A Town in Danger: Libby, Montana
Today, the small city of Libby, Montana has a community of 2,800 residents that doesn’t have many luxuries aside from a bowling alley and a model plane runway. Such communities are barely more than a blip on most people’s radar. Libby, however, is a small town with a big problem. In 1919, a local rancher purchased local vermiculite mines and started the Zonolite, a mining company. Through his marketing efforts, Libby’s population began to use the mineral extensively in everything from housing insulation to garden soil. By 1963, the W.R. Grace