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A century ago cinnabar mining was common across the Big Bend region in Texas. Thousands of people were engaged in back breaking manual labor, digging, transporting and refining red cinnabar ore into mercury. Every part of the process is dangerous; some such as handling the mercury are deadly. Even so, honest work is a rare commodity in the wild Texas/Mexico borderlands.
Today these abandoned mines are nearly as deadly as they were when in production. They are largely ignored and unmonitored. Little grows on the contaminated land. The wind blows mineral laden dust into the homes of everyone living within miles of the mines.
A short distance from this site is the historic cemetery in Terlingua. There you get a sense of the price paid by miners to feed their families. The graves, mostly hand made by relatives or friends shelter those laid to rest. They are evidence of traditions stretching back into the distant past.
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