Photo: Salt Girl: Murphy Tolstoy Seeps to the Surface in Glacier

As a kid Murphy played in the salt pans around the neighbors' wheat farm. The salt crystals fascinated her. She would chew on them in summer, even when her mother warned her not to. "The salt was coming out coz the bedrock is so solid just beneath the surface," says Murphy, "And the meltwater from the snow and glaciers couldn't sink deep enough to shed the salt. The salt came spiced with arsenic, too, from the rocks taken out of the mine and left in standing water. We liked the color of the water, iron red, salty."