Idaho). In 1983, this entire area was designated as a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency, because of land, water, and air contamination resulting from a century of mostly unregulated silver and gold mining.
Hard rock miners' organizations have included fraternal and union organization of miners or mine workers formed for the purpose of addressing issues such as wages, health and safety, funeral arrangements of members, or widow's benefits. Fraternal organizations have tended to focus on welfare and community; union organizations and federations have included economic issues and negotiations with employers.
The Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, labor riot of 1899 was the second of two major labor-management confrontations in the Coeur d'Alene mining district of northern Idaho in the 1890s. Like the first incident seven years earlier, the 1899 confrontation was an attempt by union miners, led by the Western Federation of Miners to unionize non-union mines, and have them pay the higher union wage scale. As with the 1892 strike, the 1899 incident culminated in a dynamite attack that destroyed a non-union mining facility, the burning of multiple homes and outbuildings and two murders, followed by military occupation of the district.
The 1892 Coeur d'Alene labor strike erupted in violence when labor union miners discovered they had been infiltrated by a Pinkerton agent who had routinely provided union information to the mine owners. The response to the labor violence, disastrous for the local miners' union, became the primary motivation for the formation of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) the following year. The incident marked the first violent confrontation between the workers of the mines and their owners. Labor unrest continued after the 1892 strike, and surfaced again in the labor confrontation of 1899.
The Bunker Hill Mine and Smelting Complex was a large smelter located in Kellogg, Idaho, in the Coeur d'Alene Basin. When built, it was the largest smelting facility in the world. It is located in what became known as the Silver Valley of the Coeur d'Alene Basin, an area for a century that was a center of extensive silver and other metal mining and processing. This resulted in extensive contamination of water, land and air, endangering residents including the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, which had traditionally depended on fish from the waterways as part of its subsistence.
Zinc mining in the United States produced 780,000 tonnes of zinc in 2019, making it the world's fourth-largest zinc producer, after China, Australia, and Peru. Most US zinc came from the Red Dog mine in Alaska. The industry employed about 2,500 in mining and milling, and 250 in smelting.
