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You are here: Home / Mining / Mining History

Mining History

“Yet we are Idahoans
and we were miners then”
Phil Batt

Quartz mine and mill – famous de Lamar mine and mill. Idaho Owyhee County, 1898. [Boise, Idaho: W.E. Pierce & Co., real estate dealers] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2008676705/.

BOOKS

  • Battien, Pauline. The Gold Seekers. Fairfield, Washington: Ye Galleon Press, 1989.
  • Bolino, August C. The Role of Mining in the Economic Development of Idaho Territory. Moscow, Idaho: Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology, 1960.
  • Chapman, Ray. Uncle Bunker: Memories in Words and Pictures. Kellogg, Idaho: Chapman Pub. 1994.
  • Dolph, Jerry. Fire in the Hole: the Untold Story of the Hardrock Miners. Pullman, Washington: Washington State University Press, 1994.
  • Idaho Gold and Gems Maps, Then and Now. United States: R.N/M.L., Preston, 2000.
  • Goertzen, Dorine .Boise Basin Brocade. Boise, Idaho: Capitol Lithograph and Printing, 1960.
  • Grover, David H. Debaters and dynamiters: the story of the Haywood trial. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Press, 2006, 1964.
  • Goulder, William Armistead (W.A.). Reminiscences: incidents in the life of a pioneer in Oregon and Idaho. Boise, Idaho: Timothy Regan, 1909.
  • Hart, Patricia. Mining Town: The Photographic Record of T.N. Barnard and Nellie Stockbridge from the Coeur d’Alenes. Seattle, Washington; Boise, Idaho: University of Washington Press; Idaho State Historical Society, 1984.
  • Holbrook, Stewart H. The Rocky Mountain Revolution. New York, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1956.
  • Hyde, Gene. From Hell to Heaven: Death-Related Mining Accidents in North Idaho. Coeur d’Alene, Idaho: Museum of North Idaho, 2003.
  • Jarrett, Stanley M. Final report of major mine fire disaster, Sunshine Mine, Sunshine Mining Company, Kellogg, Shoshone County, Idaho, May 2, 1972. Alameda, California: United States Metal and Nonmetal Mine Health and Safety Western District. 1973.
  • Klockmann, A. K. The Klockmann Diary: the Quest for North Idaho’s Legendary Continental Mine. Sandpoint, Idaho: Keokee Co., 1990.
  • Koschmann, A. H.; and M.H. Bergendahl. Principal gold-producing districts of the United States. Geological Survey professional paper 610. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, 1968. https://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo80599.
  • Maley, Terry S. Field geology, illustrated. Boise, Idaho: Mineral Land Publications, 2005. 2nd ed.
  • McKay, Kathryn L. Hidden Treasure: Historical Overview of the Dixie Mining District. Idaho County, Idaho. Columbia Falls, Montana: Tracks of the Past, 1996.
  • McKay Norlen, Arthur. Death of a Proud Union: The 1960 Bunker Hill Strike. Cataldo, Idaho: Tamarack Publiching, 1992.
  • Minshall, G. Wayne. Wilderness Brothers: prospecting, horse packing, & homesteading on the Western Frontier: based on the diaries of Luman G. Caswell, 1895-1903. Inkom, Idaho: Streamside Scribe Press, 2012.
  • Mix, Michael C. Leaded : the poisoning of Idaho’s Silver Valley. Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University Press, 2016.
  • Olsen, Gregg. The Deep Dark: disaster and redemption in America’s richest silver mine. New York, New York: Crown Publishers, 2005.
  • Orchard, Harry. The Confessions and Autobiography of Harry Orchard. New York, New York: McClure, 1907.
  • Painter, Rex. Idaho’s Bonanza Years; Ghost Towns, Their History and How to Find Them. [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified], 1966.
  • Parkins, Mac. Ballads of Owyhee Mine Days: Impressions of Today and Yesterday. Homedale, Idaho, Owyhee Chronicle, 1964.
  • Parkins Povey, Dorothy. Ghost Mining Camps of Idaho: Their History and How to Find Them. Boise, Idaho: D. Povey, 1984.
  • Peterson, Duane L. 83 Miles of Hell: the Stibnite Ore Haul, 1942-1952. Cascade, Idaho: D & D Books, 1999.
  • Reinhart, Herman Francis; Doyce B. Nunis, Jr., editor; foreword by Nora B. Cunningham. The golden frontier: the recollections of Herman Francis Reinhart, 1851-1869. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1962.
  • Ross, Clyde Polhemus. Mining History of South-Central Idaho. Moscow, Idaho, 1963.
  • Snow, Bradley D. Living with Lead : an environmental history of Idaho’s Coeur d’Alenes, 1885-2011. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017.
  • Spence, Clark C. For Wood River or Bust: Idaho’s Silver Boom of the 1880’s. Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho Press. 1998.
  • Spence, Clark C. Mining engineers and the American West : the lace-boot brigade, 1849-1933. Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho Press, 1993.
  • Spence, Clark C. A history of gold dredging in Idaho. Boulder, Colorado: University Press of Colorado, 2016.
  • Wells, Merle W. Gold Camps and Silver Cities New ed. Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho Press, 2002.
  • Yarber, Esther. Land of the Yankee Fork. Salt Lake City, Utah: Publishers Press, 1972, 1963.
  • Zhu, Liping. A Chinaman’s Chance: The Chinese on the Rocky Mountain Mining Frontier. Niwot, Colorado: University Press of Colorado, 1997.
Historic American Engineering Record, Creator. Florida Mountain Mining Sites, Silver City, Owyhee County, ID. Idaho Owyhee County Silver City, 1968. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/id0389/.

