Bunker Hill Records Given To University

Lengthy records detailing the history of one of the state’s largest mining companies have been donated to the University of Idaho.

The documents about the Bunker Hill Co., and successor Pintlar Corp., are now in the school library’s special-collection department.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Division of Environmental Quality acquired the records as part of the ongoing effort to clean up the Kellogg Superfund site, polluted by decades of mining and processing silver and lead ore.

“This is a major collection for the university and the state,” said Terry Abraham, special-collections librarian. “The company’s records will not only provide an historical record of the mine and smelter for historians and students, but will also provide important documents for future remediation.”

The records cover Bunker Hill’s history from 1916 to its closure in 1981. Other documents take in cleanup efforts that continue into the 1990s. They all must be processed before they are made available to researchers.

Abraham estimates it will cost the university $250,000 and will take several years to complete the project once funds are available.

“It’s very difficult to get grant money for this kind of activity,” he said. “We’ll need to rely on private donations to accomplish this.”

The school already has an extensive collection of Panhandle mining records, such as the Day Mines Collection.