The Bunker Hill Company was founded following the discovery of the Bunker Hill Mine in 1885; it was incorporated in 1887. It grew from a strictly mining enterprise to a large industrial complex capable of carrying out every step in the production process from removing ore from the ground to fabricating finished metal products. The company was an important supplier of the nation's requirements for lead, zinc, silver, and cadmium. The lead smelter had the capacity to produce 135,000 tons of refined lead per year, or 17% of the U.S. capacity, while the electrolytic zinc plant produced 104,000 tons, or 14% of the U.S. capacity. The company also produced over 9 million troy ounces of silver, over one million pounds of refined cadmium, and a variety of by-products including 1000 ounces of refined gold. In 1968 Bunker Hill merged with Gulf Resources.
The records of the Bunker Hill Research and Development Division span the years 1922 to 1982, with the bulk of the material covering the years 1945 to 1975.
The papers include brochures issued by the company, organizational manuals, reports on various research and development projects, papers dealing with Washington Water Power requests for rate increases, drawings of plant flow sheets, aerial views of the plant and smelter, and visitors registers.
Two other Bunker Hill groups in the University of Idaho Special Collections Library are MG 130 and MG 188, both of which deal with the mining aspects of the company and contain legal documents relating to mining claim litigations.
Most of the papers in this record group were in labeled file folders or three ring notebooks, but were in no discernible order. Therefore, while folder and notebook headings were retained, a series order was imposed during processing. The folders in each series are in alphabetical order and the original order of the material is maintained throughout.
The first series contains material concerning the overall organization of the division, including budget manuals, policies manuals, supervisors manuals, and work rules.
The second series, or research files, is divided into two subseries, one is the material that was originally in file folders, the second is the material originally contained in notebooks. Most items in this series deal with the operation of the plant, and various experiments performed. There is a section on patent applications, and a list of patents held by the company.
The Washington Water Power rate increase requests are arranged by case number. Included are petitions and other legal documents, transcripts of testimonies, and occasionally legal documents from court cases resulting from the application.
The final series contains blueprints of the lead and zinc plants, aerial views of the zinc plant and smelter, a University of Idaho thesis, flow sheets, and two visitors registers.
Annual reports of the Bunker Hill Company, and the session papers of the American Mining Congress were removed from the collection and sent to the library's gift receiving office for possible cataloging into the library's main collection. Suppliers catalogs, annual reports from other companies, and duplicate materials were discarded. Material from notebooks was transferred to file folders. By these means the bulk of the records was reduced by 7 cubic feet.
The records of the Research and Development Division of the Bunker Hill Company were donated to the University of Idaho Library by the company between November 1986 and January 1987.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.