Wallace (pages 216–223) shows little evidence of its mining past, except in museums and a mine tour. To get a better feel for that history, go up Canyon Creek to Burke.
Burke was one of several satellite towns of Wallace. Extensive lead and silver discoveries in 1884 led to the settling of a community so narrow that the town barely had room for streets. When the railroad arrived in 1888, things got even tighter: S. S. Glidden’s Tiger Hotel had to be built over, rather than beside, Canyon Creek, with railroad tracks and the narrow main street running through the lobby. A later photograph (on display in the Wallace depot museum) shows a standard gauge steam locomotive competing with an automobile on the town’s combination street and railroad right-of-way.
DRIVING TO AND AROUND BURKE, IDAHO
The same brochure (page 219) that guided you around Wallace also details the short trip from Wallace to Burke as you pass through the mostly vanished communities of Gem, Blackbear, Yellowdog, Cornwall, and Mace.
When you enter Burke today, you will pass several former company houses on your left. Up the road a bit, on your right, is the Hecla Mine’s enormous concrete ore bin. This structure really gives a feel for the immensity of the Burke operations. Trains ran through the doors at the base of this behemoth, which looks about six stories tall, and the bins dropped ore into the empty cars. The ore was taken for processing at a mill down the canyon, followed by a trip to Smelterville, west of Wallace.
Next to the ore bin is the 1924 brick headquarters of the Hecla Mining Company. Behind it is the large brick Montana Power substation. Across the street stand several one-story, brick commercial buildings. Up the road .3 of a mile is a two-story brick building that served as the Hercules Mine’s headquarters.
WHEN YOU GO
Burke is 7 miles north of Wallace on Idaho Highway 4, which is the last road on the east end of Wallace before entering the onramp to the interstate heading east.