The Area


Over the past quarter century the mineralized region of northern Idaho in Shoshone County has been known chiefly as the "Silver Valley."  Before that, however, and over most of the area's previous 100 year history of mining, it was known as the "Coeur d'Alene Mining District" or, more simply, the "Coeur d'Alenes."  The older names reflected the dominance of mineral production in the culture and economy along particularly the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River.

Coeur d'Alene Mining District and the
Original Superfund Site

In fact the boundary of the CDA Mining District and the Silver Valley are not quite the same.  The Silver Valley is usually defined as the lower elevation area around the South Fork spanning from Kingston and Pinehurst, in the west, and across Smelterville, Kellogg, Osburn, Wallace, and Mullan, in the east and up to the Idaho-Montana border.  The Silver Valley also includes mining communities up tributaries of the South Fork, including Burke.  On the other hand, the CDA Mining District (the lighter shaded area on map) stretches farther north to include Murray and Prichard and, in general draws a wider boundary around the ore-bearing region.  Different maps drawn by different authors and at different times will render the CDA Mining District in somewhat different ways.

The darker rectangle in the map represents the older Smelterville-Kellogg Superfund site, commonly known as "the Box."  In 2002, the Superfund area was expanded to include much of the Coeur d'Alene River Basin, another designation that is not quite the same as either the Silver Valley or the Coeur d'Alene Mining District.

It will be up to the local community to decide what the geographical boundaries and name of the applicant area will be, of course.  In the interim, however, we have preferred the use of the Coeur d'Alene Mining District -- chiefly because this designation reflects a deeper history.