MULLAN - The closing of the Lucky Friday mine in January of this year sent shockwaves across the Silver Valley. Hundreds of local miners were forced out of work, leaving the money they would spend at local establishments dried up.

The impact of the closing hit the small town of Mullan, where the Lucky Friday is located, the hardest. Dan Hagman was the owner of both the Coyote Cafe and the Smoke Shop Tavern, but after the closing of the mine, Hagman said the Smoke Shop Tavern's clientele all but disappeared. Nearly six months after the mine closed, the small-town bar had to close its doors.

"It was basically tied to the shutdown of the Lucky Friday mine," Hagman said. "When the Lucky Friday mine was shut down, we started losing money and business. The miners would come in after work, and that was most of our business."

Hagman said after the Lucky Friday mine closed, he had to start sinking more money into the Smoke Shop Tavern until it just seemed shutting the doors was the best route to go.

Hagman said the national economic woes had nothing to do with it and added the Silver Valley has been doing better than most of the severe recession-hit cities.

"I think people make too big a deal about the economy, I think Shoshone is doing much better than a lot of the country," Hagman said. "They have problems in Miami and New York and Arizona, but things are different here (in Shoshone County) so I don't understand why people here panic about the national economy."

And things aren't all bad for Hagman either; he said his other Mullan establishment, the Coyote Cafe, would keep its doors open for the foreseeable future.

He also added he doesn't think this is the end of the Smoke Shop Tavern. He said while he may not be the one to open it back up, he thinks the Smoke Shop Tavern will once again serve Silver Valley miners if the Lucky Friday mine gets reopened.

"I believe that with time, the Smoke Shop will be opened up again," Hagman said. "It might not be opened by me, but when Hecla opens the mine back and starts hiring, I think (the Smoke Shop) will return."