Coeur d'Alene, city and seat of Kootenai County, northern Idaho, on the northern shore of Coeur d'Alene Lake. It is a lumbering center and a tourist resort, with three Idaho Panhandle National Forests nearby: Coeur d'Alene, Saint Joe, and Kaniksu. A junior college is located in the city. The community developed around Fort Sherman, established in 1878 to protect railroad and telegraph workers, guard the border with Canada, and subdue area Native Americans.
Its early growth was as a lead- and silver-mining center, and the area was the scene of bitter strife between unionized miners and mine owners in 1892 and 1899. Mine workers striking for reasonable hours and wages were attacked by federal and state troops, who imprisoned 1200 miners for six months in barbed-wire camps. Many died while their families starved; only 12 were ever charged with a crime.
