Smelterville, ID

Smelterville is a Shoshone County city of 670 residents in the 2020 census, set in Idaho's Silver Valley along the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River and Interstate 90. The Bunker Hill lead smelter began operating in 1917, and its presence shaped the town's identity. In 1929 residents chose Smelterville by voice vote over Van Rena and Silver City, a name that put the industrial landscape directly into the city's name. The river valley narrows around town.

Mining, milling, and smelting once filled the valley with work, while the later Bunker Hill cleanup became a second major chapter. The Superfund site includes Smelterville and neighboring Kellogg, Pinehurst, and Wardner, with local roads and the valley floor carrying the story of metals, tailings, and public health. Nearby Silver Valley mines, the river, and the interstate still place Smelterville within North Idaho's mining landscape. It is a small city whose name remembers the industry and whose present is tied to cleanup and reuse.