Butte, Montana Butte viewed from the ground of Montana Tech Butte viewed from the ground of Montana Tech Nickname(s): Butte America Location of Butte in Montana Location of Butte in Montana Map of Silver Bow County showing Butte highlighted in grey Map of Silver Bow County showing Butte highlighted in grey State Montana Uptown Butte Regional Geologic map showing the Butte Mining District and the encircling Cretaceous Boulder batholith Butte / bju t/ is a town/city in, and the governmental center of county of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. In 1977, the town/city and county governments merged to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow.
As of the 2010 census, Butte's populace was approximately 34,200.
Butte is Montana's fifth biggest city.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, Butte experienced every stage of evolution of a quarrying town, from camp to boomtown to mature town/city to center for historic preservation and surroundingal cleanup.
Unlike most such towns, Butte's urban landscape includes quarrying operations set inside residential areas, making the surroundingal consequences of the extraction economy all the more apparent.
Even with the dominance of the Anaconda Company, Butte was never a business town.
In the 21st century, accomplishments at interpreting and preserving Butte's tradition are addressing both the town's historical significance and the closing importance of quarrying to its economy and culture. Butte was one of the biggest cities in the Rocky Mountains in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Silver Bow County (Butte and suburbs) had 24,000 citizens in 1890, and peaked at 60,000 in 1920.
The documentary Butte, America, depicts its history as a copper producer and the issues of workforce unionism, economic rise and decline, and surroundingal degradation that resulted from the activity.
6.1 Butte in literature Butte began as a quarrying town in the late 19th century in the Silver Bow Creek Valley (or Summit Valley), a natural bowl sitting high in the Rockies straddling the Continental Divide.
The impact of the immigrants lives on in the form of the Cornish pasty which was popularized by mine workers who needed something easy to eat in the mines, the povitica a Slavic nut bread pastry which is a holiday favorite sold in many supermarkets and bakeries in Butte and the boneless porkchop sandwich.
These, along with huckleberry products and Scandinavian lefse have arguably turn into Montana's symbolic foods, known and appreciateed throughout Montana.
Among the migrants, many Chinese workers moved in, and amongst them set up businesses that led to the creation of a Chinatown in Butte.
The history of the Chinese migrants in Butte is documented in the Mai Wah Museum. The influx of miners gave Butte a reputation as a wide-open town where any vice was obtainable.
The Dumas Brothel is now directed as a exhibition to Butte's rougher days.
Three men fought for control of Butte's quarrying wealth.
In the 1920s, it had a virtual monopoly over the mines in and around Butte.
Between approximately 1900 and 1917, Butte also had a strong streak of Socialist politics, even electing a Mayor on the Socialist ticket in 1914.
This marked the beginning of the end for the boom times in Butte.
Panorama of Butte, looking Northwest - the "M" on the mountain sits above the ground of Montana Tech.
Night scene in Butte in 1939 Butte was also known as "the Gibraltar of Unionism", with a very active workforce union boss that sought to counter the power and influence of the Anaconda company, which was also simply known as "The Company." By 1885, there were about 1,800 dues-paying members of a general union in Butte.
That year the union reorganized as the Butte Miners' Union (BMU), spinning off all non-miners to separate craft unions.
Some of these joined the Knights of Labor, and by 1886 the separate organizations came together to form the Silver Bow Trades and Labor Assembly, with 34 separate unions representing nearly all of the 6,000 workers around Butte. The BMU established branch unions in quarrying towns like Barker, Castle, Champion, Granite, and Neihart, and extended support to other quarrying camps hundreds of miles away.
In May 1893, about forty delegates from northern hard-rock quarrying camps met in Butte and established the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), which sought to organize miners throughout the West. The Butte Miners' Union became Local Number One of the new WFM. The WFM won a strike in Cripple Creek, Colorado, the following year, but then in 1896 97 lost another violent strike in Leadville, Colorado, prompting the Montana State Trades and Labor Council to copy a proclamation to organize a new Western workforce federation along industrialized lines.
