We Visited One of Idaho’s Tiniest Villages and It Made Us Want to Slow Down
My wife Sara and I recently headed back to Warm Lake with our dear friends Angelo and Barb. They have been exploring this part of Idaho for years, and after the four of us had such an amazing time at Warm Lake earlier this summer, we decided to squeeze in one more getaway before summer disappeared.
We already knew we wanted to spend Saturday going to Yellow Pine. We’d explored plenty of the surrounding backcountry before, but we’d never actually made it into Yellow Pine.
A few hours later, we’d met what felt like half the town and by the time we left, I understood why so many people who come to Yellow Pine have a hard time leaving.
Just How Small Is Yellow Pine, Idaho?
First, it’s not technically a town, it’s the Village of Yellow Pine and when I say it’s tiny, I mean it.
Deb Filler, one of the residents we met, told me Yellow Pine had about 30 full-time residents last winter. She’s seen it drop as low as 23 and climb as high as 36. That’s roughly one neighborhood cul-de-sac where most of us live.
But during the few hours we spent there, I don’t think I’ve ever felt more welcome in a place we’d never been before.
We started talking to people and those people introduced us to other people who told us about still more people we needed to meet. Eventually somebody told us we needed to meet Deb.
Welcome to the Unofficial Mayor of Yellow Pine's Porch
We walked a couple of houses down and there she was. Deb was sitting on her porch and she had no idea who we were. She wasn’t expecting us, but she waved anyway and before long, she was in the yard with her little dog, giving us a hug and inviting us onto the porch.
At one point during our conversation, she suddenly stopped talking. “Sorry, we have to wave at everybody.” and she did... That’s Yellow Pine.
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Deb has been coming to this part of Idaho since the 1950s. She and her husband bought property in Yellow Pine in 2008, and after she retired in 2012, it became home full-time.
Her connection to the area, however, goes back generations. Deb’s grandfather worked at the Stibnite mine after World War II. One of his jobs was building garages and single-story homes for the mining community.
Years later, when Deb and her husband bought their Yellow Pine property, an old one-room cabin was sitting on it. That little cabin had originally been a garage at Stibnite before it was moved to Yellow Pine and converted.
Could Deb’s grandfather have built it? She has no idea. “Whether or not he did, I just love the story,” she told me. So do I, because you can’t really tell the story of Yellow Pine without telling at least part of the story of Stibnite.
Thousands of People Once Lived Up the Road From Yellow Pine
One of the first people I talked to that Saturday was Blaine, a geologist who has worked on the current Stibnite project since 2012. He was involved in some of the early exploration work and has spent much of the past 14 years working at the site.
Today, he’s part of Perpetua Resources’ community relations team or, as he jokingly described himself: A “recovering geologist.”
Blaine gave me a crash course in Stibnite history. The mining district became enormously important during World War II as a domestic source of antimony and tungsten, strategic minerals needed for the war effort.
At its height, thousands of people lived at Stibnite. There were neighborhoods, a school, a community center and a dance hall.
Deb told us something else that puts the area’s history into perspective. Stibnite had electrical power during World War II. According to Deb, Yellow Pine didn’t get commercial electrical service until 1968.
Before then, the village relied on a diesel generator that ran during limited hours. She says you can still find old electrical insulators attached to trees around town.
Even landline telephone service didn’t arrive until decades later. And today? Don’t expect a traditional cell signal, Wi-Fi calling is your friend.
Now They’re Building a Mine at Stibnite Again
Major mining at Stibnite eventually ended, although smaller mining operations continued periodically through subsequent decades.
Then the latest chapter began. The company now known as Perpetua Resources began exploring the historic mine in 2009. After years of environmental review and permitting, the U.S. Forest Service issued its final Record of Decision approving the Stibnite Gold Project in January 2025.
Perpetua broke ground on early construction later that year and the company says it expects construction to take roughly three years, with mining operations targeted to begin in 2029.
Perpetua projects 650 jobs, maybe more, during construction and more than 550 jobs during mine operations.
Remember... We’re sitting in a village with about 30 full-time residents. So naturally, I started asking everybody the same question. What does all of this mean for Yellow Pine?
What Do Yellow Pine Residents Think About the Mine?
I want to make something clear, I didn’t go to Yellow Pine to conduct a scientific survey about mining. I simply started talking to the people we happened to meet, but I was genuinely interested in what people living next door to a project this enormous had to say about it.
Alan, who first came to the area more than 20 years ago and now lives there full-time, said Perpetua has helped maintain roads and control dust associated with its traffic.
“They’ve been awesome,” he told me. “They’ve done a lot of stuff to help us out up here.”
Angie moved to Yellow Pine from New Hampshire almost five years ago after coming out to help a friend for a summer and never left.
She told me she hasn’t seen a significant negative impact from the project.
Lorin, another longtime resident, pointed out that Yellow Pine isn’t primarily a mining town anymore. It’s a tourism community and once Stibnite is operating, the mine traffic isn’t expected to simply funnel through downtown Yellow Pine.
Perpetua is constructing the Burnt Log Route, which is planned to become the primary mine access during operations.
Deb thinks moving the large haul traffic away from the village and sensitive stretches along the existing route could ultimately be a good thing.
But her view of Stibnite comes with something else: She considers those mountains her backyard. “This is home,” she told me.
Stibnite is upstream from Yellow Pine. “I want things to go well there. I really, really do.”
Deb Actually Read the Stibnite Project Plan
She told me she sat down and read the 500 pages of the project material. She wanted to know what was going to happen there.
