To the Silver Valley

8:00-9:00am  Enjoy breakfast at one of Coeur d’Alene’s many eateries.

9:00-9:30am  Drive east on I-90 From Coeur d’Alene, passing Wolf Lodge bay and crossing 4th of July Pass.

9:30-10:30am  Leave I-90 at Exit 39 and visit the Old Mission at Cataldo.  The Mission is the oldest standing building in the State of Idaho and the interpretive center explains what happened when the Black Robes came to the Coeur d’Alenes.

10:30-11:30am  Back on I-90 eastbound travel 15 miles to Kellogg where you can see the bottom end of the 3.1 mile long Silver Mountain gondola. Also in Kellogg is the Staff House Museum (820 W. McKinley) with displays on mining and the Bunker Hill Mining Co.

11:30am-2:00pm  Continue east on I-90 to the historic town of Wallace.  At Exit 61 you’ll find the Mining Heritage Exhibition of old mining equipment on display before you drive into town. Enjoy lunch at a Wallace eatery. Walking downtown you’ll find the Oasis Bordello Museum, Wallace District Mining Museum and Northern Pacific Railroad Depot and later wet your whistle at Wallace Brewing Company. If you have time, the Sierra Silver Mine Tour (May-Sept) will give you an inside look on how miners work.

Extra time?  Take State Hwy 4 on the east end of Wallace to Burke, once one of the busiest mining centers in the Silver Valley and now not quite a real ghost town. Figure an hour or less. Or you can continue 13 miles east on I-90 to the top of Lookout Pass and the Montana border (just to say you’ve been to Montana).

2:00-4:00pm  Return from Wallace on I-90 west. The Sunshine Silver Mine Disaster Memorial to the 91 miners killed in 1972 is at Exit 54 near Silverton.

Take Exit 43 at Kingston and drive up the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River.  Two miles up you’ll find the Enaville Resort, aka The Snakepit.  There are no snakes but it is one of the most interesting buildings in the area, having been a hotel, bar, restaurant, railroad layover and (maybe) a brothel at various times since 1880.

Back on I-90, at the top of 4th of July Pass you can see where the Mullan Tree (with the names of the John Mullan road crew from July 4, 1861) once stood.  Depending how many stops and side trips you take, you’ll be back in Coeur d’Alene by later afternoon.