For more than 100 years, open pits and mining waste defined the land along Henderson’s eastern edge. Today, part of it holds pickleball courts and playgrounds. Greenbow Park, a 3.5-acre green space, now sits within Aries, a planned community being built on the site of the former Three Kids Mine.
The mine began in 1917 and produced manganese for 44 years. The metal fed U.S. military needs during World War I and World War II. After the operation shut down in 1961, it left behind tailings, waste rock, and soil laced with lead, arsenic, and asbestos.
Turning that ground into neighborhoods took federal action and years of work. A 2014 federal law allowed the Henderson Redevelopment Agency to take over federal land at the site for assessment and reclamation. Crews have since removed asbestos and remediated contaminated areas, paving the way for new construction…