Abandoned Towns
Burke Canyon in 2017: red-brick mine buildings, a headframe and a large concrete building on a forested slope under a blue sky

Silver mining town · Other mining and oil town

Burke

A silver, lead and zinc town crammed into a canyon about 300 feet wide, where the railroad ran down Main Street and through a hotel lobby. Mining ended in 1991. The brick and concrete buildings of the Hecla Star complex still stand along the road.

47°31′13″N 115°49′13″W · ≈3,710 ft

Photo: Drown Soda, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ruins · cleanup under way, 2025 report

Burke Road, State Highway 4, runs through the townsite. The state-run Coeur d'Alene Basin cleanup reported in January 2025 that its work at the Hecla Star complex, begun in 2023, was expected to finish in fall 2026, with one-lane traffic, heavy trucks and repaving of Burke Road after completion. In November 2025 it said the Star project was well into its three-year construction plan, with about 48,000 cubic yards of mine waste dug out that year. We found no owner or agency source on who owns the buildings or whether visitors may walk among them, and people still live in the canyon. Look from the road, and respect fences, signs and homes.

Overview

Trains down Main Street

Trains on Main Street, 1914
Trains on Main Street, 1914 · Photo: Barnard Studio, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Burke sits about seven miles northeast of Wallace in Burke Canyon, which Wikipedia puts at about 300 feet wide. The Tiger Mine was found here in May 1884, and in 1887 its buyer, S. S. Glidden, incorporated the Canyon Creek Railroad to haul ore to Wallace. The town grew up along the tracks around the Tiger-Poorman, Hecla, Hercules and Star mines. There was so little level ground that the railroads ran down the middle of Main Street, and the 150-room Tiger Hotel straddled both the street and Canyon Creek, with the trains passing through its lobby.

The canyon was hard on its people. Avalanches killed three in 1890 and 20 in 1910, the Great Fire of 1910 swept through, a flood hit in 1913, and a fire in 1923 damaged much of the town. Burke was also at the center of the Coeur d'Alene labor wars: in July 1892 a gunfight and explosion at the Frisco Mill, down the canyon, killed six. The population peaked at 1,400 in 1910 and fell slowly after that, to 800 in 1950 and 15 in 1990. The Tiger Hotel came down in 1954, and mining ended when the Star mine closed in 1991.

What's left is mostly the Hecla Star complex: red-brick buildings, a headframe, a tall concrete mill building and the ore and rail works, strung along the road. Since 2023 a Superfund cleanup has been digging mine waste out of the townsite and rebuilding the creek, with care, the cleanup agency says, to avoid the large historic buildings along Burke Road.

Timeline

Silver, avalanches and strikes

Burke in its canyon, 1888
Burke in its canyon, 1888 · Photo: Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Main Street and the Northern Pacific tracks, 1902
Main Street and the Northern Pacific tracks, 1902 · Photo: Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  1. The Tiger Mine is discovered in the canyon; the cleanup agency's history dates the first lead, silver and zinc discovery in the Silver Valley to May 2, 1884, at what is now Burke. S. S. Glidden buys the Tiger for $35,000.
  2. Glidden incorporates the Canyon Creek Railroad on July 6. The town is established, and the first ore leaves for Wallace on December 12.
  3. An avalanche kills three people.
  4. In the Coeur d'Alene labor strike, a gunfight and explosion at the Frisco Mill, down the canyon, kill six people.
  5. The Tiger Hotel goes up: 150 rooms of miners' lodging, straddling the main street and Canyon Creek. Wikipedia says it was altered after the railroad was widened in 1906 so that trains ran through its lobby. HistoryNet dates the hotel to 1887.
  6. Union miners dynamite the Bunker Hill & Sullivan mill after the company fires 17 men for joining the union.
  7. The population peaks at 1,400. An avalanche in February kills 20 residents, and the Great Fire of 1910 burns through the canyon.
  8. A flood piles debris against the Tiger Hotel.
  9. A fire damages much of the town, including the hotel.
  10. The Tiger Hotel is torn down. Spokane Historical gives 1944.
  11. The population falls from 800 in 1950 to 150 in 1970 and 15 in 1990.
  12. The Star mine closes, ending mining at Burke. Spokane Historical gives 1981 instead.
  13. About 300 people live in or near Burke Canyon, but Burke itself has no residents, by Wikipedia's account.
  14. Hecla spends $7 million rehabilitating and exploring the Star mine, by Wikipedia's account. HistoryNet says the Star reopened that year.
  15. A Superfund cleanup of the Hecla Star complex begins in 2023. Crews install a large box culvert and dig out mine waste, and the work is expected to finish in fall 2026, followed by repaving of Burke Road.

What's left

The Hecla Star complex

A Hecla brick building and headframe, 2017
A Hecla brick building and headframe, 2017 · Photo: Drown Soda, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
A concrete tower and enclosed walkways, 2014
A concrete tower and enclosed walkways, 2014 · Photo: Kyle kersey, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

The Tiger Hotel and most of the old town are gone. The buildings that stand belong to the mines: red-brick offices and shops, a steel headframe above them, a tall concrete building the cleanup agency calls "the large concrete mill building", enclosed walkways between the structures, and rail tracks and ore works behind chain-link fences. Photos from 2014 to 2017 show them fenced along the road. The cleanup crews installed a box culvert near the mill building, salvaged a slab of concrete stamped "HECLA 1923", and planned to rebuild Canyon Creek up to Gorge Gulch. A November 2024 travel article says visitors can walk around on their own but should obey signs telling them to stay out of buildings; we haven't found an owner's or agency's rule either way.

