Mine Tours
Adventure beckons you to don a hard hat and miner’s lamp and go on one of the most popular and fun tours in this part of the country as you explore the world of hard rock mining.
– Sierra Silver Mine Tour in Wallace: Take the open-air mine tour trolley ride out to the renowned Sierra Silver Mine partaking of an actual underground mine tour with an actual hard rock miner. With hard hat in place, safely enter the mine – seeing and feeling all of the elements of one of the hardest jobs on this man’s earth, remembering that if “it isn’t grown; it has to mined.” Hear the colorful tales that only a miner would know as the equipment and going-ons of a silver mine are seen and explained. Underground tour is followed by a narrated 15-minute tour around the Historic Wallace residential and business district.
– Crystal Gold Mine Tours in Kellogg. The only authentic 1880s underground gold mine tour in the Northwest! The Crystal Gold Mine was one of the first hard rock mines in the Silver Valley. The guided underground tour explains how the miners drilled with “Hand Steels” using “Single Jacks” and “Double Jacks” (Hammers), how they traced the quartz vein using 1880 methods, how they tested the vein for gold. Beautiful stalactite crystals of smithsonite in an array of colors coat the walls. Gold and wire silver can still be seen in the quartz vein.