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.All Trips / Central USA / Montana / North America
Signs of Butte
Often in my travels I wish I could see a destination as it was years before I’ve gotten there — that I had access to H.G. Wells’ Time Machine so I could select exactly when to drop into a city or town. In the case of Butte, Montana, I would set that Time Machine for circa 1900. What a grand city I’d find when I arrived! One of the largest, most developed new cities of the American West, with beautiful lavish hotels, elegant restaurants, theaters and other attractions, Butte was the place to be! Funded by the wealth harvested from the mines of the “Richest Hill on Earth”, Butte was booming.
Jump forward a century and what you find is quite different. Most …
.All Trips / Car Culture / Central USA / Montana / North America
Great Cars along the Road…. Butte, Montana
Butte, Montana, is a colorful town. It was in its heyday about a century ago, and I would have loved to have visited it during that time. Butte (pronounced B-yut) was one of the largest and most advanced cities in the western United States.
1955 Chevy Bel-Air, Butte, Montana
As the mines around Butte have progressively (but not completely) played out and closed, the town has lost lots of its people and much of its luster. Still, while somewhat worn, it has charm. As we drove around the streets, I found this beautiful classic car parked in front of buildings that were old when it was new. Believe it’s a 1955 Chevy Bel-Air. Not in perfect condition but it seemed to be well cared for and …
Tagged Butte, car. Chevy
.All Trips / Central USA / Montana / North America
Butte, Montana’s Hole in the Ground: A visit to the Berkeley Pit
When most people think of Montana, images of mountains or “Big Sky country” or wildlife spring to mind. Usually you don’t think of a massive hole in the ground, but a destination of interest is the Berkeley Pit, a now closed open-pit copper mine in the historic town of Butte.
By the end of the 19th century, mines around Butte had yielded a lot of gold, silver and copper, earning the town the nickname, “richest hill on earth”. As electricity demand across America increased and more wiring was needed, the growing demand for copper made Butte a boom-town in the early 20th century. Copper mining in Butte historically had required a complex network of underground drains and pumps to lower the …
Tagged Berkeley pit, Butte, mine, mining
