This day in history: Bunker Hill mining was moving lead-exposed families to new homes

By Jim Kershner

From 1974: The Bunker Hill Co. was purchasing the homes of 15 families and moving them away from its lead-zinc smelter near Kellogg, Idaho.

All of the families involved “were shown to have one or more children with lead levels at or over” the statistical threshold of lead poisoning.

Most were in the Deadwood Gulch and Silver King residential areas.

“The decision to ask the families to move – at the company’s expense – was made not only because of blood lead levels, but also because of social and psychological factors,” according to a physician who was coordinator of the North Idaho lead study.

More families may also be asked to move.

From 1924: International acting star Madame Olga Petrova performed in her own play, “Hurricane,” at Spokane’s American Theater, and The Spokesman-Review’s critic could hardly contain himself. The critic called her “stunning in her stage personality and radiant beauty.”

Her multiple standing ovations had “not been equalled since David Warfield played here.” She was “brilliant” in multiple roles.

“As the slouchy daughter of a Texas rancher, she brings a big laugh with every line, as the shallow fuzzy-headed woman of the streets, in the second episode, she portrays the lightness and finesse of her art,” the reviewer wrote.

In an interview in her dressing room after the play, she said, “Don’t you like my slang? Of course, I don’t talk that way naturally, but I went to Texas to study it. I’m real proud of it.”

She was a silent movie star, as well as a Broadway star.