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/director/editor, 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..