Silver Peak, Nevada

Silver Peak (unincorporated) is the site of a small silver strike back in the early 1900's when this area of Nevada was crawling with prospectors looking to strike it rich. The site is near a dry lake bed that is rich with many minerals, including lithium. Today, this area is one of the bigger suppliers of lithium in the US.

Silver Peak was almost unheard of until newspaper reports tied a major Califonia power outage to events in Silver Peak on March 29, 1999. On that day, Enron energy traders rerouted a massive amount (2,900 MW) of California-bound electricity through Silver Peak. What caused the power outage was the line from Silver Peak to California could only carry about 0.5% of that electricity. When investigators discovered the initial cause of that power outage, they fined Enron $25,000. However, that single action made Enron about $7,000,000 in revenue, so the company figured with these numbers, this was a viable way to do business and make a lot of money.