The Northern Pacific Railroad Depot stands as an elegant reminder of two stories. The first is the age of the railroads and their impact on the Silver Valley of Idaho. The second story is about historic preservation and how concerned citizens worked to save this structure from demolition.

1883 brought the Northern Pacific railway to northern Idaho and transformed it from a dense forest to a populated developing region. With the building of the railroad through the Silver Valley population grew with its inhabitants and created an economic thriving community. The Northern Pacific Railroad brought population to principle areas of northern Idaho's mining and lumber mill towns. According to the 1940 census 10,548 combined residents resided in Coeur d'Alene , Moscow, Sandpoint and Wallace recorded 3,839 residents . These four towns were the only towns in the Northern Idaho region that had a population exceeding 2,500 people. The Northern Pacific Railroad was the first railway to enter through the Silver Valley, and connected the Silver Valley with coastal seaports. Northern Idaho's history of the railroad was threatened with the development of the I-90 highway that runs from Boston to Seattle. Idaho's department of Transportation had decided that downtown Wallace stood right in the path of the "Progress" I-90 highway developmental path.

Wallace had little effect on the outside world, but was the home of the Northern Pacific Railroad Depot built in 1902. The railroad depot was responsible for daily passenger comings and goings in the height of the silver boom as well as the loading and transport of freight in Idaho's economic boom. It also happened to sit directly in Wallace's historical district, with the railroad being such an important part of Idaho's economic success this depot was a sacred relic. Thanks to local heroes Nancy Lee Hanson and mining tycoon Harry F. Magnuson they were able to preserve Wallace and its railroad past. Hanson and Magnuson were able to add it to the list of historical places under the U.S. Park service. In the latter years of the 1960's the Northern Pacific Railroad was saved and out of harm's way until the compromise of 1986. Which sent the I-90 highway around Wallace by a few hundred yards; however it forced the city to move the depot in order to preserve it. The Northern Pacific Railroad Depot was moved 200 feet across the south fork of the Coeur d'Alene River to make room for two massive highway columns. Today the Depot is a museum in Wallace where tourist can visit seasonally and remains one of the most important relicts of Northern Idaho's Railroad past. Northern Idaho's history of the railroad remains a key aspect to their success in the era of mining and thanks to a town motivated in preserving their historical identity it still stands today. Once a relic of Wallace, Idaho and, the old historical district is now a fashionable place of interest for northwest road trippers.

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Not all the wealth of Wallace came from the mines. Some came from bedrooms of the working women of the brothels like the Oasis or the Bi-Metallic. As the miners extracted the ore from the ground, the second wave of workers arrived to mine the wages of the miners and provide an escape from the dark underworld in which they worked. The majority of the men who came to the mines were young, single, and hoping to become rich. The women who came to work above ground were had the same aspirations.

Western prostitutes were not necessarily victims. According to historian Paula Petrik, who refers to some Montana prostitutes as "capitalists with rooms," there were two types of houses in which women worked. Large cities had Parlor Houses where young attractive girls were employed. They were elegant and catered to a higher class of men. Out west women worked in the Volume Houses, where women were hired mostly for short periods of time by the Madams who ran them. Volume House gave the women more freedom and were more closely connected to the community than their larger city counterparts. This close connection to the community and the scarcity of marriageable women, meant that for many women prostitution was short-term and often led to marriage and a new, more respectable line of work.

Brothels in the Silver Valley started as far back as 1876. Maggie Hall, also known as Molly B'damn, was an Irish immigrant, who came to the Silver Valley and opened a brothel in Murray in 1884. Though well educated, the only work she could find was as a barmaid, and her first husband forced her into prostitution. In the Silver Valley Hall was known for her generosity and good deeds, including nursing the sick during the smallpox epidemic of 1886. Hall died from tuberculosis in 1888, and the whole town mourned her passing. Even today the town of Murray has Molly B'Damn Gold Rush Days days every summer.

By the late 1970's prostitution was reaching the end of the line in the Silver Valley. Mine closings, corruption charges and bribery allegations closed many of the brothels. By 1988 only one brothel remained open, the Oasis Room. On June 23 1988, 150 F.B.I agents descended on Wallace raiding businesses over illegal gambling machines. The eight ladies working at the Oasis were tipped off and fled before the agents arrived leaving everything behind including the shopping they had just brought in. That marked the end of prostitution in the Silver Valley. Today the Oasis is a museum and you can see it just as it was the day the women left--a snapshot of what brothels were like in this small mining town.

