Looking west
The view from Round Mountain to the west includes the town of Round Mountain and its range of protective mountains.
Tailing tales
The view east from the town of Round Mountain is not of Round Mountain any longer but of its remains. In extreme mountaintop removal, gold was extracted in flakes and nuggets, and the mountain was moved, grain by grain, to the valley. The neatly stacked tailings contrast with the geologic structure of the flanking mountains, snow still clinging to the upper crevices.
Down the road
Another mine is relandscaping a different piece of real estate. Rolling slopes and gentle peaks have become unscalable walls and plateaus upon plateaus.
Earth-moving
Can the mountains survive when earth-moving trucks come on tires twice the size of pick-up trucks? Has anyone asked for mountaintop approval?
From my first novel:
Kara saw the old Battle Mountain Gold Co. mine near Copper Basin soon after leaving town. There were other mines, Copper King, Copper Queen, the Lucky Strike, and the Irish Rose, but the Battle Mountain mine seemed so big. Giant earth-movers had chewed two teeth of Antler Peak to the gum line. Terraces of talus ringed its flanks. The browns, tans, and yellows of the mountain’s guts spilled from one terrace to the next. Fingers of dark, reddish, dried-blood brown ran down the talus slopes. Why do I associate things like this with “manmade” rather than “womanmade”?
Another mine loomed. She drove nearly 30 miles before she got to it. Western distances seemed small to the eye but were long to drive. Other old, faded signs sprouted by the road: Alta Gold Co., NERCO Minerals Co., Elder Creek Mine, Echo Bay Minerals Co. Kara stopped. She shaded her eyes and looked at the chopped-off, heavily terraced mountains. What kind of people would do this?
She fingered the thin gold choker around her neck that’d he given her … She touched the gold choker again, wondering about the true cost of things both material and spiritual.
You get it. And yes, spot on location.
I’ve seen the massive earthmovers used in the coal industry. Gold mined flake by flake. Thin gold chokers The feeling in my midsection and tear glands.
Yes. The internal churning matches the geologic.
Overwhelming
Undermining