Hecla Mine, Burke Idaho

[Devon_Sinsley]

The “new” version built around 1929 or so is still there as you can see from the street view. This is about an hour from my house. I wish there was a way to convince someone at Hecla to let me look around. I’d love to tour the facility. It is not technically abandon but it is not also currently in production.

I really do like this particular mine. there are a few that I could have chosen. If I didn’t model this one I would have done the Tiger-Poorman. Which is in the background. Its crazy to me how much stuff was crammed in this valley. It was estimated that in its prime as many as 3000 people lived in Burke

[Devon_Sinsley]

A very rough draft of what the main building could look like.

[WaverlySouthern (Dan Hilyer)]

Devon, this looks like a cool project. Will enjoy watching it come to life.

[Pete_Lassen]

I would wander around until someone came and asked me to leave , is there lots of no trespassing sign or can you feign not seeing them( blame Brain fog)!!!

[Devon_Sinsley]

Its a weird town. The few remaining people are very protective and really don’t like strangers. Its a dead end road to nowhere and they will eyeball you as drive through town. And the place is pretty well fenced up not that you couldn’t get around it but there would be people watching.

[Devon_Sinsley]

@WaverlySouthern

Devon, this looks like a cool project. Will enjoy watching it come to life.

I will need to buy resin. Lots of detail work to put in it.

[rmccown-admin (Bob McCown (Admin))]

FS7623 looks like a fun ride through the valley. Gravel and well maintained.

[Devon_Sinsley]

Bob,

Its actually pavement up to and past Burke. I can’t remember where it turns to gravel. But it is well maintained all the way to the dead end. It is a interesting drive packed with remnants of the many various mines that operated in the area. Here is a link to an excellent photograph resource of the area. This collection starts with the very beginnings of this area, the Silver Valley. We were fortunate that an excellent photographer, Barnard Stockbridge, lived in the main town and hub for the area Wallace, Id. What is fun is he began taking photographs of the town when it was in its infancy right through its boom years. So we can literally watch the town grow.

Burke 1887 about 1 to two years after the first claims were made. About where the #538 in the lower right is at is where the Hecla was eventually built.

[Devon_Sinsley]

1888 the year the Narrow Gauge tracks were laid through town

[Devon_Sinsley]

1912 Hecla on the right

[Devon_Sinsley]

1910

[Devon_Sinsley]

1899 Hecla is just beginning to be built on the site of the Star Mine.

[Devon_Sinsley]

In 1923 a fire gutted most of the lower part of town and destroyed the wooden Hecla.

1924 Hecla being rebuilt

[Devon_Sinsley]

1929 pretty much the same structures as what is there today

[Devon_Sinsley]

The name of the creek running down the canyon is Canyon Creek (real original) but it was nicknamed Shit Creek. . . can anyone guess why?

This town always make me think of Dennis Rayon’s layout. There is a prototype for everything and this town had “cliff hangers” everywhere.

[Devon_Sinsley]

One of the reasons I want to model this town in particular is because it has such an interesting history that is so intertwined with the railroad. Its hard to find a turn of the century town that had more honest to gosh dependence on a railroad. It literally built around the tracks.

The Tiger Hotel.

[Devon_Sinsley]

Main street. This town was featured in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” where the claim was made that shop keepers had to roll up their awnings to allow trains to pass. While that was not true in the sense that they needed the clearance, they did do it to prevent the train from lighting them on fire as the story goes.

[WaverlySouthern (Dan Hilyer)]

Enjoying the pictorial history lesson, Devon.

[Devon_Sinsley]

[Devon_Sinsley]