RETURN TO THE BURKE PHOTO
Burke, Idaho is now a ghost town. It was a started about 1888 to mine silver, zinc, and lead at the Star and Hercules mines. The last mine closed in 1991.
Burke canyon is so narrow that the canyon walls are shored up with heavy timbers in many places so that buidlings could be constructed on the steep sides. This postcard from about 1950 shows that the main street was so narrow that cars had to stop to wait for trains to pass.
Just down the canyon from Burke you can see the remains of the Frisco mill, which was dynamited in a labor war in 1892. The US Army was called in to stop the violence.
Recently, Hecla Mining has invested in the rehabilitation of the Star mine in hopes of reopening it.