Tuscarora (1992)

Dennis and Julie Parks left the eastern seaboard in the early 1960's, settling in the former mining boomtown of Tuscarora, Nevada, population twelve. They spent the next twenty-five years operating and expanding their pottery school, raising a family and running a studio. A mining company, motivated by high gold prices, began a large open pit gold mining operation just outside of town in 1989. Nevada, encouraging mining, writes its laws to favor that industry's interests over all others. The pit grew ever larger, and the town found its very existence threatened. Spurning buyout offers from the mining company, the Parkses and the other residents decided to stay and fight the near-certain destruction of Tuscarora. As the video chronicles the ongoing saga, we learn much about the Parkses, their school, Dennis' clay work and life in the wide open west. A human scale is given to a story which is told all too often today: as with the rain forests, the snail darter and the spotted owl, economic forces and societal needs can threaten elements of our natural world. In the case of Tuscarora and its residents, relief was granted when the mine shut down as gold prices decreased. For now it's back to business as usual, but there still lurks the possibility of resumed mining in the future if gold prices rise again.