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Today a small, quiet settlement of 690 people, Mullan, Idaho was once a bustling mining town. Located just four miles west of the Montana border, Mullan was established in 1884. The town was named after United States Army Captain John Mullan, who was sent to build a military road from Fort Benton, Montana to Walla Walla, Washington in 1850. The highest elevation of the road is seven miles outside of Mullan, at 5,168 ft.

Four men initially staked claims in the area that became Mullan. Joseph Hunter, Frank Moore, George Goode, and C.C. Earle spent the winter of 1884 there looking for gold. Gold Hunter Mine and Morning Mine broke ground and the town of Mullan bustled to life in between the two. It quickly became a welcome stop for pioneers heading west. The Northern Pacific railroad arrived in 1889. At its peak in 1940 2,300 people, mostly miners and their families, called Mullan their home.

Mullan was the scene of considerable labor disputes. In fact in 1889 deputies, working at the behest of mine owners, arrested every single man in Mullan, putting them in a barbed wire bullpen in Kellogg until detectives could determine which were union organizers. During Prohibition Mullan was an important center for bootlegging, along the "Old Moonshine Trail" that brought Canadian whisky to thirsty Idahoans.

The mines began to close in the 1950s, and the population has steadily shrunk since that time. Today Mullan has one remaining mine, the Lucky Friday. Tourists often visit the town to take advantage of abundant recreational opportunities and to see the sites of Mullan's romantic past.

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North of I-90, just off of exit 28 is a short interpretive trail dedicated to the memory of Captain John Mullan and special 4th of July celebration.

While excavating a military road in the Washington Territory wilderness, Captain John Mullan and his troops stopped on July 4th, 1861 to celebrate Independence Day. An American flag was raised to commemorate this event, and Mullan carved the date and the initials for Military Road, M. R. into an unassuming white pine tree on the trail. This was the first celebration of the holiday in the region.

The Mullan Tree has not always been respected for its role in history. Tourists carved their initials into the tree, and others chipped away pieces of bark for souvenirs. Eventually, a wrought-iron fence was erected to protect the noble pine. The tree stood for 101 years until a wind storm severely damaged it. Preservationists decided that the remains of the tree should be moved to the Museum of North Idaho in Coeur d'Alene in 1962. ​Today, all that may be seen at the Mullan Tree Historical Site is a memorial plaque placed where the proud tree once stood, and a short section of the original Mullan Road.

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The modern surveillance state casts a long shadow back to the center of silver extraction: the Coeur d’Alene Mining District in northern Idaho during the late nineteenth century. In 1892 Charles Siringo, a Pinkerton agent, ran for his life from the Gem Mine through the mountains at Burke Canyon, during a heated labor dispute.

Pinkerton National Detective Agency routinely attempted to crush labor activity in many of the mines in the Coeur d'Alenes. In an act of deception, Charles Siringo, under the alias C. Leon Allison, infiltrated the Gem Miners Union and became union secretary reporting all labor activity to the Mine Owners Protective Association (MOA), a group of mine bosses. Once Siringo was identified, a backlash of industrial violence swept through the canyons of the Coeur d'Alene Mining District and ultimately led to martial Law.

Miners at the Gem mine worked for $3.50 a shift for millionaire bosses in one of the most dangerous extractive industries, hard rock mining. Unions were set up at many of the mines operating in the Coeur d'Alene's in an effort to secure higher wages and shorter working days. Union activity, though, remained under the watchful eye of Pinkerton and groups like the MOA. In 1883 the Western Federation of Miners (WMF) was established in an effort to combine the fractured union organizations and to promote unified tactics within the unionization movement. In acts of repeated deception, Pinkerton agents turned in and intimidated the more radical union organizers.

Siringo escaped that day in Burke Canyon. He went on in a successful and colorful career of union-busting, chasing outlaws, and writing a series of popular books about his exploits. Violence between mine owners and the men who worked the mines continued in the Silver Valley, with major outbreaks in 1892 and 1899, and the assassination of Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg in 1905, allegedly by Western Federation of Miners member Harry Orchard.

