HEADFRAME SPIRITS - BUTTE, AMERICA Words by Cobey Williamson
Butte
is
as
authentic
as
it
gets.
Photography by R.g. Nelson
garnering
national
attention
and
ce-
menting Butte as one of the world’s preEvel Knievel was born here, and that
mier venues for environmental research.
quintessential American daredevil, who dressed in a Stars and Stripes jumpsuit,
Like its prodigal son, Butte has a reputa-
held a Guinness record for most bones
tion for being tough. It might get knocked
broken in a lifetime, and once said “pain
down, but the town, founded on the in-
is temporary, glory is forever,” could
domitable spirit of the miners who built
well be the poster child for the place.
it, seems to always persevere. By all ac-
Perhaps
famous,
counts, Montana’s first electric light was
notorious.
lit at the nearby Alice Mine, only a year or
Butte
not is
at
quite least
two after Edison invented the incandescent A mile above sea level, it sits atop a cata-
light bulb. The mines of Butte quite liter-
comb of mine shafts, some more than a
ally supplied the copper that lit the world.
mile deep. Old headframes rise above the buildings in the city skyline. An open
It is a city of extremes, with fortunes
scar called the Berkeley Pit, located im-
founded firmly in the cycle of boom and
mediately on the outskirts of town, is
bust. Since the end of mining’s glory
filled with water so toxic it borders on
days, Butte’s population has hovered
acid. When a migrating flock of Canada
around thirty thousand, but prior to 1900
geese landed there to rest, they all died,
it was the largest city between Chicago
PAGE 50 | MicroShiner.com