Plumbing the Heights

When I walked into my school building for the first time in August, I saw on a co-worker's car an oval Euro-style sticker with the letters Pb, with the place-name Leadville, CO in small letters on the bottom edge. Those familiar with the periodic table of the elements will recognize the abbreviation for lead (Pb) from the Latin noun plumbum, plumbī n. lead. I learned from my co-worker that Leadville is the town at the highest altitude in the United States, a fact which caused another flash of insight. Leadville has a high altitude, from the Latin adjective altus, a, um high/deep. I think of lead as a heavy element used for plumb lines to measure depth, and yet Leadville rises high in the Rocky Mountain State.