The events at the Gem Mine in 1892 were a microcosm of American labor history at the turn-of-the-century, an era that was often punctuated by similar labor violence.

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If you had visited this bar in the late 19th century, you'd have encountered dance hall girls, gamblers, and famous lawman Wyatt Earp. Welcome to one of the oldest bars in the Silver Valley, The Snake Pit, in Kingston, Idaho.

The wooden sign out front cites the establishment of the bar at 1880, though the place might have opened in 1879. A common drinking hole for working men and women and a place for train travelers to get their heads straight after a long ride, The Snake Pit holds a central place in the history of the Silver Valley.

Not only was the bar a popular watering hole, it was also famous for its food, gambling, and the ladies upstairs who offered additional entertainments. The women who worked in the upstairs brothel were locals from the surrounding mining towns. The Snake Pit embodied all the cultural taboos of gambling, vice, and women, but the bar hasn't dried up, and the food has satisfied the voracious hunger of many kind folks over the years. As the cold war boomed in the 1950s, Rocky Mountain Oysters became a favorite choice for those daring enough to ingest a vital element of the mountain west's famous culinary tradition. Dreams of cowboys on the western frontier could be entertained with the soft power of succulent vittles.

The interior of the bar is filled with memorabilia and paintings that seem to tell their own stories about northern Idaho and the larger history of the mountain west. Locals were encouraged to bring in their own items if they wanted to put them on display. Newspaper clippings remind us of the terror of World War II, and a picture of Teddy Roosevelt harkens to the rough and tough frontier cowboy dream. The stone fireplace was built in the 1960s. Bar locals were asked to bring in their own "pet rocks" for the construction. While Wyatt Earp's stool remains barren, make sure to enjoy this historic landmark, and tip one back in remembrance of the departed prospectors and miners of early Idaho.

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My name is James Fredrick Wardner but my friends call me Jim. Despite the lack of notoriety for my accomplishments, I contributed a great deal to the mining success in the Silver Valley. Because of my wit and initiative, the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines boomed. Though I did not discover their locations, it was I that made sure the two mines became prosperous.

I was born in May, 1846 in the great state of Wisconsin. When I was eight I noticed that rabbits multiplied quickly, so I started trading them and never looked back. I got away from fur trading and when I was 37 and headed out towards Murray and Eagle, the two camps in northern Idaho. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about over the findings of gold in the Coeur d' Alene region.

After a few years of middling success I decided to throw in the towel on Idaho and mining. While I was leaving Gene's tavern after a small farewell gathering for my last night in Idaho, my old friend John Flaherty stopped me with great news. Flaherty full of excitement and while panting said, "Say, Jim, I have seen a mine what is a mine. I have located both extensions, and I want you to go to work and git there as quick as you can. Come into Guse's and we'll talk over it." I quickly sobered up after hearing this momentous news, but for not long. We headed back in and dispatched more whiskey while he gave me the details. This was the start of the great Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines.

After hearing the details, I headed out toward Flaherty's camp with two bottles of Walker's Rye whiskey. Here, other men informed by Flaherty would accompany me in the search. When the locations of the mines were distinguished and the men were feeling satisfied, I snuck away with a hatchet and marked a fir tree along the Milo Creek. This ensured us the rights to the water that the mines needed in order to prosper. Without water, the mines would be useless and thanks to me that was not the case. Though obtaining water rights was crucial, I was not done with my contributions. After discussing the finances for the mines, it was clear that I needed to step again, due to the lack of funds. I got the ball rolling with the initial $15,000, which ultimately adds to my argument that I had the greatest influence on the development of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines.

After selling the rights to the water and my shares in the two mines, I left the Silver Valley to pursue other trades. Not all of my ventures were as successful. In an attempt to regain my fur trader status from my younger days, I opened a cat ranch on an inland in the Puget Sound. Aside from poor judgments in other ventures throughout my life, I will always be known for my most crucial contributions to the success of the great Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines in Silver Valley.

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At the heart of the Silver Valley, Wallace has always been a town of boom and bust.

