Mining Discoveries



The historical story of the Coeur d'Alene Mining District might be told in terms of many focuses.  Yet -- and as the district's name suggests -- the focus that has driven the area's history more than any other is mining.  The district is one of the great mining centers for silver, lead, and zinc in the United States, the Western Hemisphere, and the world. 

A mineral outcropping near what is presently the town of Osburn, on the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River, was first noticed in 1878.

It was gold, however, that caused a great flurry of interest in the Coeur d'Alenes five years later.  Veteran prospector Andrew J. Prichard discovered the first gold in the district along the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River in 1882.  "While he attempted to tell only some friends of the  discovery," wrote Chapman, "the information soon leaked out and reached the outside world in 1883.  This quickly resulted in a great gold rush by prospectors and others into places on Prichard and Eagle creeks...."

A stampede-like migration of miners into the Coeur d'Alenes took place in the winter and spring of 1883-1884.  It was encouraged by a brochure entitled In the Gold Fields of the Coeur d'Alenes published by the Northern Pacific Railroad in order to stimulate traffic on its newly completed segment of track to Tacoma.  The coincidence of the opening of the railroad with word of Prichard's discovery created a population boom for Murray, Idaho and its surrounding area.

But silver soon displaced gold as the district's central preoccupation.  "As the Murray area population rapidly increased," wrote Chapman, "there remained few locations for new gold claims.  Thus many of the prospectors traveled over the Coeur d'Alene mountains to the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River to continue the search for gold in that area."  By 1884, the first lead-silver lode discoveries were made near Burke and along Captain John Mullan's road.

So rich was the mineralization of the Coeur d'Alenes that a vigorous mining community is still at work today, 120 years later.