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. [1]
Silver Valley is a narrow valley about 40 miles (64 km) in length, east of the city of Coeur d'Alene. The South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River flows through the valley and Interstate 90 traverses the valley between Fourth of July Pass to the west and Lookout Pass on the Montana border.
Several towns are located in the valley, all in Shoshone County. These include (from west to east) Pinehurst, Smelterville, Kellogg, Wardner, Osburn, Silverton, Wallace, and Mullan. The Silver Valley has also been referred to as the Coeur d'Alene Valley and the Coeur d'Alene Mining District.
The Coeur d'Alene (Silver Valley) Mining District is located in Proterozoic metasediments. The mined portion of the stratigraphic column in the Silver Valley, known as the Belt series, can be divided into six main formations, three of which have upper and lower parts. These are, from oldest to youngest: the Prichard Formation (lower and upper), Burke Formation, Revett Formation, St. Regis Formation (lower and upper), Wallace Formation (lower and upper), and Striped Peak Formation. Of these, all but the Striped Peak are ore-bearing. [2] All six of these formations are primarily composed of quartzite and argillite. Some limestone and dolomite also occur in the Wallace and Prichard, and a smaller amount of carbonate occurs in the St. Regis. Ripple marks and mud cracks occur throughout the series. Together, these imply a shallow marine depositional environment. [3]
The mining district occurs along the intersection of two major regional structural features. A large anticline extends through the district, running in a north-northwesterly direction. [3] The Lewis and Clark line – a series of strike-slip faults running across the Pacific Northwest – crosses this anticline, generally trending in an east-west direction. Within this mining district, the major structure of the lineament is the Osburn fault, which runs directly through the district’s most successful silver belts. Its 16-mile (27 km) displacement divides the district into two distinct parts, the southern Page Galena Belt, and the northern Golconda Lucky Friday Belt. [4]
Three main minerals make up most of the ore production in the Silver Valley. Galena (Pb S or lead(II) sulfide) is the most important ore mineral found in the Coeur d’Alene District veins. Galena is present in veins throughout the district. Sphalerite ((Zn,Fe)S ) is the second most important ore mineral, present in at least small amounts in most veins. The sphalerite is an important source of zinc throughout the ore belts. The third most abundant ore mineral is tetrahedrite ( Cu,Fe)12 Sb 4 S 13. However, the tetrahedrite is responsible for the majority of the silver produced by the Silver Valley, as it is the tetrahedrite interspersed in the galena of the district that makes it so argentiferous. [4]
A party of twelve miners led by Elias Davidson Pierce found gold in Orofino Creek, a tributary of the Clearwater River, in 1860. [5] The ensuing gold rush continued through 1875 before slowing. Among the prospectors who came north seeking gold in the Coeur d'Alene Mountains was Andrew J. Prichard, who found gold in the alluvial sands of a creek near present-day Murray, Idaho in 1883. [6] Later in the year, prospectors entered present day Burke Canyon seeking placer gold along Canyon Creek.
