



Last Stoplight on I-90

Wallace, Idaho

For many years the town of Wallace was famous for having the only stoplight on 3,100-mile-long coast-to-coast Interstate 90, which ran through its business district. Then some unsympathetic road-builders built a bypass, killing the town's claim to fame.

Wallace held a grand funeral for its stoplight on September 12, 1991, placing it in a horse-drawn hearse and driving it through town as bagpipers played. Now the stoplight rests in peace at the Wallace Mining Museum, its lamps forever dimmed, in a coffin filled with artificial flowers.

The Museum also displays the one billionth ounce of silver mined in the district, an item clearly more relevant to the museum and the town than the stoplight -- but the stoplight still gets most of the attention.