:54:02
not by a long sight.
:54:05
They get distracted worrying about
some postcard idea ofthe Rockies...
:54:09
some black-footed ferret
or endangered tumbleweed.
:54:14
But if a man ofvision
were to come along-
:54:20
I can see it.
:54:24
How's that saddle feeling?.
:54:27
It's coming along.
:54:30
We'll make a cowboy
out ofyou yet.
:54:36
We'ddoneso well with that one...
:54:39
I took on the second biggest
hazard in the state-
:54:43
the Silver City
mining operation.
:54:45
Owned by Dickie Pilager.
:54:47
He owned the land, but Benteen was
leasing the mineral rights.
:54:52
They go hand in glove,
you know-
:54:54
the Benteens
and the Pilagers.
:54:57
- Theywere still digging.
- They had acres and acres oftailings...
:55:01
piled up from
the Silver City glory days.
:55:04
Looked like a pile oftrash rock...
:55:08
but ifyou could process it
on a large enough scale-
:55:11
I'm talking about bulldozers
the size ofbattleships-
:55:15
you could make a fortune.
:55:17
Providing jobs for
the economically depressed.
:55:21
A few, sure.
:55:23
But then we started getting
nasty pH readings...
:55:27
from the watershed
all around them.
:55:29
Started getting
fish die-off...
:55:32
heavy metal residue.
:55:34
The company said it was from the old mine
shafts in these mountains around them.
:55:38
There was nothing
they could do about it.
:55:40
Not true?.
:55:41
Theywere concentrating the gold
in these huge leach piles...
:55:46
and then dumping
cyanide solution on them.
:55:48
- They used cyanide?.
- Sodium cyanide.
:55:51
It's a lixiviate.
:55:54
Basic chemistry.
:55:56
Smells like apricots
for miles around.
:55:59
I had an informant inside.