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Miners were digging salt out of the ground beneath Wieliczka two centuries before Columbus sailed. The mine, just outside Kraków, Poland, kept producing for more than 700 years, and its miners carved out roughly 180 miles of tunnels and nearly 2,500 chambers along the way. For almost half that time, they’ve had company.

Jackson Lee Davis was an enforcer on the deadline. To the west of it, cattle country; to the east, sheep. Any animal or herder who crossed that line was in danger of the gravest sort. Enforcers rode the line day and night, often carrying a sidearm in addition to their rifle. That respect was often earned in powder and blood, fading away in the breeze and splattered across dry yellowing grass under a beating high-desert sun. On my way south through Idaho and into Utah on the C

The night before, I had pulled off the highway to a pitch black landscape under a bright starry sky. I was in for a surprise when I looked out the camper that morning. As I pulled the shade, the morning sun reflected off a sturdy crust of icy snow with a vengeance for my corneas. I had parked in an expansive meadow with timber climbing the ridges on either side. After making coffee, I glanced out again and could see that I had parked in a popular cross-country ski area. The l