Lead-silver discoveries in 1884 drew a railroad to Burke by 1887. Hundreds of miners lived in a canyon so narrow that there was scarcely room for streets. In 1888, S.S. Glidden's Tiger Hotel was built over Canyon Creek rather than beside it, and railroad tracks and Burke's only highway ran through the hotel. When a second railroad arrived in 1890, its tracks had to be laid in Burke's only street. No other hotel had two railroads, a street, and a stream running through its lobby.