page_title: Burke, Idaho
section_title: Development and further unrest
hierarchical_section_title: Burke, Idaho / History / Development and further unrest
caption_attribution_description: English: Burke, Idaho postcard showing the Tiger Hotel in 1888.
context_page_description: Burke is a ghost town in Shoshone County, Idaho, United States, established in 1887. Once a thriving silver, lead and zinc mining community, the town saw significant decline in the mid-twentieth century after the closure of several mines.
  In its early years, Burke was home to the Hercules silver mine, the owners of which were implicated in the Idaho mining wars of 1899. Both the Hecla and Star mines also operated out of Burke, and the town was a significant site during the 1892 Coeur d'Alene labor strike. Burke's location within the narrow 300-foot-wide Burke Canyon resulted in unique architectural features, such as a hotel built above the railway and Canyon Creek, with the train track running through a portion of the hotel lobby.
  After several natural disasters and years of decline in the mid-twentieth century, Burke mining operations finally ceased in 1991 with the closing of the Star mine. In 2002, about 300 people lived in or nearby Burke Canyon, though Burke itself had no residents.
  Burke is located about 7 miles northeast of Wallace, at an elevation of 3,700 feet above sea level. It is accessed from Wallace on Burke-Canyon Creek Road.
context_section_description: Burke continued development with the construction of the Tiger Hotel, a 150-room hotel originally built in 1896 as boarding rooms for miners; the hotel took its namesake from the Tiger Mine. A grease fire severely damaged the hotel shortly after its opening in 1896, killing three people. Subsequent widening of the railroad in 1906 forced the hotel to accommodate. The hotel, which straddled the main street and Canyon Creek, was modified to allow the railroad to run through its lobby. An enclosed walkway was constructed above the railroad for hotel guests to move between the two halves of the hotel without worry about the train or the weather.
  Around 1896, Socialist leader Eugene V. Debs had grown prominent in the Pacific Northwest, and addressed miners in Burke in early 1897. Two years later, hostilities erupted once again in 1899. In response to the Bunker Hill company firing seventeen men for joining the union, the miners dynamited the Bunker Hill & Sullivan mill. Lives were lost once again, and the army intervened. While the Hecla mine continued to prosper, the city saw further destruction in February 1910 when another avalanche struck the town, killing twenty residents. Six months later, the Great Fire of 1910 caused further damage to the Burke Canyon.
  In 1913, significant flooding impacted the town, with sediment and debris building up against the Tiger Hotel as water cascaded down the gulch. The town was impacted by further damage on July 23, 1923, when another fire broke out, causing extensive damage to numerous buildings in the town. Most notably damaged by the fire was the Tiger Hotel, which became increasingly unprofitable in the 1940s and was torn down in 1954.
caption: The Tiger Hotel, a 150-room hotel with the railway running through the main lobby.
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