Snow blankets the ground around Harqua Hala Observatory, a Sun-watching station in Arizona, in the 1920s. The station was established by the Smithsonian Observatory to measure minute changes in the Sun's energy output as a tool for improving weather forecasts. It was atop a mountain that was miles from the nearest road, so everything had to be carried to the summit by hand or on mules. The site was bedeviled by strong winds, hazy skies, dangerous storms, venomous snakes, and other hazards; its director, returning after a trip to Washington, complained, "Devil appears to have claimed everything." [Smithsonian Institution]