Miners and prospectors came to the region after gold and silver deposits were found in the Coeur d'Alene Mountains and the Northern Pacific Railroad came to the region in 1883. [7] In the 1890s, two significant miners' uprisings took place in the Coeur d'Alene Mining District, where the workers struggled with high risk and low pay. In 1892, the union's discovery of a labor spy in their midst, in the person of Charlie Siringo, a sometime cowboy and Pinkerton agent, resulted in a labor strike that developed into a shooting war between miners and the company in Burke Canyon. When the mine owners planned to reduce wages of some workers to offset increased operating costs, the miners declared a strike against the reduction of wages and the increase in work hours and demanded a "living wage" [8] be paid to every man working underground – the common laborer as well as the skilled in a stand for industrial unionism. [9] To restore order to the state of rebellion in Shoshone County, Governor N. B. Willey declared martial law and sent federal troops to arrest and detain the union miners, but not before dozens of casualties including six deaths and the destruction of the Frisco Mill. [9] A similar labor confrontation in 1899 took place after the union was launching an organizing drive of the few mines not yet fully unionized, [10] where miners working in the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines were receiving fifty cents to a dollar less per day than other miners. [11] With no success in the effort, on April 29, 250 union members seized a train in Burke at gunpoint, according to the engineer, Levi "Al" Hutton. [12] At each stop through Burke Canyon, more miners climbed aboard what was dubbed the "Dynamite Express" toward the site of the $250,000 Bunker Hill mine near Wardner; the miners then carried 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg) of dynamite into the mill and completely destroyed it. [13] The crowd also burned down the company office, the boarding house, and the home of the mine manager. Like in the 1892 strike, martial law was declared by Governor Frank Steunenberg and wholesale arrests and mass incarcerations were done to bring back order. [9]
By 1903, Burke Canyon was the most developed mining region in the Coeur d'Alene Mountains and was home to seven dividend-paying mines: the Gem of the Mountains, Frisco, Mammoth, Standard, Hecla, Tiger-Poorman and Hercules mines. [6] Other mines soon began production throughout the Coeur d'Alene mining district, including the Bunker Hill Mine (1886), Star-Morning Mine (1887), Sunshine Mine (1890), Galena Mine (1922) and Lucky Friday Mine (1942).
A devastating wildfire swept through the area in August 1910 as lightning- and human-caused fires, fanned by strong winds and dry conditions, consumed three million acres and damaged or destroyed Wallace, Kellogg, Osburn, Burke and Murray. [14] During the fire, Ed Pulaski, a U.S. Forest Service ranger led a crew of forty-five men into an abandoned prospect mine near Wallace, saving thirty-nine lives.
After WWII the district included 34 concentrating mills and 24 mines. The largest operations included Bunker Hill, Sunshine, Day, Federal and Hecla. [15]
Although miners were originally lured to the general area by the promise of gold, the primary metals mined in the valley were silver, zinc, and lead. The total quantities produced are impressive: over a billion ounces of silver, 3 million tons of zinc, and 8 million tons of lead totalling over $6 billion in value, ranking the valley among the top ten mining districts in world history. [16] During the 1970s, nearly half of the nation's silver production came from the Silver Valley. After nearly a century of vigorous mining and smelting activity, operations were severely curtailed in the early 1980s, resulting in massive unemployment and a significant loss of population. In addition to the economic difficulties, the valley has been saddled with significant environmental challenges. [1] [17]
A disaster at the Sunshine Mine on the day shift on the morning of May 2, 1972 resulted in the carbon monoxide poisoning deaths of 91 men. The mine was closed for seven months after the fire, one of the worst mining disasters in American history, and the worst disaster in Idaho history.
While some mining operations remain, the Silver Valley has focused its future upon recreational tourism and light manufacturing. The nearest major population center is the city of Spokane, Washington, which is 70 miles (110 km) west along I-90. The growing recreational city of Coeur d'Alene is halfway in between. The extensive restoration efforts can be seen in the return of the tundra swans. Restoration means returning an area to its healthy natural habitat. [18]
The Idaho Geological Survey lists several active and inactive mines in the Silver Valley: [19]
There are two alpine ski areas in the Silver Valley, both easily accessible from I-90. Lookout Pass is at the east end of the valley on the Montana border adjacent to the freeway. Silver Mountain is thirty miles west, accessed from the Kellogg city limits by the world's longest single-stage passenger gondola, a quarter mile (400 m) from the highway.
