Vance Cunningham, Trailing of the Sheep Festival Archives Intern
Long before Sun Valley opened, even before the rise of sheepherding, the largest industry in the Wood River Valley was mining. The Triumph Mine, located five miles northeast of Gimlet, was the largest. From 1884 to 1959, it produced over $39 million in metals, primarily zinc, lead, and silver ore.
This photo was taken in 1938, and depicts three miners (Glen Freeman, Lyle Triple, and Paul Olson) working in the Triumph Mine. They would have been among the approximately 200 employees who kept the mine operating around the clock. Miners were paid daily wages of $5.80, well above the national minimum wage, but with the occasional floods and collapses, their work was very dangerous.
In 1938, the Triumph Mine was undergoing a dramatic transition. Production stopped in 1931 after a decade of steadily decreasing metal prices, but had reopened in 1936 after Roosevelt signed the Silver Purchase Act, which ordered the US Treasury to purchase all domestically produced silver at a premium. A year later, the mine was expanded by the US Department of the Interior for the growing war effort. The war years would see the Triumph Mine at its peak, producing more zinc than any other mine in the world.
After the war, metal prices slowly declined. This, coupled with rising labor costs, forced the mine to close in 1959. Smaller operations continued varyingly until 1985, when it was shut down entirely. Toxic heavy metals have since leaked into the surrounding groundwater, and in 1993, the mine was deemed one of the most toxic sites in the nation. Millions of dollars have been allocated since, resulting in a substantial cleanup effort from the EPA and Idaho Department of Environmental Quality that continues to this day.
The legacy of the Triumph Mine is a complicated one. It was one of the major factors in establishing and growing this community. But now after its doors have closed, the local environment still suffers from its effects.
Note this story was originally published in August of 2025 in the Idaho Mountain Express.
