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Images of America: Idaho
The Silver Valley
The descent into Idaho from the Montana border down Lookout Pass on Interstate 90 largely follows the trail Capt. John Mullan blazed over 150 years ago. The Silver Valley is home to Shoshone County's seat, the historic silver-mining city of Wallace, which has been something of a phoenix rising out of the ashes of two great fires. Along with Wallace, the valley encompasses many other small mining towns, such as Mullan, Silverton, Osburn, Kellogg, Smelterville, Pinehurst, and Kingston, with diverse histories that are both humorous and heartbreaking. It also surrounds the Cataldo Mission, Idaho's oldest standing building, built by the Jesuits and the Coeur d'Alene tribe in 1848.
128 pages, Paperback
First published December 7, 2010
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February 11, 2026
The Silver Valley In Images of America
"Welcome to the Silver Valley. It's very name allures you with its promise of riches, of fortunes won and lost". So begins this photographic history of the Silver Valley, Idaho, in this 2010 book in the Images of America series of local American histories. The book tells the story of the Silver Valley, located in the Idaho panhandle in the north of Idaho on the Coeur d'Alene River. The area is surrounded by the Bitterroot Mountains. The region achieved most fame for its large sllver mines although other mineral were mined as well. Timber also was an important resource. Towns sprung up making the mining community including Wallace, the county seat of Shoshone County, Milan, Pinehurst, Kellog and others which get attention in this book.
The Historic Wallace Preservation Society wrote this book which has a feel of community and of the need to preserve the colorful history of the area. The Society began in the late 1960s to protect downtown Wallace from freeway development, and it has continued its efforts of preserving the history and culture of the valley.
The book discusses the towns and their histories from the late 1880s to the present. The towns are interthreaded with the mines, with railroads, and with nature. Wallace, for example, endured two large fires in 1890 and in 1910, the "Great Fire". With logging came mudslides and floods when the timber covering of the mountains was stripped away. Mining brought prosperity to the area but also a large degree of labor unrest. There were also mining disasters, including a disaster in 1972 resulting in the death of 91 miners, As a rough-and-tumble mining community, the Silver Valley became notorious for prostitution which flourished, mostly legally, from the 1880s to the late 1980s.
Another book, "Selling Sex in the Silver Valley: A Business Doing Pleasure" (2017) describes sex work in the Silver Valley in detail.
"The Silver Valley" captures the mountains, rivers, and towns of the Silver Valley and its people. It consists of ten chapters discussing early history, hospitals, schools, churches, and government buildings, the ubiqitous bars and furnished rooms, railroads, valley life, and famous people and events in the Valley, including a visit by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 and a later scandalous crime, "the St.Valentine's Day shoot-out", of passion and murder. The book's final two chapters focus on work in the mines, its hazards and rewards.
The picture that emerges is of a resilient community that takes pride in its history and in its people and that looks forward to the future. The Silver Valley is not an area I have visited, but I was grateful for the opportunity to learn about it. The book shows a unique place and reminded me again of the breadth and precious nature of the American experience.
Robin Friedman
"Welcome to the Silver Valley. It's very name allures you with its promise of riches, of fortunes won and lost". So begins this photographic history of the Silver Valley, Idaho, in this 2010 book in the Images of America series of local American histories. The book tells the story of the Silver Valley, located in the Idaho panhandle in the north of Idaho on the Coeur d'Alene River. The area is surrounded by the Bitterroot Mountains. The region achieved most fame for its large sllver mines although other mineral were mined as well. Timber also was an important resource. Towns sprung up making the mining community including Wallace, the county seat of Shoshone County, Milan, Pinehurst, Kellog and others which get attention in this book.
The Historic Wallace Preservation Society wrote this book which has a feel of community and of the need to preserve the colorful history of the area. The Society began in the late 1960s to protect downtown Wallace from freeway development, and it has continued its efforts of preserving the history and culture of the valley.
The book discusses the towns and their histories from the late 1880s to the present. The towns are interthreaded with the mines, with railroads, and with nature. Wallace, for example, endured two large fires in 1890 and in 1910, the "Great Fire". With logging came mudslides and floods when the timber covering of the mountains was stripped away. Mining brought prosperity to the area but also a large degree of labor unrest. There were also mining disasters, including a disaster in 1972 resulting in the death of 91 miners, As a rough-and-tumble mining community, the Silver Valley became notorious for prostitution which flourished, mostly legally, from the 1880s to the late 1980s.
Another book, "Selling Sex in the Silver Valley: A Business Doing Pleasure" (2017) describes sex work in the Silver Valley in detail.
"The Silver Valley" captures the mountains, rivers, and towns of the Silver Valley and its people. It consists of ten chapters discussing early history, hospitals, schools, churches, and government buildings, the ubiqitous bars and furnished rooms, railroads, valley life, and famous people and events in the Valley, including a visit by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 and a later scandalous crime, "the St.Valentine's Day shoot-out", of passion and murder. The book's final two chapters focus on work in the mines, its hazards and rewards.
The picture that emerges is of a resilient community that takes pride in its history and in its people and that looks forward to the future. The Silver Valley is not an area I have visited, but I was grateful for the opportunity to learn about it. The book shows a unique place and reminded me again of the breadth and precious nature of the American experience.
Robin Friedman
Displaying 1 of 1 review