On June 27, 2011 the Wallace District Mining Museum in Idaho held a Grand Opening and Free Admission Day to celebrate their acquisition of a new exhibit: the Sunshine Mine Model. But the celebration was about more than that.
Caring for the Collection
For the last three and a half years the museum has been engaged in the Collection Automation Project or CAP. This is part of a greater nationwide campaign to preserve history and heritage in the U.S. The project involves the digital cataloging of photos, archives and artifacts in the museum collection and allows the museum to keep record of the number, condition and location of the objects in its possession. All small heritage organizations around the country have been challenged to bring themselves up to professional museum standards and have been offered grant opportunities to assist them in doing so.
Jim McReynolds, the Executive Director at the museum has created a vision and then a strategic plan to move the small museum into the future. After receiving grant funding and recruiting staff with a similar vision, much progress has been made. The museum now does a better job fulfilling its mission of preservation, education, and accessibility of the collection. New story boards and digital picture frames along with an interactive touch screen map greatly improve the museum’s ability to tell the rich stories of area history. In this process the museum has also renovated two storage areas, bringing them to professional archival standards for museums.
A Tribute to the Great Sunshine Mine
The Sunshine Mine Model was in the executive offices of the Sunshine mine for many years. When the building was built the model was sunk in a ten-inch cement bathtub in the floor. Panels were created to allow access to the model for maintenance and ventilation. Sixteen high energy fluorescent tubes illuminate Mylar sheets laid over levels created by piano wire to illustrate all of the underground levels of the mine. These are hand drawn on the Mylar sheets. The model was created and updated by geologists to map tunnels, shafts, drifts, faults and veins. In recent years, computers are used to illustrate these features and models like this are a thing of the past. It is truly a work of art.
But the Sunshine Mine went bankrupt and the mine model sat in the dark and was seldom viewed. Then Silver Opportunity Partners purchased the Sunshine Mine out of bankruptcy. Part of the purchase agreement was that the mine Model would go to the museum. But moving it and creating space for such a large new exhibit was no easy task. The museum had to remove their old wheelchair ramp, create a new one, and then build a platform around the model so that it could be viewed by the public. Safety rails had to be created for both the ADA ramp and the platform. Somebody had to put up the money.
And several members of the community along with Silver Opportunity Partners did. Now the museum is not only home to fifty five years of rich local and mining history, but it also has become an attraction for geologists, miners, and historians.
The Future of our History
The completion of this project is not the end of the renovations at the Wallace District Mining Museum. McReynolds has come up with Phase I of a multi-year expansion plan for the exhibit area. This includes the expansion of “square set” display areas to create a timbered drift and eight new exhibit areas. The idea is to create a “true mining experience” making the museum itself more attractive. The museum has also become a research center for those seeking information on topics ranging from genealogy to mines, both past and present.
Next steps include the digitization of more of the museum archives and the creation of a comprehensive database of mines and mining companies in the Coeur d’Alene Mining District. The museum has landed several research contracts from the Coeur d’Alene Trust for “site characterization” efforts that greatly assist the environmental remediation projects in the area. The future is bright for this little museum. It is truly the model for small heritage organizations in the State of Idaho and around the Inland Northwest.
Troy Lambert - I am a novelist and a freelance writer based in North Idaho. I also work for the Wallace District Mining Museum as the Museum Operations ...
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