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Artwork by Emilie Belak

Our Rivers: Remains of a Bygone Era

$540


The slag piles and black bench cliffs, remnants of the boom days of the Phoenix Granby Smelter from 1895 to 1919, can be seen around the bend of the river from my house. After extracting copper, the molten slag was poured from big iron pots and allowed to cool and solidify, creating 100-foot cliffs a mile long along the east bank of Granby.