About a decade before silver was discovered in Nevada, the West’s first consequential mining boom occurred on the other side of the Sierra Nevada.

This article appears in the August 2025 print edition with the headline “The New Arms Race.” ...

Granted, Montana's abandoned mining towns, like the revitalized Nevada ... Tour the Orphan Girl Mine, a 2,700-foot-deep ...

Nicknamed “Queen of the Silver Camps” for its rich mining history ... It struck me as extraordinary that an abandoned mine operation of this size could still exist, decades after it ceased operations, ...

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