Restoring the Lake

What the suit was about lies on the lake bottom. Until 1968 most of the mills upstream in the Silver Valley sent their tailings straight into the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River, an estimated 62 million tons carrying some 880,000 tons of lead, and the contamination reaches 166 river miles, the lake and part of the Spokane River. The United States joined the tribe's suit in 1996. ASARCO settled in 2008 as it emerged from bankruptcy, and Hecla, the last defendant, agreed in June 2011 to pay $263.4 million.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes — 14 mi
  Seventy-two paved miles laid over a railbed poisoned by a century of ore trains.
• Cataldo Mission — 14 mi
  The Schitsu'umsh built it, the 1873 reservation line left it outside, and every August 15 they come back.
• Farragut State Park — 23 mi
  The Navy built its second-largest boot camp 375 miles from the ocean, and still tests submarines on the lake.

More markers nearby

• Coeur d'Alene Lake — steps away
• Mullan Road — 5.6 mi
• Submerged Valley — 13 mi
• Old Mission of the Sacred Heart (sq'wt'u) — 14 mi