Smelterville, Idaho

Smelterville got its name from a voice vote in nineteen twenty-nine. Residents chose between three candidates, Van Rena, Silver City, and Smelterville, and went with the one that told the honest truth about why the town existed. The Bunker Hill Mining and Smelting Company had opened its smelter here on July fifth, nineteen seventeen, and the facility quickly grew into the largest smelting complex in the world at the time of its construction.

The silver and lead ore that fed it came from mines across the Coeur d'Alene district, tracing back to the eighteen eighty-five claim at the future Bunker Hill Mine, a discovery long credited to Noah Kellogg. Smelter smoke and jobs defined life in Smelterville for decades. In nineteen eighty-three the Environmental Protection Agency listed the surrounding Silver Valley as a Superfund site, one of the largest in the country, after lead contamination was found throughout the soil and water. The smelter stacks that named the town were finally demolished in nineteen ninety-six.