Knob Hill and Republic, WA 12"x48" This little town nestled in the mountains of Eastern Washington is a bootstrap community in the throes of re-inventing their economy that went the way of so many rural communities dependent on natural resources of logging, mining and ranching. The golden mountain was just that, the Knob Hill Gold Mine which was the oldest longest producing gold mine in the U.S. before it shut down. It's not surprising that a community that was nurtured by the blood, sweat and tears that the mining life is should have such a difficult time re-inventing its economy. Rural America threatens to disappear.