Sunshine Mine Disaster Memorial

Kellogg, Idaho

A 13-foot-tall metal miner, with a glowing headlamp, memorializes those killed in the Sunshine Mine disaster of May 2, 1972. The statue stands behind 91 miniature tombstones, one for each miner who suffocated in a smoky fire at America's largest silver mine.

Standing at the mouth of Big Creek Canyon, the doomed miner appears to defiantly hoists his rock drill skyward, as if trying to punch an air hole to the surface (It's actually a typical miner position, and he could never escape that way). He was sculpted by Ken Lonn, a former shift boss at the mine, and reportedly is positioned so that his headlamp casts its feeble beam through the open air toward the mine entrance, which is several miles away from the statue.