IISHS 74-142-2  Miners hold unlit candlesticks, used in mining underground operations, outside one of the camp buildings at Rocky Bar, Elmore County, Idaho in the late 19th century.

When many Idaho mining regions proved to be sustainable, savvy businessmen began to gobble up small operations, transforming them into larger, investment-driven corporations. Most mine owners relied on miners to carry out dangerous work under hazardous conditions for little pay. Clearly, miners soon realized, a more united front would force mine owners to at least reconsider their hard-lined stance on wages and benefits.

In the 1860’s, miners formed alliances with one another. In 1867, the Silver City Miners’ Union organized in southwestern Idaho. Early on these unions served as little more than loose associations meant to assist fellow miners in down-trodden times. William “Big Bill” Haywood, who later gain notoriety as a leader of the Western Federation of Miners, and for his alleged role in the murder-conspiracy of Governor Frank Steunenberg, spent time in the mines of Silver City. In June 1896, after an accident crushed his hand the union presented Haywood with a silver-filled pouch. The token proved union miners looked out for one another.

In November 1887, the Wardner Miners’ Union organized in secret, weary that their association might brand them an undesirable worker. Weary or not, unfair wage decreases demanded the union act. They quickly called for a strike, halting all work. The strike forced the mine owners to reinstate the higher wages.

Mine owners and mine unions continued to clash sometimes with violent consequences. In 1892, unionists, tired of what they deemed as unfair wages and conditions, dynamited the Frisco Mill in the Coeur d’Alenes. The political aftershock reached all the way to the Idaho’s capital at Boise, where Governor Norman Willey decided to take action. Furious over the economic loss, mine owners lobbied Willey to act swiftly and forcefully. With the support of President Benjamin Harrison, the governor sent federal troops to restore order. Miners were squeezed into makeshift prisons, referred to as bull pens, under deplorable conditions. The purported leaders eventually stood trial. As a result of their incarceration and trial, and upon the advice of then defense attorney James Hawley, union leaders organized the Western Federation of Miners.

The mining unions of Idaho used violence to further their cause but they absolutely galvanized miners in the state. Idaho miners felt for the first time they had a real voice in the labor movement and, for better or worse, they stood up together as a united front.

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