Anaconda’s Open Pit Lake near Weed Heights, Nevada by PhotoJournalist Roberta Bryant

Roberta took these photos on October 6, 2020.

The Nevada Blue Skies were shrouded with smoke from the wildfires, but the sapphire of the lake still shone.

The pit benches giving giant mine equipment road access have become slippery slopes over time.

There was a time when Don Tibbals and his family set up an RV park with water recreation paddle boats in the pit after the mine pumps stopped and the water rose.  But the water was eventually determined to be less than wholesome to recreate in.

When the Mason Valley flooded from the end of December 1996 into the beginning of January 1997, some of the Walker River overflow went into the Anaconda Pit where the trees slope into the water on the left of this photo near the west end of Bridge Street in Yerington.

Many locals have become accustomed to seeing the un-reclamated Anaconda open pit mine: they view the shimmering lake with it’s turquoise waters and the dusty ore piles, not as an eye-sore, but with fond nostalgia.

Thank you, Roberta Bryant, for these spectacular photos!