Deb remembers visiting Stibnite when she was young and seeing firsthand what mining looked like decades ago. She also believes modern environmental requirements and oversight have fundamentally changed the way a project like this has to operate.
And she told me her experience with Perpetua over the years has given her confidence in the company. “If they say they’re going to do it, they do it,” she said. “They have been really good neighbors.”
The approved project includes extensive environmental restoration and reclamation work, including restoring fish passage, addressing legacy mining impacts and reclamation after operations end.
For Deb, those aren’t abstract promises in a government document, it’s upstream from her home and she’ll be watching.
Why Is Antimony Such a Big Deal?
Gold is the primary economic driver of the Stibnite project, but antimony is a big reason this Idaho mine has received national attention.
The mineral is used in defense applications, batteries, flame retardants and other products, and the United States currently relies heavily on foreign sources.
Perpetua says Stibnite contains an estimated 148 million pounds of antimony reserves and is the only identified domestic reserve of the mineral in the United States.
More than 80 years ago, miners went into these same Idaho mountains to produce strategic minerals needed by the United States during World War II. Now we’re looking to Stibnite for antimony again.
Yellow Pine Isn’t Just About Mining
Yellow Pine may owe part of its history to mining., but today, people come for the backcountry. Angie says summer is the busiest season, with day-trippers, bicyclists, motorcyclists and people traveling through the area.
Yellow Pine is also a stop for riders exploring the Idaho Backcountry Discovery Route and then there’s one weekend when the population gets just a LITTLE bigger.
Thousands Come for the Yellow Pine Harmonica Festival
While we were talking with Deb, we met Jason Stevens. Jason now heads up the Yellow Pine Music and Harmonica Festival, which celebrated its 36th year this summer.
He told me the tradition dates back to 1989. The harmonica was a natural fit because miners could easily carry the little instruments into the mountains for entertainment.
What started as a harmonica contest eventually became a much larger music festival. This year’s event featured two stages, 28 live acts, vendors and community events.
Jason estimates about 4,000 people came to Yellow Pine, who's population on a normal day is about 30.
If you want to attend in the future, Jason says camping is the way most visitors do it, with dispersed camping available around the area.
And Then There’s the Yellow Pine Tavern
We also discovered another very good reason to make the drive... the food.
The Yellow Pine Tavern reopened June 19 after being closed for roughly a year and a half. Its new owner, Haley Barnes, grew up in Emmett and graduated from Boise State in 2019, but her dad grew up in Yellow Pine and her great grandfather once owned the store.
So when Haley and her husband returned to Yellow Pine last year and eventually took the plunge on reopening the tavern, she really was coming home.
They remodeled the place, and it looks fantastic. Then we ate and oh, man it was good!
This May Be the Best Burger in Idaho
My wife and I split the burger of the week. It was a half-pound burger topped with tender roast beef, grilled onions, cheese and au jus for dipping it. Even the coleslaw was fantastic.
My wife, Sara’s verdict? The best burger she’s had in Idaho and we’ve eaten our share of Idaho burgers, so that’s saying something.
Haley later told me the idea came from a musician who comes to town for the festival.
And when I asked what she’d tell somebody who’s never visited Yellow Pine, her answer fit our experience perfectly. “Come up and meet the family.”
The Community Hall Tells Another Yellow Pine Story
Before we left, Deb asked if we’d like to see the Yellow Pine Community Hall and yes, of course we did. Inside, T-shirts from years of Harmonica Festivals line the upper walls.
But Deb was especially excited to show us the kitchen. Perpetua had commercial restaurant equipment from its Outpost building that it no longer needed, and that equipment was donated to the community.
While we were there, the commercial stove, hood and other pieces were actively being installed in the Community Hall kitchen and you could see how excited Deb was.
The Mountains Are Yellow Pine's Big-Screen TV
Of all the stories Deb told us, one of my favorites was about building their home. Reliable internet wasn’t exactly easy to come by, so she and her husband put big windows in the house and those became their big-screen TV.
Every morning, Deb sits with her coffee and looks through those windows at three different mountain ridges. She watches the sunlight hit the mountains and slowly work its way down. “It just feeds my soul,” she told me and I get it.
Come to Yellow Pine and Take a Breath
Before we left, I asked Deb the same question I’d asked several other people that day. If someone has never visited Yellow Pine, why should they? Her answer may be the best description of this place I heard all day.
“So they have the opportunity to stop and take a breath.”
Deb admits Yellow Pine isn’t for everybody. There are no movie theaters, groceries are a long drive away and conveniences most of us don’t even think about, aren’t necessarily convenient here.
But she thinks the tradeoff is worth it. She especially loves watching families bring their kids into the backcountry, where they can put away some of the distractions and simply go outside and find something to do.
“Sit back and just take a breath,” she said.
That’s Yellow Pine, Idaho
We drove there expecting to spend a Saturday sightseeing. Instead, we met Blaine, Alan, Lorin, Angie, Haley, Oliver, Jason, Deb and enough other people that by the end of the afternoon, I joked that we’d met about half the village.
Everyone had a story. Everyone seemed to know everyone and everybody waved.
There’s an enormous project taking shape in the mountains outside town. Over the next several years, Stibnite will undoubtedly bring changes to this part of Idaho.
But I hope one thing doesn’t change. I hope you can still walk into Yellow Pine as a complete stranger, meet somebody on a porch and leave feeling like you were invited into the family.
Sara and I will definitely be back. Next time, though, I think we’ll stay a little longer.
"Take a Breath" and Look Around Yellow Pine, Idaho
Gallery Credit: Cory Mikhals
