| In the mineral-rich regions of the American West, the history of hardrock mining usually began with a lone prospector, armed with a pick, shovel, and pan, and accompanied by a donkey or mule. From these prospectors' surface discoveries in the 1880s and 1890s, large mining companies quickly took the search for valuable minerals deep into the bowels of the earth itself. |
| Extracting valuable ore from the ground was an extremely complicated, competitive, lucrative, and hazardous business, requiring extraordinary cooperation between miners and the mining companies they worked for. After a century, however, hardrock mining in the United States now has run its course with the closures (at least temporarily) of most deep underground mines. |
| In the 1970s and 1980s, I "tramped" through many mines, particularly in North Idaho's fabulous Silver Valley. This book is meant as a tribute to the men and women who I knew in the mining industry, both past and present. I think it is only fitting that this story be told by the miners themselves. In many cases, these individuals are descendants of the early prospectors and miners of a hundred years ago. |
| I have done my best to try to avoid errors, and I apologize for any unintentional mistakes in the text that I might have made, or if I have misspelled anyone's name. I did my best. In some of the less flattering stories, I have changed the names of certain individuals. |
| I wish to thank the following people from the mining companies, government agencies, businesses, libraries, and museums who provided me with photographs, documents, printed materials, and other information. Their assistance was most welcome, and critically important, in the preparation of this book |
 | | | Chris Pfahl, Fred Owsley (ASARCO Inc., Wallace ID) |
| | | Bill Booth, Sonya Westfall, Linda Capp, April Robertson, Art Brown (Hecla Mining Co., Coeur d'Alene ID) |
| | | Harry Cougher, Susan Shiplett, John Ackerman, Tim Burns, Daryl Jerome, Gordon Burdick (Sunshine Precious Metals Inc., Kellogg ID) |
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