The Sterling Botanical Academy

The transition from a militarized frontier to a flourishing center of continental scholarship had been the swiftest and most astonishing transformation in the history of the northern territories. For four decades, the rugged valley separating Silver Creek from the Blackfang Mountains had been known as the "Dead Mile"—a barren strip of scorched earth, barbed wire fences, and concrete watchtowers manned by nervous frontier militia armed with silver-tipped hollow points. On…