Photo: Still Life in Glacier

Just nearby, a few hours away from this pristine patch of Glacier, is a mine gone bad, and executives come from all over the world to study the mining practices which now threaten the glistening waters running off these hills into rivers like the Flathead. Dams containing tons of cadmium and cyanide are about to break, and the companies that created them are long gone, bankrupt. "The water we brag about," says Murphy, "Is slowly changing color. Where I come from, the water is dusty red, tastes good, but spiked with something that stays in your blood."