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About the project... We are researching
a book on life along Panther Creek during the birth, growth and
demise of Cobalt, Idaho. The town was built in the 1950s to support
the Blackbird Mine, which was the only domestic source of Cobalt
in the United States. This strategic metal was essential to the
development of jet engines and high speed cutting tools, needed
by the defense industry in the 1950s. |
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From the book jacket...
"Cobalt was Idaho’s
last company town, rising in the shadow of World War II to supply copper
and cobalt to the makers of war planes and industrial machinery. Carved
into a remote valley of the Salmon National Forest the town proved a challenge
to settle with its harsh climate and remote location.
A sometime native son, Russell Steele reveals Cobalt’s citizens’
struggle to build a community in the boom of the 1950s, then sustain it
for over thirty years as the price of copper and cobalt rose and fell
on the global market. Through his own memories of the town, detailed historical
research, and enthralling narrative, Steele carries you through the life
of a modern frontier town. His dynamic portrait details the rise of the
Blackbird Mine, the harsh beauty of the Idaho wilderness, the environmental
implications of mining, and the social realities of a 20th century mining
community.
Russell Steele grew up in Cobalt, establishing a bond with the region
and the town in the 1950s, returning to visit in the 1980s and 1990s with
his own family to recall the stories of his youth. Over the years
he has researched and collected the accounts of multiple families who
lived in Cobalt from 1949 to 1999, in order to chronicle...The Legacy
of the Blackbird Mine."