The holdings of the University of Idaho repository comprise a total of five Bunker Hill Mining Company manuscript collections. A comprehensive history of the mine and successive transfers of ownership and name changes can be found in the “corporate history” section of the inventory for Manuscript Group 367. Manuscript Group 413 documents the periods from Gulf Resources and Chemical Corporation takeover of Bunker Hill operations in 1968, its sale of Idaho assets to Bunker Limited Partnership in 1982, and bankruptcy of the last owner, Pintlar Corporation. The Bunker Hill Company was proposed as a Superfund cleanup site in 1982 and officially listed in 1983. A total of 21 square miles were earmarked for clean up and remediation. Pintlar declared bankruptcy in 1993 and the responsibility for the Superfund site was assumed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1995. The records within this manuscript group were donated to the University of Idaho by that federal agency.

A significant amount of the collection contains documentation and exhibits related to litigation. Unique insights can be found in depositions taken for various lawsuits. The day-to-day operations of the company can be seen through the eyes of the administrators of the company, former smelter workers, environmental consultants, agents of federal and state government entities, and the litigants themselves. Especially interesting are the transcripts of testimony taken from court proceedings in which families sought compensation for lead poisoning suffered by their children as a direct result of particulate emissions from the smelter. The collection also contains numerous environmental studies and recommendations for remediation. Studies such as the Shoshone Project are insightful as to the general health of the region’s population and property.