My Grandfather used to work here in the 1960's and 70's. During a visit to see my relatives in Kellogg we had the very generous invite from the mine owner Bob Hopper to go into the mine. He is a ex miner and when it closed he set about buying it bit by bit until he eventually owned all 6200 acres, internal height of the mine is around 1 mile.
It currently has around 20 workers, very little mining is done, the majority of their work is maintenance and restoring the machinery. The mining that is done is for Silver, at the time I was there they were trying to get a contract from the US mint, and they reckon they could get the mine up and running into full production within 60 days. The University of Idaho visit a couple of times a year as the mine is full of undisturbed forming crystals.
The photos are not the best, they were taking 8 years ago on a Kodak 2mp camera.
Little bit of mine history stolen from the net.
It happened in 1885. A gentleman by the name of Noah Kellogg, a gold prospector and carpenter, lived in the Town of Murray which is 20 miles northeast as the crow flies. Being a gold prospector down on his luck, he ran around the Town of Murray looking for someone to give him a grubstake. He finally ran into two business men, Mr. Peck and Mr. Cooper, who loaned him enough money to buy grub and they loaned him a jackass (burro) to carry the tools. He started down the great north fork of the Coeur d'Alene River, came onto a trail and headed south over the mountains. Coming out on the south fork of the Coeur d'Alene River, he crossed it and went further on south up Milo Gulch and ended up about 1,000 yards above the present City Hall of Wardner. There he made camp, ate and went to sleep, and during the night, the jackass wandered off. In the morning he got up looking around for the stupid animal and hearing him braying, spotted him way up high on the hillside. Where the animal was standing he saw the sunshine glittering on something which turned out to be a large outcropping of galena (lead ore). And that was the discovery of the great Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines on September 4, 1885
(Wardner is where they filmed Dante's Peak)
Looking back towards the site entrance.
Outside miners office, this was the waiting area for the miners about to go underground.
Same location looking towards the tunnel into the mine.
The tunnel entrance, the mine works start around a mile in.
Mine train, there were eight of us in that !
Random underground shot.
Material lift between floors, approx 100yrd lift. The machinery could lift a fully loaded skip of around 5 tons in around 15 seconds. Bob Hopper, the mines owner is stood alongside.
Unrestored mine winch gear.
Fully restored mine winch gear.
It currently has around 20 workers, very little mining is done, the majority of their work is maintenance and restoring the machinery. The mining that is done is for Silver, at the time I was there they were trying to get a contract from the US mint, and they reckon they could get the mine up and running into full production within 60 days. The University of Idaho visit a couple of times a year as the mine is full of undisturbed forming crystals.
The photos are not the best, they were taking 8 years ago on a Kodak 2mp camera.
Little bit of mine history stolen from the net.
It happened in 1885. A gentleman by the name of Noah Kellogg, a gold prospector and carpenter, lived in the Town of Murray which is 20 miles northeast as the crow flies. Being a gold prospector down on his luck, he ran around the Town of Murray looking for someone to give him a grubstake. He finally ran into two business men, Mr. Peck and Mr. Cooper, who loaned him enough money to buy grub and they loaned him a jackass (burro) to carry the tools. He started down the great north fork of the Coeur d'Alene River, came onto a trail and headed south over the mountains. Coming out on the south fork of the Coeur d'Alene River, he crossed it and went further on south up Milo Gulch and ended up about 1,000 yards above the present City Hall of Wardner. There he made camp, ate and went to sleep, and during the night, the jackass wandered off. In the morning he got up looking around for the stupid animal and hearing him braying, spotted him way up high on the hillside. Where the animal was standing he saw the sunshine glittering on something which turned out to be a large outcropping of galena (lead ore). And that was the discovery of the great Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines on September 4, 1885
(Wardner is where they filmed Dante's Peak)
Looking back towards the site entrance.
Outside miners office, this was the waiting area for the miners about to go underground.
Same location looking towards the tunnel into the mine.
The tunnel entrance, the mine works start around a mile in.
Mine train, there were eight of us in that !
Random underground shot.
Material lift between floors, approx 100yrd lift. The machinery could lift a fully loaded skip of around 5 tons in around 15 seconds. Bob Hopper, the mines owner is stood alongside.
Unrestored mine winch gear.
Fully restored mine winch gear.
