Picture a town that exploded from nothing to thousands of people in just three years, only to vanish like a desert mirage. Rhyolite, Nevada, was that place, a Wild West boomtown born from gold fever ...

It doesn’t take much for a century-old mine shaft to cave in around you. Or for the mercury, lead or arsenic leftovers to leech into the Silver State’s already strained groundwater supply. That’s why, ...