Читать книгу Shaped by Snow. Defending the Future of Winter онлайн

58 страница из 81

The town flourished for decades. It had its hardships, including a fire that destroyed almost all the buildings in the 1870s and a series of avalanches that took over one hundred lives. In their haste to build a town, the residents chopped down much of the old-growth forest, not realizing that the trees had anchored the snow on the steep slopes.

That was not the only foresight the mining population lacked. Mining for minerals is a classic boom-and-bust cycle. The money flows vivaciously when there are accessible minerals in the ground. But mining, like oil, gas, and coal, is not a renewable resource. Once the resource dries up, the money does as well. By the 1920s, there were only a few residents remaining at Alta. One of them, George Watson, elected himself mayor and began buying up old mining claims, hoping that another boom would come around. When it never came, he sold those claims to the US Forest Service. That land would later be integrated into Alta Ski Resort.

Miners relocated their lives to try to strike it rich, but many of them never considered that it was not that great of an investment. They’d flock hopefully to wherever whispers of minerals were reported, settle down, create a town, build infrastructure, and elect officials, never considering that the prosperity wasn’t permanent.