Located on a lonely mountain plain in Colorado ski country, the silver-rush-era town of Leadville holds secrets as deep as its tunnels and old mine workings.

Deep in the Mojave National Preserve lies an old open pit mine where workers dug and drilled for gold and silver from the late 1800s to the 1990s. Miners are back at the Colosseum Mine today ...

The National Park Service and owners of the Colosseum Mine in San Bernardino County, shown in 2025, have been involved in a years-long dispute. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times) ...