Off in the distance from Silver Spring is the huge copper strip mine. It is listed as a tourist attraction, the longest operating surface mine in the country, but even from afar it looks like a giant scar on the face of the earth. We never got within 10 miles but still drove by the “tailings department” where they are managing the huge piles of dirt they don’t want. I am not sure what their restoration guideline are but it still doesn’t look very natural to me. Anyway, chalk it up to a necessary evil I guess and hope that we have figured out how to get the copper out with the least damage.