“How come?” Mike demanded.
“A mineral deposit inside the mountain seeped arsenic into the water. Anyway,” Joe continued, “wagon-train parties would rest up there before trying the pass. Sometimes they’d have to wait for days before they could move ahead.”
“What kept them back?” Sandy asked.
“Snow up in the high peaks. The pass would be blocked.” Joe closed the atlas and went back to his chair. “Some of the parties used to do a little mining up around Sun Mountain while they waited—nothing much, you understand—just enough to make the time go by till they got to the big bonanzas in California.” Joe laughed and fished for a cigarette. “If they’d only known,” he said. “The biggest bonanza of all was right under their noses.”
“Was there gold on Sun Mountain?” Sandy asked.
Joe shook his head. “No, not gold. Silver. That whole mountain was practically made of silver. You’ve heard of Virginia City?”
“Sure!” Sandy cried. “The Comstock Lode!”
“It was right on top of Sun Mountain. It was discovered in 1859. A vein of pure silver nearly sixty feet wide. Before it was worked out, it was worth nearly three quarters of a billion dollars.”
Mike whistled softly. “Did you say billion?”
“I did.”