Bruce:

Two of the worst movies of all time, both filmed in Wallace "Dante's Peak and Heaven's Gate"..

I rented Heaven's Gate when it came out and tried to watch it a number of times, but it was so bad I thought someone I knew might have made it....

There used to be some good size trains on the UP. The Bunker shipped everything in and out by rail except there was some ore coming from Eastern Washington that didn't come via rail. We used to get a lot of ore from outside the US coming in plus coke for the blast furnace at the Smelter, that came via CN.. A lot of money in the valley in those days. There was quite a bit of exchange with the Milwaukee before 1980 at Plummer JCt also.

I go back to the valley at least twice a year. I used to go back once a month until my mother passed away almost 4 years ago in 2006. I have a little brother in Hayden.. We were just over there about 2 weeks ago. My father worked for Bunker Hill for 43 years and his dad for 42 years.
My father worked on the railroad cars and built and rebuilt many of the mine cars used at Bunker, including the last ones the Super Sam's. There were a bunch of Super Sam's at Alaska Junk Company in Spokane a few years back. I guess they bought all of them when BHS went down.

Some of the old homes were selling for around $100,000 3 or 4 years ago, but the economy has knocked that back a bit. Still my parents bought their last house for $6500 in 1955..In 1980 they were around $30-35,000 but by 1982 the same houses were selling for about $10-$15,000 after Bunker shut down.

thanks for the memories,
L.A.Scrafford