MINE CLOSING

After World War II, Holden experienced some change. Employees who had been "frozen" in their jobs because copper was a strategic metal were free to relocate. One of the single-men's dormitories was converted to two-bedroom apartments to house returning GI's and their brides. Space was made in another dorm for a privately owned grocery store. Air service was provided on Lake Chelan giving residents the choice of a 30-minute flight versus a 4-hour boat trip.

Unfortunately, the copper ore body would eventually be exhausted, and in 1957 Howe Sound closed the mine. One hundred million dollars of metals were produced from the Holden Mine from 1937-1957. (Today the value would be more than $550 million.):

The company salvaged equipment from the mine and mill. Some records were sent of the company's New York offices; most the mine's records were sent to the University of Washington in 1967. The company-owned buildings remained, but the families who owned their homes in Winston Camp had to abandon their homes, salvage what they could, and ship it by barge to Chelan before those homes were razed as required by the Forest Service because of potential fire hazard.

Howe Sound tried to sell the company townsite 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 townsite 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 hosts retreats every month of the year and continues to repair and improve the 60-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 live all over the country, but every few years about 200 of them return to Holden for a reunion. Those who had homes at Winston Camp poke through the overgrowth to discover a foundation here, a walkway there, and a determined flower that continues to bloom year after year. They show 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. They 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 reminisce with friends and schoolmates they hadn't seen for forty or fifty years. They visit a museum that holds "relics" of the their past. They hike to mountain lakes where they fished and camped. They attend a church service in the "Rec Hall" where they attended church services many years ago. They placed historical marker signs throughout the village to tell the story of "The Holden Mine" so visitors will know that Holden was once a very different kind of community. They leave Holden knowing they were privileged to have lived in such beautiful surroundings and made so many wonderful friends.