After 1905, Butte became a hotbed of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, or the "Wobblies") organizing.
Rivalry between IWW supporters and the WFM small-town culminated in the Butte, Montana workforce riots of 1914, and resulted in the loss of union recognition by the mine owners.
In 1917, copper manufacturing from the Butte mines peaked and steadily declined after that.
By WWII, copper manufacturing from the ACM's holdings in Chuquicamata, Chile, far exceeded Butte's production.
The historian Janet Finn has examined this "tale of two cities" Butte and Chuquicamata as two ACM quarrying towns.
Commercial breweries first opened in Butte in the 1870s; they were usually run by German immigrants, including Leopold Schmidt, Henry Mueller, and Henry Muntzer.
Most ethnic groups in Butte, from Germans and Irish to Italians and various Eastern Europeans, including children, appreciateed the locally brewed lagers, bocks, and other types of beer.
By the 1960s, primary national brands dominated the market, including Budweiser, Miller and Coors; by the 1990s, however, small microbreweries in Butte and close-by cities found a niche market, and global imports became widely available. Since the 1950s, five primary developments have occurred: the Anaconda's decision to begin open-pit quarrying in the mid-1950s; a series of fires in Butte's company precinct in the 1970s; a debate over whether to relocate the city's historic company district; a new civic leadership; and the end of copper quarrying in 1983.
In response, Butte looked for ways to diversify the economy and furnish employment.
Environmental cleanup in Butte, designated a Superfund site, has working hundreds of citizens . Thousands of homes were finished in the Meaderville suburb and encircling areas, Mc - Queen and East Butte, to excavate the Berkeley Pit, which opened in 1955 by Anaconda Copper.
At the time, it was the biggest truck-operated open pit copper mine in the United States.
The Berkeley pit interval with time until it bordered the Columbia Gardens, a large fairground established by Montana businessman William A.
In 1983, an organization of low income and unemployed inhabitants of Butte formed to fight for jobs and surroundingal justice; the Butte Community Union produced a specified plan for improve revitalization and won substantial benefits, including a Montana Supreme Court victory striking down as unconstitutional State elimination of welfare benefits. Montana Resources LLP bought the property and reopened the Continental pit in 1986.
From 1880 through 2005, the mines of the Butte precinct have produced more than 9.6 million metric tons of copper, 2.1 million metric tons of zinc, 1.6 million metric tons of manganese, 381,000 metric tons of lead, 87,000 metric tons of molybdenum, 715 million troy ounces (22,200 metric tons) of silver, and 2.9 million ounces (90 metric tons) of gold. It is the biggest pit lake in the United States, and is the most costly part of the country's biggest Superfund site.
Headframes are seen throughout the town/city of Butte.
As with many industrialized cities, tourism and services, especially community care (Butte's St.
Many areas of the city, especially the areas near the old mines, show signs of urban blight but a recent influx of investors and an aggressive campaign to remedy blight has led to a renewed interest in restoring property in Uptown Butte's historic district, which was period in 2006 to include parts of Anaconda and is now the biggest National Historic Landmark District in the United States with nearly 6,000 contributing properties.
Environmental research and clean-up accomplishments have contributed to the diversification of the small-town economy, and signs of vitality remain, including a multimillion-dollar polysilicon manufacturing plant locating close-by in the 1990s and the city's recognition and designation in the late 1990s as an All-American City and also as one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Dozen Distinctive Destinations in 2002.
In 2004, Butte received another economic boost as well as global recognition as the locale for the Hollywood film Don't Come Knocking, directed by famous director Wim Wenders and released throughout the world in 2006.
Patrick's day celebration in Butte The annual celebration of Butte's Irish tradition (since 1882) is the annual St.
In these undivided times about 30,000 revelers converge on Butte's Historic Uptown District to appreciate the parade led by the Ancient Order of Hibernians and jubilate in bars such as Maloney's, the Silver Dollar Saloon, M&M Cigar Store, and The Irish Times Pub.
