BY HEIDI UTZ
AT THE TURN OF THE 20TH CENTURY, THE MILEHIGH CITY OF BUTTE, MONTANA, WAS A THRIVING METROPOLIS. The town had quickly progressed from a smattering of mining camps to one of immense wealth from its gold, silver, and copper mines, and contained surprisingly modern amenities. The first skyscraper west of the Mississippi, Hirbour Tower, rose from the core of the city’s Uptown district, and electricity arrived in Butte in 1882, well before most large American cities had it.
Butte hosted a rambunctious mix of hard-working, hard-playing miners from around the globe, and high-rolling entrepreneurs who leveraged its rich copper mines for all they were worth. In Uptown, the two sometimes crossed paths beneath the sidewalks, in a web of back rooms and basements that formed the Butte underground. Within a decade, the city’s population had swollen to more than 100,000 – three times its previous size – and about 130 establishments maintained spaces in the “sidewalk below the sidewalk.” Among their ranks were extensions of stores like Gamer’s Shoes, a barbershop, and a clutch of speakeasies that sprung up like wildfire in the wake of the 1919 Prohibition Act. Kristen Inbody, writing in the Great Falls Tribune in 2014, paints a vivid picture of a town jam-packed with sensory assaults. “Pollution was so thick that the lights were on all the time, and sulfuric acid tainted the rain,” she notes. “That and the noise made basements even more appealing.” As stamp mills crushed ore and mine whistles blasted at regular intervals, the clamor indeed must have been overwhelming. With a soaring demand for its minerals during WWI, bustling Butte employed enough miners and tradesmen to fuel “Venus Alley,” a renowned, round-the-clock red-light district that employed up to 1,000 ladies of the evening. The population spike also kept retail space at a premium, says local historian Dick Gibson, author of
Butte’s red-light district, “Venus Alley,” employed up to 1,000 ladies of the evening. BUTTE-SILVER BOW PUBLIC ARCHIVES
the well-researched historical account, Lost Butte, Montana. Basements could provide additional square footage that many business owners used to full advantage. The underground was also the perfect spot for activities that thrived in the shadows. “There’s no doubt that opium was used in the back rooms of Chinatown,” Gibson says of the two-square-block area between Galena and Silver Streets. “In 2007 an archaeological dig found 18 broken opium pipes … The Chinese population knew how to use it recreationally, but some of the non-Chinese got addicted.” >>
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