The rain’s back. We walk with the old friend through the Treadwell ruins. Since the mine collapsed almost a century ago, nature had been trying to reclaim the once bustling townsite. When it could no longer produce wealth, the mine owners abandoned it and, I think, its workforce. Large buildings, a baseball field, swimming pool and other comfort providing things were left to the mercy of alders and willows.

Aki and I find an ore car in the deep woods, still standing on the rails once used it move it in and out of the mine. Ground plants have already claimed most of the track but the car stands ready to report for duty where miners left it after seawater flooded out the mine tunnels. Nature would reclaim our Chicken Ridge Neighborhood in a generation if we let the Taku winds blister away house paint and moss destroy our roofs. Maybe we should have built our shelters with the industrial bones left by our ancestors in Treadwell.