HAMILTON, NEVADA

rospectors were scratching for ore at 8,000 feet in the White Pine Mountains as early as 1865, but the first big silver strike in 1867, so the story goes, stemmed from a pot of pilfered beans. That summer mining company employees woke in their cabin one morning to find a starving Indian eating the remains of the last evening’s meal. Chasing him off, they gave the incident no further thought. Days later the Indian returned, offering company blacksmith A.J. Leathers a chunk of pure silver ore,