After spending two days in an old rat-invested warehouse counting pipe fittings, bearings, old electrical motor components, rock bolts, dywidags, and light bulbs, our Denver contingent was given a tour of a newer portion of the historic - and infamous - facility. I didn't know before going, but learned via the mine's
Wikipedia page that the mine was the site of a terrible 1972 fire underground that took the lives of 91 miners during the mine's peak years.
Despite the tragedy, the mine and the men and women who work there have a level of character unmatched in most of this country.
After the tour, I picked up a "kindle copy" of "
The Deep Dark: Disaster and Redemption in America's Richest Silver Mine" - a great book by Gregg Olsen, that I definitely recommend to anyone with an interest in mining and cultural time capsules like the Silver Valley east of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
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