LIBBY — Long before she joined a major legal case for asbestos victims, Joyce Walder had a bold streak, according to her sister, Judith Hemphill.

On a recent Monday in October, walking through the forests of northwest Montana, Hemphill recalled how she and Walder would put their ears to the railroad tracks to check for oncoming trains. If all was quiet, they’d dart across to explore the woods that surround the town of Libby, population just shy of 3,000.

She remembered the way they’d dangle their legs over the edge of the swinging bridge bouncing perilously above the charging waters of the Kootenai River.

That was the 1960s, before Libby became known as the site of one of the country’s worst public health contaminations. In the early 2000s, swaths of Hemphill and Walder’s hometown, incl

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