exploit: a Petrified Forest Cave story

noun

1. a striking or notable deed; feat; spirited or heroic act: the exploits of Alexander the Great.

verb (used with object)

1. to utilize, especially for profit:  to exploit a business opportunity
2. to use selfishly for one's own ends: employers who exploit their workers.

Not many words are capable of carrying such binary connotations. 

When used as a noun, it implies bravery and virtue. 

As a verb, the word is more sinister; it suggests subversiveness. 
Money grubbing, gambling, and greedy manipulations. 

Reading this section out of Alfred Stucki's 1966 thesis dissertation 
A HISTORICAL STUDY OF SILVER REEF: SOUTHERN UTAH MINING TOWN
all of these nuances crossed my mind.

Henry Freudenthal and Louis Hassell, chloriders in the Thompson and McNally mine, were putting a hole into unusually bare rock when suddenly the entire face of the drift before them gave way into a black abyss two hundred feet deep. 

Mr. Hassell, who was turning the drill at the time, instantly sprang backward thereby saving himself from being carried downward with the huge mass of rock. 

Two hundred feet overhead could be seen by candlelight, the dome-like ceiling. Two hundred feet below, firm and upright, stood a forest of huge trees. 

Ropes were procured and the chloriders descended into the forest which was found to be petrified.

On some of the trees strange characters were inscribed. Various mosses, also petrifications appearing green and life-like, covered the ground. All of these petrifications carried silver assaying as high as $200 per ton. A number of people visited the cave including Judge A.H. Parker, Mining Engineer. 

The petrifications of course were mined for their silver thus 

destroying the remarkable cave.