The Hecla Mining Company traces its history to the date this stock certificate was issued: October 14, 1891.
Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture as World War I created an increase in demand for the metal. Things were good in the Coeur d’ Alene, and the company’ s dividends were up.
Then, in July 1923, a fire swept through the town of Burke, Idaho, destroying the Hecla mine buildings and laying waste to the town’ s business district. Six months later, the company was back in business with a new,“ fireproof” plant that was double the size of the old plant. According to John Fahey in Hecla: A Century of Western Mining, after lengthy court battles, Hecla worked with its sister company, Bunker Hill, to carve and timber“ an eight-by-nine foot passage, wide enough for electric trains with spurs for passing” to the Star mine. Upon its completion 32 months later, the 8,203-foot crosscut became the longest tunnel in the world. It cost the company $ 531,887.
The 1930s wreaked havoc on— and created opportunity for— Hecla and the rest of the Coeur d’ Alene District. During the Great Depression, operating profits in the district crashed to 10 % of what they had been. However, with McCarthy still at the helm, Hecla entered into a venture with the Polaris mine, enabling its entry into the Idaho“ Silver Belt.”
By 1934, the Newmont Mining Corporation got involved in the Silver Belt in a venture with Hecla and the Polaris mine. Although Newmont and Hecla’ s relationship had begun in 1925 with a failed venture in the Minnie More mine, Hecla’ s directors welcomed Newmont as a working partner— a collaboration that lasted nearly 50 years.
In 1940, McCarthy died and Eugene Hanley took over running the company. During World War II, mining did not boom as it did during World War I, largely because no mining company could hire enough men to work the mines during the war. In 1944, the original Hecla mine south of Burke bottomed out at 3,600 feet, after producing nine million tons of ore in the span of 40 years. The following year, Hecla- Polaris crews began driving the Silver Summit shaft at what was a record speed of 160 feet per month. In just over 11 months, they reached a depth of 1,596 feet. In 1946, Hecla went on a buying spree, acquiring 131 claims with options on other mines.
Hanley retired in 1951, and accountant Les Randall assumed the helm of Hecla. By then, many mining interests in the district, including Hecla, had invested in other mining companies and diversified into other businesses. In one such case, Hecla invested approximately $ 490,000 to explore the old Coeur d’ Alene and Rainbow mines in the Silver Belt, but the venture was a bust. Its forays into other industries had mixed results, taking resources away from its primary mining business.
Randall’ s main focus became finding a new mine, and in 1954 Hecla acquired
34 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Winter 2017 | www. MoAF. org