Burke is a ghost town in Burke-Canyon in Shoshone County, Idaho, United States. Once a thriving silver and lead town, it is now far smaller than at its height. In 2002, about 300 people lived in or nearby Burke Canyon.[1] It was situated in a canyon only about 300 feet (91 m) wide, located on Burke-Canyon Creek Road in the northernmost part of the county. It was the home of the Hercules silver mine, the owners of which were implicated in the Idaho mining wars of 1899.[2]
Hard rock miners in Shoshone County protested wage cuts with a strike in 1892. Two large mines, the Gem mine and the Frisco mine in Burke-Canyon 1 mile south of Burke, operated with replacement workers during the strike.[3] Several lost their lives in a shooting war provoked by the discovery of a company spy named Charles A. Siringo The U.S. army forced an end to the strike.
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.
One of Idaho's most famous pictures was taken in Burke, a photograph showing the train tracks running through the main road .
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