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Article ID: CBB884563799

Nuisance, Source of Wealth, or Potentially Practical Material: Visions of Tailings in Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene Mining District, 1888–2001 (2013)

Fredric L. Quivik (Author)

IA. The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology
Volume: 39
Issue: 1-2
Pages: 41-64

Publication Date: 2013
Edition Details: Theme Issue: Industrial Archaeology of Industrial Waste
Language: English

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Dams City councils Mines and mining Industrial archaeology Tailings (Metallurgy) 20th century Idaho (U.S.)

Tailings are the most voluminous solid waste product of hardrock mining, but historically most people focused their attention on the products of mining, especially precious or base metals, like gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc. Despite the focus on products rather than waste, tailings are an almost inescapable artifact of mining. This article explores both the positive and negative meanings that tailings, as an artifact, had for people living and working in the Coeur d'Alene mining district of Idaho a century ago. Although, in our present age of heightened environmental awareness, tailings typically hold meaning that is almost completely negative because they are a significant source of environmental contamination at many mining districts, this article shows that both the min- ing industry and people living in mining communities found positive attributes of tailings. As a result, tail- ings comprise an important part of the built environment of Wallace and other communities in the Coeur d'Alene district. [2018 Vogel Prize winner]

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Associated with

Article Samantha MacBride (2013) The Archeology of Coal Ash: An Industrial-Urban Solid Waste at the Dawn of the Hydrocarbon Economy. IA. The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology (pp. 23-39). unapi

Article David N. Lucsko (2013) ’Junkyard Jamboree’: Hunting for Automotive Treasure in the Twentieth Century. IA. The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology (pp. 93-111). unapi

Article Zimring, Carl A. (2013) Foreword: Theme Issue: Industrial Archeology of Industrial Waste. IA. The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology (pp. 3-4). unapi

Article Carl A. Zimring; Michael A. Bryson (2013) Infamous Past, Invisible Present: Searching for Bubbly Creek in the Twenty-First Century. IA. The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology (pp. 79-92). unapi

Article Lloyd B. Tepper; Jeffery H. Tepper (2013) The Rise and Fall of the Tacoma Arsenic Industry. IA. The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology (pp. 65-78). unapi

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