See also: Saint Patrick's Day in the United States Butte, Montana Butte is one of the several metros/cities in the United States where possession and consumption of open containers of alcoholic beverages are allowed on the street (although not in vehicles). Butte is perhaps becoming most famous for the county-wide Montana Folk Festival held on the second weekend in July.
This event began its run in Butte as the National Folk Festival from 2008 to 2010 and in 2011 made the transition to the biggest free-of-admission music festival in Montana and, most likely, in the Pacific Northwest.
Butte's Fourth of July Parade and Fireworks show is the biggest in the state.
In 2008, Barack Obama spent his last Fourth of July before his Presidency campaigning in Butte, taking in the parade with his family, and celebrating his daughter Malia Obama's 10th birthday. According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 716.8 sq mi (1,856.5 km2), of which 716.1 sq mi (1,854.7 km2) is territory and 0.66 sq mi (1.7 km2) (0.09%) is water.
Butte is also home to one of the biggest deposits of bornite.
Communities situated on the Continental Divide, Butte is the most populous.
Every highway exiting Butte (except westbound I-90) crosses the Divide (eastbound I-90 via Homestake Pass; eastbound MT 2 via Pipestone Pass; northbound I-15 via Elk Park Pass and southbound I-15 via Deer Lodge Pass).
Butte Butte has a very exaggerated semi-arid climate (BSk) under the Koppen Climate Classification, though short of being a humid continental climate (Dfb).
Winters are long and cold, January averaging at 18 F or 7.8 C, with 35.9 evenings falling below 0 F or 17.8 C and 58.3 days failing to top freezing. Summers are short, with very warm days and chilly evenings: July averages 63 F or 17.2 C.
Climate data for Butte Mooney Airport, MT (1971-2000; records 1894-2001) Panorama of central Butte, looking uptown toward the Berkeley Pit, old train depot, now KXLF-TV station offices, visible in photo Movies featuring Butte and Butte buildings Known in translation as Butte, Montana The Abandoned Town 2005- An Unfinished Life, Butte is mentioned towards the end.
2007 Hidden Fire: The Great Butte Explosion, KUSM-TV/Montana PBS.
Documentary about the January 18, 1895 explosion that finished Butte's warehouse district.
2008 Butte, America: The Saga of a Hard Rock Mining Town, narrated by Gabriel Byrne 2010 Butte: The Original Produced by Dick Maney and B.J.
Butte in literature 1980 The Butte Polka, by Donald Mc - Caig.
The setting of the first third of the novel is Divide, Montana, a non-urban part of Butte and the hometown of its eponymous protagonist.
Set in Butte in 1919.
Digenite--pyrite specimen from the old Leonard Mine, Butte.
Montana Tech, a state college specializing in the resources and engineering fields.
Our Lady of the Rockies Statue, a 90-foot (27 m) statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, dedicated to women and mothers everywhere, on top of the Continental Divide, overlooking Butte There are many underground mine headframes still remaining on the hill in Butte, including the Anselmo, the Steward, the Original, the Travona, the Belmont, the Kelly, the Mountain Con, the Lexington, the Bell/Diamond, the Granite Mountain, and the Badger.
Clark, one of Butte's three Copper Kings.
The Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives stores and provides enhance access to documents and artifacts from Butte's rich past. Butte Silver Bow Public Library, positioned at 226 W.
Broadway in uptown Butte (BSB Library has two chapters, one in the mall (South Branch) and a part-time branch in the town of Melrose). The Butte library was created in 1894 as "an antidote to the miners' proclivity for drinking, whoring, and gambling," designed to promote middle-class values and to promote an image of Butte as a cultivated city. Sports Teams from Butte Butte Cobras 2014 , Western States Hockey League Butte Copper Kings 1979 1985, 1987 2000, Pioneer Baseball League now the Grand Junction Rockies.
Butte Irish 1996 2002, North American Hockey League now the Wichita Falls Wildcats.
Butte Roughriders 2003 2011, Northern Pacific Hockey League.
Butte Daredevils 2006 2008, Continental Basketball Association titled for Butte native Evel Knievel, folded.
