Mine museum to waive fee for admission

The Staff House in Kellogg turns 100 this year, and the Shoshone County Mining and Smelting Museum housed there has turned 20.

The double anniversary warrants a celebration, museum officials believe. So they’ll waive admission on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. They’ll also have refreshments and door prizes, and historian Katherine Aiken of the University of Idaho will sign copies of her book, “Idaho’s Bunker Hill: The Rise and Fall of a Great Mining Company.”

The two-story home was built in 1906 for Stanly A. Easton, then-manager and later president and chairman of the board of the Bunker Hill Mine, and his bride, Estelle Greenough.

When they moved to Coeur d’Alene in the 1920s, their home was converted to a company staff house. It was moved to its present location in 1940.

Bunker Hill went out of business in 1982, and the building sat unused for four years until it was donated to the museum, which features the history and culture of the county’s mining and smelting legacy.

The museum started in 1986 with three rooms of exhibits. Now it has more than a dozen exhibit rooms. Outside, five concrete pads accommodate mining and smelting equipment too large for inside display. A 100-year-old Nordberg air compressor, once used at Bunker Hill, sits behind the museum surrounded by more than 850 engraved bricks that were sold to pay for the cost of moving the 73.5-ton machine.

The Staff House is at 820 W. McKinley Ave. and is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, spring through fall. Call (208) 786-4141 for more information.