Conservationists, Forest Service buy Idaho mines Hundreds of mining claims deep in Idaho's Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness are now in public hands, a move officials say will protect drainages where salmon return annually while keeping a winding dirt road open for the curious to explore ramshackle cabins and other mining artifacts brought in by prospectors a century ago. Thunder Mountain, as the area is known, is the latest example of private property owners, conservation groups and the U.S. Forest Service in Idaho, Colorado and Montana inking million-dollar compacts to preserve Rocky Mountain backcountry. Sometimes, the transactions halt further mining, as with Thunder Mountain; elsewhere, they keep developers from turning old claims into mountaintop trophy homes. "There are all these mining communities that came and went," said Alan Front, senior vice president for the Trust For Public Lands, which helped negotiate the Thunder Mountain deal. "Now, they're only digging deep enough to put in foundations for McMansions."....