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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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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