Holden Mine History: Mine Closing
We are grateful to the photographers Larry Penberthy and Ray Baker, and their descendants for allowing us to use their images. To view the full set of mining period photographs, click here.
In 1957 Howe Sound closed the mine because the price of copper was decreasing and the ore supply was becoming harder to find.
One hundred million dollars of metals were produced from the Holden Mine from 1937-1957. (Today the value would be more than $550 million.):
COPPER – 212,000,000 pounds – $70,500,000
GOLD – 600,000 ounces – $21,500,000
ZINC – 40,000,000 pounds – $5,500,000
SILVER – 2,000,000 ounces – $2,500,000
By the time of the mine’s closing, the total mileage of underground tunnels was approximately 40 miles long. The tonnage of rock removed from underground would be the equivalent of a solid block of rock 100 feet square and 2 miles in height. While the concentrate was shipped out of Holden, the mining process created approximately 64 acres of tailings left from the processing of ore.
The company salvaged equipment from the mine and mill. Some records were sent to the company’s New York offices before the mine closing, while most of the mine’s records were abandoned in the engineering office. Years later, the mine records were rescued by Nigel Adams and the Holden Village management, who sent them to the University of Washington Special Collections in 1967. The company-owned buildings remained, but the families who owned their homes in Winston Camp had to abandon them, salvage what they could, and ship it by barge to Chelan. The Forest Service required that the Winston homes be razed because of potential fire hazard.
Howe Sound tried to sell the company town as a mountain resort, a “complete village, magnificently located in the Switzerland of America.” The price was $100,000, but there were no buyers. However, a persistent Wes Prieb, who envisioned the town as a retreat center for the Lutheran Bible Institute, convinced Howe Sound to make the campsite a gift to LBI in 1960. LBI faced problems. There had been no watch crew on the property for two years, and vandals and unauthorized salvagers were destroying and walking away with valuable items.
Holden became “Holden Village,” funds were raised, volunteers were recruited, and a church renewal center began to take shape. Work crews cleaned and repaired buildings, rejuvenated lawns, and found time to entertain visitors and conduct Bible studies.
Today, Holden Village serves as a Lutheran renewal center, hosts guests every month of the year and continues to care for the 75-year old infrastructure. Holden remains isolated. The hair-raising bus ride from lake to village hasn’t changed, but the boat trip takes only one and a half hours instead of four.
What happened to the hundreds of miners who worked at the Holden Mine? They and their descendants have moved to places all over the country. In the early years after closure, about 200 former residents would return to Holden for reunions. Those who had homes at Winston Camp poked through the overgrowth to discover a foundation here, a walkway there, and a determined flower that continued to bloom year after year. They showed their children and grandchildren the wonderful place where they grew up, the desk they used in the schoolhouse, or where they worked at a thriving mining operation.
Those who come to Holden today eat in a colorfully transformed dining hall that once served hearty meals to hungry miners. They sleep in dormitories that once housed the single men. They visit a museum that holds “relics” of the mining past. Visitors hike to mountain lakes where miners and their families fished and camped. They attend a church service in the “Rec Hall” where mining families attended church services many years ago.
Miners and their descendants have placed historical marker signs throughout the village to tell the story of “The Holden Mine” so visitors will know that Holden was once a different kind of community. Both guests and former residents leave Holden knowing they were privileged to have lived in such beautiful surroundings and made so many wonderful friends.