Living with Lead : An Environmental History of Idaho's Coeur D'Alenes, 1885-2011

Snow explores and untangles the costs and benefits of a century of mining, milling, and smelting in the Coeur D'Alenes, a twenty-five mile portion of the Idaho panhandle. More than one hundred mines and mills spewed waste laced with lead and other heavy metals into the local waters and fouled the air surrounding Kellogg, Idaho, endangering human health and leaving a legacy of environmental pollution. Simultaneously, the same industrial processes provided economic sustenance to thousands of local resident in a string of working class communities.