The Lucky Friday mine of Hecla Mining is one of the very few mines still producing in Idaho's Silver Valley.
For nearly a century, several famous mines such as the Bunker Hill, Sunshine and Sullivan, produced large quantities of rich silver-lead-zinc ore which were treated in the Bunker Hill smelter at Kellogg. At one time this area produced more silver each year than any place else in the world. But the smelter and most of the mines closed in the 1980s. A few cities such as Kellogg and Wallace have weathered the ups and downs of the industry pretty well. While other towns like Burke and Murray are only shadows of what they once were. And still others like Eagle City are gone altogether.