Founded in 1884, the town is named for William R. Wallace, a local farmer. Silver mining would soon replace agriculture, and the community that emerged around Wallace's small cabin would soon develop into a regional center for the Silver Valley mining industry. The town boomed in 1884 with the discovery of the Poorman and Tiger silver lodes. Additional lodes of precious metals were soon discovered, forming one of the largest Silver deposits in the United States. By 1886, the town's population surpassed five hundred, continuing to grow with new access to the railroad.

In 1890, Wallace had its first brush with disaster when a fire tore through town, burning the town's timber buildings. After the fire, the town was reconstructed with brick, in the hopes of reducing the risk of fire. In August of 1910 the stage was set for a great fire storm which would ravage Washington and Northern Idaho. The heat and dry summer conditions aided in the spread of fire and its destructive wake. The fire, known as the "Big Burn" destroyed at least one-third of Wallace and killed over eighty people in the Inland Northwest. Wallace had no sooner recovered when a second disaster struck. The Great Flood of 1913, caused by heavy rains and a swollen river, unleashed a torrent of water in northern Idaho. Several towns were inundated with flood water, even washing a train from its tracks.

Each time Wallace rebuilt, financed by the apparently inexhaustible veins of silver in the surrounding mountains. Labor troubles as well as natural disasters roiled the Silver Valley as mine owners and their employees battled over working conditions and labor costs. In 1892, mining violence erupted between the two sides as the Frisco Mill was destroyed by explosives killing several people. Then, the following year, the price of silver collapsed causing many mines to temporarily shut down. By 1899, tensions grew as mine owners tried to break the unions, causing workers to resort to violence. After seventeen workers were terminated for joining a union, workers used dynamite to destroy the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines.

Responding to the pleas of the mine owners and Idaho's Governor Steunenberg, President McKinley sent troops from Fort George Wright in Spokane to restore order to the region. These were African-American Buffalo soldiers. The use of black troops to suppress white miners was a great shock to many at a time when white supremacy was the law of the land.

Mining tapered off after World War II, and Wallace shrank in size and importance. Wallace's population peaked at nearly four thousand in 1940s and has slowly declined each decade since to less than 800 in 2010. Today Wallace is a popular tourist destination. Visitors can walk the streets of town and catch a glimpse of mining life in Wallace. Filled with old buildings and mining history, the town of Wallace is an important link to the past of northern Idaho and Inland Northwest. Going to Wallace one takes a trip back in time, experiencing life as it was one hundred years ago.

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By the early 1900s, the rough and tumble frontier towns of America were dying off, slowly becoming gentrified and developed into respectable settlements. Taft, Montana was one town that wasn't going to go down quietly. Home to pimps, prostitutes and murderers, Taft earned the title, "the wickedest city in America" given by a visiting Chicago Tribune reporter. If a working man had an appetite for vice, he was sure to get his fill in Taft.

Taft started as an unnamed work camp in 1907. The town was home to men working for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, who wanted to extend their line through the Bitterroot Mountains. The name of the town allegedly came about after Secretary of War William H. Taft visited the work camp. Secretary Taft chastised the unnamed camp for being a "sewer of sin" and "a sore on an otherwise beautiful national forest." Either out of jest or spite, the townsmen named their community in honor of the future president.

As construction of the railroad began in earnest, Taft grew, the height of its population peaking somewhere around three thousand. Consisting of little more than a half-mile stretch of road, Taft boasted between 20 and 50 saloons. Along with men working the railroad, Taft was also home to many other men and women of ill-repute. The second biggest profession in Taft, right after railroad workers, was prostitution. A den to criminals as well as pleasure seekers, springtime in Taft often meant the discovery of dead bodies that were uncovered as the winter snow melted. During the final spring in Taft, as many as seventeen bodies were found.

The shanty-town quality of Taft made it particularly susceptible to fire, as it burned down at least twice before 1910. Taft was finally wiped clean in 1910, when forest fires ravaged much of northern Idaho and western Montana. Rather than answering the forest rangers call to fight the fires, most citizens of Taft put their energy towards draining the town of its remaining alcohol. Taft's inhabitants were evacuated by train, but the town itself wasn't so lucky.

Some futile attempts to raise Taft back to its infamous glory were quickly shut down by forest rangers. A few abandoned buildings survived until they were finally buried by the construction of I-90 in 1962. Now, all that remains of the once "wickedest city in America" is a freeway exit on I-90 and a staging area for snowplows.

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