The Brothels of Wallace
The Place
Location: Wallace, Idaho
Subjects: Brothels; Miners; lifestyle
Time: 1884 - 1991
The Brothels of Wallace
by Paul Parmeley
Wallace Idaho is a small town in the Silver Valley which is a high elevation and mountainous region in the northern part of Idaho. Today, visitors come to learn the history of Wallace, but the town’s past attracted settlers for other reasons. However before the town became what it was it was a huge attraction for mining of silver and gold. Wallace was a huge attraction for the mines that were all over the place. So, miners looking for silver and gold and a paycheck would come down to Wallace around the time of 1884. Even starting slightly in the late 1870’s. Wallace is in the Silver Valley which is called Silver Valley for all its rich deposits of Silver in the area. So, miners came by looking for silver and in their down town they would spend the time at the bars gambling and also visiting the brothels that were there as well.
The brothels that were there started around the boom of mining in Wallace. People during the time thought that the mining lifestyle had brothels. This followed all the way over to Wallace. The brothel in Wallace had many owners and had a huge impact in the history of Wallace. When the brothels shut down in 1991 the owner was Madam Ginger. The brothels had a role in the rebellion the miners had against the government which was stated in “Selling Sex in the Silver Valley” by Branstetter. They also had a part where they tried to hide the red district from President Roosvelt which we will get to later. The brothels opened in the 1880s and continued through 1991, when the last brothel in nation operating in Wallace got shut down.
During the 1800s people thought that a mining town and the mining lifestyle needed to have prostitutes and sex workers and it wasn’t until 1903 that they started to regulate the sex workers. Before 1903 the workers were allowed to do as they pleased in the saloons. However, when 1903 rolled around and sex workers were required to get medical check ups often. This did allow them though to not just be in the saloons but to make themselves theaters and places specifically for them and their line of work.
When 1890 rolled around labor battles began in the town of Wallace. The brothels helped contribute to the battles in an indirect way. They helped the social and economic dynamics for the mining community. This shaped more of the locals’ attitude toward authority. During this time miners were fighting the government and put the silver valley into a state of rebellion as the government would describe it. During this rebellion miners were using dynamite to blow places up and in one case they hijacked a train to send a message. There has always been during this time a balance of independence between the miners and government and at the same time politics as well between miners and the brothel workers.1
In May of 1903 around the time that the brothel’s workers were being more regulated in the red zone they confined the red zone with a wall. The reason behind doing this action is because the President of the United States who was Roosevelt at the time was coming to the town of Wallace and they didn’t want him to view the town badly because of all the sex workers and their gambling. So what they did was confined them all in one area and then built a wall so it was less seen from President Roosevelt.2
When the brothels were operating, the person in charge of the brothels had some strict rules when it came to who could work there and who could not. The rules also included taking very goodcare of the workers to make sure they were safe and not in any harm from man or disease. Madam Ginger who was in charge and one of her rules she followed was to never hire someone from the town of Wallace to be a sex worker. It always had to be someone who was not from the area. If you were from the area you were a maid for the brothel.3
Since this place was a mining town and a mining lifestyle the living conditions were rough to live in. However, the trade off of what you found in silver and having close knit community ties and out weighed the rough living style these men and families lived. The entire history of Wallace is important to understand how the region is today. These events show how tough we all are in Idaho, and not just in the modern time but in the past as well.
Works Cited
Primary Sources
Sanborn map of Wallace, Shoshone County, Idaho, 1891
shows how wallace looked back in their time. shows where the buildings are and located. shows what the buildings were.
Amador Mine [02]
Shows how the miners lived in the day, including how they got around and transported the silver they found. This also shows how they looked as well and the style of the safety comparison.
Sanborn Map of Wallace, Shoshone County, Idaho, 1891
Shows how Wallace looked in the early 1900s including building locations.
