Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-206) and index.

Wounding the West traces the role of hardrock mining and its relationship with the American West by following the environmental history of one Montana mine, the Mike Horse, from its 1898 discovery, through its heyday in the 1940s, subsequent abandonment, and eventual cleanup under the coercion of a state law that many would consider ill-suited for abandoned mines. David Stiller argues that taxpayers should treat mining companies like the for-profit enterprises they are and insist that the hardrock mining industry pay a fair royalty for extracted minerals and then put this funding to work correcting the industry's worst historical abuses.