Butte and Silver Bow County are consolidated into one governmental body.
Because its water contains high concentrations of metals such as copper and zinc, the Berkeley Pit is listed as a federal Superfund site.
The Upper Clark Fork River, with Butte at the headwaters, is America's biggest Superfund site.
This region takes in the metros/cities of Butte, Anaconda, and Missoula.
The quarrying and smelting activeness in Butte resulted in momentous contamination of the Butte Hill as well as downstream and downwind areas.
Between the upstream town/city of Butte and the downstream town/city of Missoula lies the Deer Lodge Valley.
For more than a century, the Anaconda Copper Mining business mined ore from Butte and smelted it in Butte (prior to c.
In Butte, mine tailings were dumped directly into Silver Bow Creek, creating a 150 miles (240 km) plume of pollution extending down the valley to Milltown Dam on the Clark Fork River just upstream of Missoula.
Public education is provided by Butte Public Schools which runs Butte High School.
Montana Tech is a enhance college specializing in engineering.
Butte shares its Neilsen market with close-by Bozeman, with which it forms the 194th biggest TV market in the United States.
Butte has the distinct ion of being near the dividing line in terms of Pro-Sports markets, so the town/city receives both Seattle and Denver squads games on small-town cable TV channels.
KXLF is the earliest broadcast tv station in the state of Montana.
The station airs small-town news and commercials from Butte, most of the other programming comes from close-by KECI-TV in Missoula, Montana.
The station broadcasts out of Montana State University in Bozeman.
Prior to this Butte's ABC feeds came from KUSA-TV in Denver, Colorado and FOX from now-defunct Butte station KBTZ.
Butte has one small-town daily, a weekly paper, as well as a several papers from around the state of Montana.
The Montana Standard is Butte's daily paper.
It was established in 1928 and is the result of The Butte Miner and the Anaconda Standard merging into one daily paper.
The Butte Weekly is a small-town paper.
Henry Frank, businessman and Butte mayor Gray, Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court, worked in Butte Lowney, humorist, author of At Another Time Growing up in Butte Arnold Olsen, United States Congressman from Montana Jim Sweeney, former head football coach at Washington State University and longtime head coach at Fresno State University John Walsh, former Lieutenant Governor of Montana, United States Senator and Adjutant General of the Montana National Guard Anaconda Copper Mine (Montana) Silver Bow, Montana Patrick Malone, "Butte: Cultural Treasure in a Mining Town," Montana Dec 1997, Vol.
Finn, Mining Childhood: Growing Up in Butte, 1900-1960 (2012) "Remembering Butte's Chinatown".
Official State of Montana Travel Information Site.
Lang, The Battle for Butte, 2006, pp.
Lang, The Battle for Butte, 2006, p.
Lang, The Battle for Butte, 2006, p.
Mary Murphy, Mining cultures: men, women, and leisure in Butte, 1914 41, University of Illinois Press, 1997, p.
Steve Lozar, "1,000,000 Glasses a Day: Butte's Beer History on Tap," Montana Dec 2006, Vol.
Brian Shovers, "Remaking the Wide-Open Town: Butte at the End of the Twentieth Century," Montana Sept 1998, Vol.
Mc - Carthy, Bob J., Re-Claiming Butte: The Doctrine of Subjacent Support, 49 Mont.
Czehura (2006) Butte: a world class ore deposit, Mining Engineering, 9/2006, p.14 19.
John Grant Emeigh, "No open containers in Butte?", Montana Standard, February 8, 2007 John Grant Emeigh, "Open-container law important, region communities, police say", Montana Standard, July 1, 2007 Justin Post, "Officials reconsider alcohol ordinance: Open container proposal may go different way", Montana Standard, November 5, 2007 Evel Knievel Days, Butte, Montana 2008 a b "Climatography of the United States No.
20 (1971-2000): BUTTE MOONEY AP, MT" (PDF).
NOW; NWS Forecast Office; Missoula, Montana United States Enumeration Bureau.
