Hecla is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

Laramie County Laramie County is a county located at the southeast corner of the U.S. state, state of Wyoming. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 100,512 or 17.4% of the state's total 2020 population, making it the List of counties in Wy ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

. Although not posted, what remains of the stamping and smelting facilities is located on private property.

History

The area around Hecla was mined for copper from the 1860s to the 1960s by the

Calumet and Hecla Mining Company The Calumet and Hecla Mining Company was a major copper-mining company based within Michigan, Michigan's Copper Country. In the 19th century, the company paid out more than $72 million in shareholder dividends, more than any other mining company ...

which was a merger between the Calumet Company and the Hecla company. It became one of the major copper mining companies in the United States. At one point, Hecla was being considered as a stop for the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...

, but it didn't gain enough attention and the proposal was dropped.

Literature

In the book ''Hell Hole'' b
Hunter Shea
the main character is asked by President

Teddy Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York politics, including serving as ...

to investigate a mine in Hecla.

References

External links

Hell Hole
by Hunter Shea Populated places in Laramie County, Wyoming Ghost towns in Wyoming {{wyoming-geo-stub