Bicycling is fast becoming a key recreational pursuit for both locals and tourists in the Silver Valley, with trails and paths ranging from easy to extreme. In addition to the challenging lift-served mountain-bike trails at Silver Mountain, there are two new major bike paths in the vicinity that use old railroad grades. [20]
Lookout Pass ski area is also a primary staging area for the unique Route of The Hiawatha rail-trail, which begins in Montana and runs downhill through tunnels and over trestles to the North Fork of the St. Joe River, 15 miles (24 km) away. The trail is named for the Olympian Hiawatha passenger trains of the Milwaukee Road railroad, on whose abandoned tracks, trestles, and tunnels the gravel trail rests. One of the tunnels (Taft) is over 1.6 miles (2.6 km) in length. When completed, the Route of The Hiawatha will stretch from St. Regis, Montana to the very remote Pearson, Idaho, several miles north of Avery, (equidistantly south of Mullan).
The other trail is the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes , completed in 2004. The paved bike path runs more than 72 miles (115 km), starting from Mullan in the east. It follows the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River down through the Silver Valley to the south end of Lake Coeur d'Alene, passing over a historic bridge, then up to Plummer in northwest Benewah County. The bike trail uses old right-of-way from the Union Pacific railroad.
Coeur d'Alene is a city and the county seat of Kootenai County, Idaho, United States. It is the largest city in North Idaho and the principal city of the Coeur d'Alene Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 54,628 at the 2020 census. Coeur d'Alene is a satellite city of Spokane, which is located about thirty miles (50 km) to the west in the state of Washington. The two cities are the key components of the Spokane–Coeur d'Alene Combined Statistical Area, of which Coeur d'Alene is the third-largest city. The city is situated on the north shore of the 25-mile (40 km) long Lake Coeur d'Alene and to the west of the Coeur d'Alene Mountains. Locally, Coeur d'Alene is known as the "Lake City," or simply called by its initials, "CDA."
Mullan is a city in the northwest United States, located in the Silver Valley mining district of northern Idaho. The population was 646 at the 2020 census and 692 at the 2010 census, and 840 in 2000.
Wallace, Idaho is a city in and the county seat of Shoshone County, Idaho, in the Silver Valley mining district of the Idaho Panhandle. Founded in 1884, Wallace sits alongside the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River. The town's population was 784 at the 2010 census.
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.
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.
U.S. Silver & Gold Inc. was a mining company based in Wallace, Idaho near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The chairman of the company was Bobby E. Cooper, the CEO was Tom Parker.
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 Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes is a rail trail in the northwest United States, in northern Idaho. It follows the former Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way from Mullan, a mountain mining town near the Montana border, westward to Plummer, a town on the prairie near the Washington border. Generally following the Coeur d'Alene River, the rail line was abandoned in 1991, and the trail officially opened in March 2004.
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.
Silver mining in the United States began on a major scale with the discovery of the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1858. The industry suffered greatly from the demonetization of silver in 1873 by the Coinage Act of 1873, known pejoratively as the "Crime of 73", but silver mining continues today.
Interstate 90 (I-90) is a transcontinental Interstate Highway that runs east–west across the northern United States. Within the state of Idaho, the freeway travels for 74 miles (119 km) from the Washington border near Spokane to Coeur d'Alene and the panhandle region at the north end of the state. After traveling through the Silver Valley along the Coeur d'Alene River in the Bitterroot Range, I-90 crosses into Montana at Lookout Pass.
The Sunshine Mine is located between the cities of Kellogg and Wallace in northern Idaho. It has been one of the world's largest and most profitable silver mines, having produced over 360 million ounces of silver by 2001.
Hecla Mining is a gold, silver, and other precious metals mining company based in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Founded in 1891, it 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.
The Bunker Hill Mining Company is a mining company with facilities in Kellogg and Wardner, Idaho.
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.
The Lucky Friday mine is an underground silver, lead, and zinc mine in the western United States, near Mullan, Idaho. Operated by Hecla Mining company, it is one of the few mines remaining operational in the Silver Valley of northern Idaho, producing 1000 tons of ore per day. The ore deposit type is Polymetallic veins of hydrothermal origin. The mining method used is underhand cut and fill mining.
John Aylard Finch was an affluent English immigrant, businessman and philanthropist in the Inland Northwest region of the United States.