Show mine 10 ne finding fa nde ng I 1 in n coeur calenes dA lenes lucky discovery of hercules BY FRED dan mcconnell of wallace idaho was a recent guest of the hotel portland the coeur dalene district of which wallace is one of the principal cities for many years has been one of the leading lead producing districts of the united states it was first settled by the missionaries of the jesuit order who established a mission in the st joe oe river valley in 1842 they moved their mission to its present site on the coeur dalene river in 1846 the mining alining review is advised that the old mission on the coeur dalene river was abandoned years ago it is now at de smet the old building is still in place the whole structure was built without a single nail being used until 1854 father joset josef with several brothers and coeur dalene indians were id the district only inhabitants of the coeur dalene in 1854 lieutenant john mullan came into that country to explore a route for a wagon road to connect fort benton and fort walla alla walla the road was begun in 1855 and nd compelled compel ted in 1861 gold the first lodestone one of the first prospectors in the district was th thomas omas irwin who located a quartz claim on elk creek not far from the mullan road in 1878 the following year A J pritchard with his party discovered inch ieh ore on pritchard creek in the winter of 1882 3 patrick flynn and mr gillett found placer gold in this district which caused aused a stampede of miners in the spring of f 1884 t in III those days the district was considered valuable only as a gold placer district but he presence of the lead silver ore on the uth fork was known I 1 in that same me year 1884 colonel N B wallace allace put up a cabin and store at placer entert enter later renamed wallace for this plo pio eer er storekeeper bf W 13 keyburn heyburn began work in the same at i ea ar in polaris gulch it was also this sea on n that a 0 john carton and alameda seymour gli t I 1 bated the tiger claim on canyon creek r bunker hill discovered in 1886 those days the only means of com of anu un leatiOn j sou 1011 and ana transportation dartanion Dar tation with the auth pork district was by means of what ea 4 vas as called the evolution trail in 1885 the I 1 eash iti population of shoshone ne county was ret re 9 than n 15 1500 00 and murray rray was made its erm erin V 1 anent county seat it was in this same ear ar that iti phil N S kellogg and ake goetz r oetz discovered the famous dunker bunker ill in 11 portland journal hill mine on the south fork the next spring saw a big rush of miners to the district who had heard of the richness of the tiger granite poorman morning and other mines A state road was put in to connect the south fork district with the outside world and ore from the bunker hill mine and the sullivan mine was freighted out by wagon to mission on coeur dalene lake from which place it was taken by boat to the outlet of the lake and shipped to helena mont company is formed the following year 1887 a narrow gauge railroad called the coeur dalene railroad navigation company railroad was built from mission to wardner junction near alie th e mouth of milo creek in april 1887 both the bunker hill mine and the sullivan mines were sold to S G reed of portland who formed a company called the bunker hill and sullivan mining and concentrating cent rating company martin winch also of portland was made superintendent of mr reeds mining interests in the coeur calenes dA lenes mr reed disposed of his interest in these mines because of failing health within a few years they had paid many times more in dividends than the price he had received for them and they have been producing millions of dollars in profits for the owners ever since that that year saw heavy production of lead and silver ore not only in the tiger and the bunker hill and sullivan mines but also in the Stem winder the last chance the poorman the granite and the sierra nevada metal production climbs in 1890 both the northern pacific and the 0 R N built their lines into the district when wages were reduced in 1892 from a day the miners in the entire district went on strike nonunion non union men were attacked by the miners and troops were called into the district in 1901 the hercules was discovered and two years later the snowstorm came in with rich copper ore in 1884 the entire mineral values mined in the coeur dalene district consisted of valued at in ounces of gold 1886 pounds of lead was mined and ounces of silver twenty years after the first lead had been mined in the district and this was in 1906 more than two billion pounds of I 1 lead ead total value of had been shipped with a while ounces of silver had been mined with a total value of the past fifteen years has seen tremendous production in this district |