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For years, business boomed at Gilberto Preciado's home-furnishings store in a working-class neighborhood near downtown Phoenix. But on a recent afternoon his showroom was deserted. Other businesses in his strip mall have been shutting down at a brisk clip. With a big grocery store nearby gone already, the parking lot was an empty field of asphalt baking in the sun. ''You stand out there a couple of hours and you hear crickets,'' Mr. Preciado said. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For this isolated mining town, which lives and dies by the price of copper, the last few years have been a roller coaster ride of steep climbs and sudden dips. Over all, however, the direction seemed to be up. Copper's dizzying climb began in 2003, when prices surged in response to booming demand from China and other fast-industrializing economies. The price spike spurred a major revival of Arizona's once-battered mining industry, and towns like Morenci, once devastated by layoffs, returned to flush times. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Kneeling at the edge of the dock, Wen Baldwin began hauling on a length of nylon rope that disappeared into the depths of Lake Mead. One after another, an odd assemblage of objects -- a water bottle, a chunk of concrete, a pair of flip-flops, a steel anchor -- emerged from the emerald-green waters. A living blanket of tiny, striped mussels covered each one. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]