HISTORY

Idaho's Silver Valley Marks 40 Years Since Sunshine Mine Disaster

April 27, 2012 6:44 PM ET

May 2 marks the 40th anniversary of one of the worst mining disasters in U.S. history. In 1972, a fire broke out underground at the Sunshine Mine in Kellogg, Idaho; 91 men died of carbon monoxide poisoning. The disaster had a devastating effect on Kellogg and the nearby communities in Idaho’s Silver Valley. People who were there still vividly remember the events of that day.

Forty years ago, the channels of communications were nothing like they are today. When the fire started underground at the Sunshine Mine, Kathy Atha didn’t hear about it on the news or on Twitter. She was at her job, at the First Nation Bank in Pinehurst, a few miles west of Kellogg.


The Jewell shaft was where air entered the mine. Photo courtesy MSHA.gov

“It was in the afternoon, three or four o’clock in the afternoon," Atha recalls. "A gentleman came into the bank. He was very agitated, he was upset, and he said the Sunshine Mine was on fire. I called my husband. He worked for Bunker Hill mine at the time and I told him. He said, ‘It’s a hard rock mine. What’s going to burn?’"

"Then we got home and we started seeing the news reports and we just really realized the magnitude of the whole situation and immediately started hearing about those who had died.”

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