The Hecla mine is located at Burke, Shoshone County (Lalande mining district). The original claims comprising the Hecla group were the Hecla and Katie May lode claims, located by James Toner on May 5, 1885. The property was purchased by the Hecla Mining Company, a corporation of Idaho, the principal stockholders being A. B. Campbell, John A. Finch, Patrick Clark, Simon Haley and a party of Milwaukee gentlemen. Up to January 1 , 1898, the Hecla shipped thirteen thousand dollars’ worth of lead-silver ore while the development work was progressing. This ore was taken out partly by the company and partly by leasers. During the spring and summer of 1898 the Hecla Mining Company of Washington was organized, with a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, one million shares of the par value of twenty-five cents each, the officers being: A. B. Campbell, president; John A. Finch, vice-president; and H. R. Allen, secretary and treasurer The new company purchased the Hecla and Katie May claims from the old Hecla company, and also purchased the Or-No-Go fraction lode from James Doherty, M. Maher and John Stack.
A bond was taken on the Orphan Boy, Orphan Girl, Leadville, Denver, Climax and Sylvanite, from John H. Van Dorn, which was subsequently taken up by the company. Later on the company purchased the Muscatine and Burlington claims from J. H. Van Dorn, John Frank and Ed Ehrenberg, and also the Muscatine Fraction and Croesus from H. R. Allen.
In all, the Hecla group now comprises fifteen lode claims and a mill-site, the total area being about two hundred and fifty acres. The development work consists of a sixteen hundred-foot tunnel run in at a depth from the surface of about nine hundred feet, and a four-hundred-foot tunnel which is one hundred and seventy-five feet above the long tunnel. In the lower tunnel they have an ore chute about three hundred and seventy-five feet long, averaging three feet wide. They still have five hundred feet to drive before getting under the immense cropping which show on the surface.
The Hecla is still a prospect, but it is more than paying its own way. It is being worked by a force of twenty men. The ore is milled at the Standard mill at Wallace, being transported over the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company’s road, a distance of seven miles. The average grade of the ore is fifty-eight per cent lead and forty ounces silver. The property is under the management of Messrs. Finch & Campbell, of Spokane, Washington, their representative in this district being Air. H. R. Allen, of Wallace, Idaho.