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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Old mining town shows life


Chuck Peterson, former mayor of Wardner, opened his gift shop for the season at the end of April.

WARDNER, Idaho – Chuck Peterson can tell you the history of this town in a few fast minutes, a narrative he knows by heart.

When people stop by his gift shop on Main Street – the only street, really – they’re likely to get Peterson’s story and a postcard of the town in its silver-mining heyday.

He can point to the overhead cable where the ore was carried to the smelter. And he can point to the place where another cable now ferries skiers to and from Silver Mountain.

“In the early days, they didn’t have fancy words like gondolas,” he says. “They called them tramways.”

Peterson knows the town’s history by heart, but he can also point you to evidence of its future: three new chalet-style homes, priced upward of $600,000, being built at the end of town. It’s part of a development that could grow to 10 such homes.

“People have come in and bought up the land for little to nothing and started building these houses,” said Peterson, 75, a Wardner native, former mayor and likely the town’s biggest booster. “You could’ve bought the whole town for what they’re paying for houses nowadays.”

About 230 people live in Wardner, down 28 percent from 1990. Like many of the West’s smallest towns, Wardner has seen its population drop rapidly as its “resource-based” economy – mining – dwindled. Shoshone County’s population showed a similar pattern, plummeting most dramatically during the 1980s when mines began closing. Today, the Silver Valley’s population, estimated at 13,180 for 2006, is nearly 10,000 fewer than it was in 1950.

But for many in the Silver Valley, the most recent Census figures contained some good news. For the second year running, county population increased slightly.

The pricey new homes in Wardner reflect some of the changes helping to turn things around, local officials say. The resort and tourism industry in the Silver Valley has grown, with expansions to the Silver Mountain ski resort, creation of biking trails, and plans for a golf course development on the former Superfund site. And then there are signs of the ripple effect – more jobs, banks of new condos and rising home prices.

“Quality of life is a huge player here,” said Vince Rinaldi, executive director of the Silver Valley Economic Development Corp. “I think we’ve got a burgeoning market.”

No silver bullet

University of Idaho professor Harley Johansen wrote about the reinvention of Kellogg in the spring 2006 edition of Idaho Issues Online. One of the article’s sections is titled “Kellogg today – a boom town again?”

Johansen credits Shoshone County officials with planning and patience, and notes that if the Silver Valley is undergoing a resurgence, it’s one that’s occurred incrementally over several years. He wrote that in the 1990s, depressed housing prices, combined with the opening of Silver Mountain ski resort, helped create conditions for growth that have resulted in the valley’s booming housing market.

“Looking back at the challenges facing Kellogg at the time of the Bunker Hill closure, it seems incredible that Kellogg and the Silver Valley are facing growth pressures today,” he wrote. “While many other examples of mining-to-tourism transformation can be found in the American West, few places have had to overcome Superfund status along with the challenges of building a successful recreational development.”

What’s happening in the Silver Valley looks in many ways like the hopes and dreams of other communities in the rural West. Towns whose agricultural or timber jobs have drained away are restoring historic downtowns, promoting outdoor recreation, trying to add amenities like antique stores and coffee shops, and devising other ways to attract visitors. John Allen, director of the Western Rural Development Center at Utah State University, says tourism can provide some economic strength for small towns, but not many will find their entire salvation in it.

“The bottom line is that historic and arts-type development is only a piece,” he said. “It’s probably not going to be that silver bullet for these local economies.”

Rinaldi agrees. He points out that, while tourism and recreation are a large part of the Silver Valley’s economy now, there’s more going on. Dave Smith’s huge car dealership is the county’s biggest employer. There’s been development in retail business, and the plans for a golf course and housing on the former Superfund site include room for light industry. And the Silver Valley’s original mainstay still provides jobs.

“I believe mining still has a pretty bright future,” Rinaldi said.

‘More cosmopolitan’

Rinaldi says the Silver Valley’s history is a cautionary tale against relying too heavily on any one industry. For much of the 20th century, Shoshone County boomed, reaching a high of more than 22,800 residents counted in the 1950 Census.

But when the mines closed, the Silver Valley started emptying; almost 6,000 people died or left during the 1980s. Contamination from the mines led to the creation of a federal Superfund site surrounding the former Bunker Hill mining district in 1983, combining the wallop of the job losses with a legacy of pollution. But the Superfund designation also brought in millions of federal dollars for renovation and civic improvements.

Since 1990, the shrinkage has slowed, with the county dropping about 5 percent of its population. In each of the last two Census estimates, the county population has been up by a percentage point or so.

Is Shoshone County turning the corner?

“We’re in the middle of the turn,” said Sandra Pommerening, superintendent of the Kellogg Joint School District. “We still have the tough independence, good-neighbor policy of the mining community. That’s the backbone. But we’re getting more and more cosmopolitan.”

Shoshone County has the same struggles attracting and keeping young families that most rural areas are seeing. Enrollments in the Kellogg district are slipping; the district lost 18 students from its 1,400-plus in the last year.

Such enrollment losses hit small districts hard, since their funding is based on the number of students taught. Officials in many rural communities worry that enrollment losses can become a kind of downward spiral: As schools lose students and funding, they can pay for fewer teachers and programs, and if schools suffer, so does the ability to draw in young adults who are raising families.

Still, Rinaldi points to positive signs in the Silver Valley. When he took over as executive director of the Silver Valley Economic Development Corp. in 2001, unemployment was about 12 percent; it’s less than half that now.

He noted that home prices are going up and that the county is looking into establishing some lower-cost housing options now, before tourist-town real estate outpaces the ability of miners, hospital employees and teachers to live there.

“What we really intended to do was not just focus on one part of the economy,” he said. “We wanted to diversify.”