The 1901 USGS sheet in the historic maps below shows Burke at the mouth of Gorge Gulch, with the Tiger-Poorman, Hecla and Standard-Mammoth mines around it, Mace just downstream and Black Bear farther down the canyon, under Tiger Peak and Custer Peak. The 1932 sheet shows the same string of camps from Gem up to Burke, and the 1985 and 1996 sheets show Highway 4 running up the canyon past Mace to Burke.

  • Hecla Star complex brick buildings
  • Headframe
  • Concrete mill building
  • Enclosed walkways and towers
  • Rail tracks and ore works
  • Tiger Hotel site (demolished 1954)
USGS topographic map of Burke Canyon: Burke-Canyon Creek Road and Canyon Creek running east, with Burke above Mace and Shifters Hill
USGS The National Map, topo. Burke-Canyon Creek Road follows Canyon Creek east; Burke is north of the road, with Mace just south and Gorge Gulch to the east.
Aerial view of Burke: a road along the narrow canyon floor, with building roofs, cleared ground and forest on both slopes
Aerial imagery, same area. The road and the cleared canyon floor run from lower left to upper right; the mine buildings sit where it widens at right.

Historic maps

Burke on USGS maps, 1901–1996

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Burke, 1901
Coeur DAlene District sheet, 1901, 1:62,500 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Wallace is the nearest town, about 14 minutes away. State Highway 4 follows Burke Road out of Wallace and then the Burke-Canyon Creek Road up the canyon. Wikipedia says the highway runs 7.4 miles from I-90 exit 62 and ends at Burke, where it continues as Forest Road 7623. From Spokane it's a straight run east on I-90 to Wallace.

USGS topographic map between Wallace and Burke with the route drawn up Burke Canyon

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Wallace7.2 miabout 14 min
  1. From 3rd Street, take Front Street, 5th Street and Bank Street (I-90 Business) through Wallace.0.9 mi
  2. Continue onto Burke Road.2.1 mi
  3. Continue up the canyon on the Burke-Canyon Creek Road (ID 4) to Burke.4.2 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • The cleanup agency reported in January 2025 that the asphalt on Burke Road was "rapidly degrading" over mine waste, that the road would be cut to one lane while each side was dug out, and that it would be repaved after the cleanup finished in 2026. We don't know whether that work is done.
  • Expect cleanup trucks and one-lane traffic control on Burke Road while the work continues.
  • Highway 4 ends at Burke. Beyond, Forest Road 7623 climbs toward Montana; we have no dated source on its condition.
  • People live in the canyon. Don't block driveways, and stay off private property and fenced mine ground.
  • The routes are computed from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us.

Photos

Burke in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Burke?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Burke

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Idaho index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Burke and Gem": fact sheet fields (county, road, climate, best time, remains).
  2. Wikipedia, "Burke, Idaho", retrieved October 2026: the Tiger Mine, the railroad, the 1887 founding, the Tiger Hotel, the avalanches, fire and flood, the Frisco Mill and 1899 events, the canyon width, population figures, the 2002 residents, the 1991 closing, Hecla's 2012 work, distance from Wallace, coordinates and elevation.
  3. Wikipedia, "Idaho State Highway 4", retrieved October 2026: length, I-90 exit 62, end at Burke and Forest Road 7623.
  4. Coeur d'Alene Basin cleanup, "THE DIRT: Understanding the work throughout Burke Pt. 2", January 7, 2025: the cleanup's 2023 start and fall 2026 finish, the box culvert, the mill building, "HECLA 1923", the historic buildings, Burke Road's asphalt, one-lane traffic, trucks, repaving and residents.
  5. Coeur d'Alene Basin cleanup, "THE DIRT: Mining in Burke Canyon", November 26, 2024: the May 2, 1884 discovery and care for historic structures. "THE DIRT: Work begins throughout the CDA Basin", May 27, 2025: work at the Star complex expected to finish in fall 2026.
  6. "THE DIRT: Canyon Creek’s path to cleanup", November 11, 2025: the Star project's three-year plan begun in 2023 and the 2025 excavation.
  7. Jenna Busch, "Nestled In A Cramped Canyon In Idaho Is An Abandoned Mining Town With Yesteryear Charm," Islands, November 27, 2024: visiting on your own and obeying signs to stay out of buildings.
  8. Hannah Peterson, "The Ghost Town of Burke," Spokane Historical: the mines, the Tiger Hotel over the tracks and creek, its 1944 demolition date and the 1981 closing date.
  9. Carolyn Thomas and Steve Mauro, "Ghost Towns: Burke, Idaho," HistoryNet (Wild West, June 2013): the 1887 hotel date and the 1910 peak.
  10. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited below each one. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits