On our drive out to Idaho we listened to an audiobook called The Big Burn in preparation for this hike. In 1910, a huge forest fire burned over 3 million acres of Idaho, Montana and Washington in only 48 hours! This trail goes to an overlook to the tunnel in which Ed Pulaski and over 40 men sought shelter in a tunnel and survived the fire. He went on to develop a tool for wildfire fighting that still bears his name. The 4-mile trail goes along a very pretty creek and then to the tunnel overlook with many nice informative signs along the way...
Since we had read the book we were able to skip all the signs and still had time to go back to the Cataldo Mission before going back to Wallace. It was built by Jesuit missionaries and the local Coeur d' Alene natives in the mid-1800s. Father Cataldo went on to found Gonzaga University.
This is the house that the priests lived in while serving at the mission...
The Sierra Silver Mine is a hard-rock silver mine that was never actually mined. The mine changed hands several times, was used to train miners and is now just used to give tours that talk about local mining in the area. Silver was actually found when another company went several hundred feet down under the current mine's parking lot.
It was a very interesting tour that started and ended with a trolley tour of the Wallace area on the way to and from the mine.
Oh, and apparently Wallace, Idaho is the Center of the Universe... LOL
Before we went back for steak dinner with our wonderful hosts, we stopped by Radio Brewing in Kellogg... Delicious beers and very cute decor!
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