WEB SITES, ONLINE DOCUMENTS, AND ARCHIVES

  • Idaho Mining Association
  • Idaho Museum of Mines and Geology
  • Idaho State Historical Society Reference Series
  • U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Idaho
  • Idaho Geological Survey
  • Labor Archives of Washington
  • Library of Congress Topics in Chronicling America
    • Labor History Sources. Manuscript Reading Room, Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/laborlc.html. Accessed September 21, 2018.
    •  The Coeur d’Alene Mining Insurrection. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/cour.html. Accessed September 21, 2018.
    • The Haywood Trial. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/haywood.html. Accessed September 21, 2018.
  • Western Federation of Miners and International Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Records on Microfilm. Collection Number: 5412 mf. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library. http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/KCL05412mf.html. Accessed September 21, 2018.
  • [stacks] Idaho’s Digital Repository – The Idaho Digital Repository was created by Idaho statute 33-2505. It provides the citizens of Idaho with access to government publications. Includes documents on mining history.
  • Mineral Resources of the United States (back to 1821), Archive.org
  • Annual report of the Director of the United States Geological Survey to the Secretary of the Interior (includes publications from 1880 to 1963), U.S. Geological Survey. HathiTrust.
  • Bureau of Mines Minerals Yearbook (1932-1993), U.S. Geological Survey
  • Commodity Statistics and Information (Nonfuel Minerals), U.S. Geological Survey
  • USGS Publications Warehouse, U.S. Geological Survey
  • USGS Publications and Data Products, U.S. Geological Survey
Placer mining, Twin Springs / photo by Horace C. Myers. Boise Idaho, ca. 1901. Boise, Idaho: Published by Faust’s Art Store, Brooklyn, N.Y.: The Albertype Co. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2008676703/.

NEWSPAPERS

  • The Mining Record
  • The Idaho Pamphlet File also contains clippings on mines and mining in Idaho. Folders are filed under Mining-History and also by specific mines or mining districts, e.g. Blackbird Mine or Atlanta Mining District.

VIDEOS

  • Idaho Public Television; writer/producer, Bruce Reichert; director/editor, Pat Metzler. Outdoor Idaho. Mining Idaho. Boise, Idaho: Idaho Public Television, 2008.
  • Idaho Public Television; writer/producer, Bruce Reichert; director, Pat Metzler; producers, John Crancer and Marcia Franklin. Outdoor Idaho. Silver Valley rising. Boise, Idaho: Idaho Public Television, 2005.
  • Idaho Public Television; Executive producer, Bruce Reichert; writer/producer/videographer/dir​e​c​t​o​r​/​e​d​i​t​o​r​, John Crancer; director/videographer/editor, Pat Metzler; videographers, Ricardo Ochoa, Alan Austin and Tom Hadzor. Outdoor Idaho. Gold rush days and ghost towns. Boise, Idaho: Idaho Public Television, 2002.

 

Jim Jatkevcius, Boise Public Library, 2003; Revised by Ronnie Joiner on January 6, 2021..

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