"The Richest Hill on Earth A History of Butte, Montana," by Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives Staff, 2003 (CD-ROM) Old Butte Historical Adventures.
Butte Public Library "The Origins of the Butte Public Library: Some Further Thoughts on Public Library Development in the State of Montana".
Catalogue of Books in the Butte Free Public Library, Butte: T.E.
"Montana Governor John Woodrow Bonner".
"125 Montana Newsmakers: 'Evel' Knievel".
"Cool Montana Stories: Levi Leipheimer".
"Montana Governor John Ezra Rickards".
Montana State University-Bozeman, 2004) online The Gibraltar: Socialism and Labor in Butte, Montana (Helena: Montana Historical Society).
The Butte Irish: Class and Ethnicity in an American Mining Town, 1875 1925 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press).
Butte Trivia (Helena, Montana: Riverbend Publishing Co.) Mining Childhood: Growing Up in Butte, 1900-1960 (2012) Tracing the Veins: Of Copper, Culture, and Community from Butte to Chuquicamata (1998) excerpt and text search; compares Butte with Chuquicamata, a quarrying town in Chile "An overview of the quarrying history and geology of Butte, Montana." The War of the Copper Kings: The Builders of Butte and the Wolves of Wall Street (1935) Shaw & Borden Co.Available online through the Washington State Library's Classics in Washington History compilation Elma Mac - Gibbons reminiscences of her travels in the United States starting in 1898, which were mainly in Oregon and Washington.
Includes chapter "Butte and Anaconda." Smoke Wars: Anaconda Copper, Montana Air Pollution, and the Courts, 1890 1924 (Helena: Montana Historical Society Press).
Malone, Michael P The Battle for Butte: Mining & Politics on the Northern Frontier, 1864 1906 (Montana Historical Society Press, 1981) excerpt and text search "Re-Claiming Butte: The Doctrine of Subjacent Support 49 Mont.
Anaconda: Labor, Community, and Culture in Montana's Smelter City (University of Illinois Press).
Mining Cultures: Men, Women, and Leisure in Butte, 1914 1941 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press).
Butte and Anaconda revisited: An overview of early-day quarrying and smelting in Montana.
(Butte, MT: Butte Historical Society) "Postindustrial Butte" The Geographical Review 85#4 pp: 478 497.
"Toxic Tourism: Promoting the Berkeley Pit and Industrial Heritage in Butte, Montana." "Pragmatism and surroundingal problem-solving: A systematic moral analysis of democratic decision-making in Butte, Montana" (Ph - D.
Fire and Brimstone The North Butte Mining Disaster of 1917 (New York: Hyperion Books).
"The Contested Terrain of Butte, Montana: Social Landscapes of Risk and Resiliency." "Pennies from Hell: In Montana, the Bill for America's Copper Comes Due." "Smoke and Tailings: An Environmental History of Copper Smelting Technologies in Montana, 1880 1930." "A History of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company: A Study in the Relationships between a State and its People and a Corporation, 1880 1950." Copper Camp: Stories of the world's greatest quarrying town, Butte, Montana compiled by Workers of the Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Montana.
Superfund Cleanup Proposal, Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit of the Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site.
"Butte Benefits from a $78 Million Cleanup Agreement." "Federal Superfund: EPA's Plan for Butte Priority Soils." "Cut and Run: EPA Betrays Another Montana Town A Tale of Butte, the Largest Superfund Site in the United States." Wikimedia Commons has media related to Butte, Montana.
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclop dia Britannica article Butte (Montana).
Butte Visitors Bureau Butte Citizens Environmental Committee (CTEC), a Superfund Technical Assistance group Hidden Fire: The Great Butte Explosion Documentary produced by Montana PBS Panoramic (zoomable) view of Butte, Montana, 1904, Library of Congress Butte travel guide from Wikivoyage Municipalities and communities of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States State of Montana
Categories:
Cities in Montana - Butte, Montana - Irish-American neighborhoods - County seats in Montana - Enumeration balances in the United States - Mining communities in Montana - Consolidated city-counties in the United States - Cities in Silver Bow County, Montana
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