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"Butte is a city where vice is rampant, but it's also a city where you can find anything you want. If you're looking for a good time, you're sure to find it in Butte."
—Anonymous Butte resident
Butte, Montana, is known as one of the most iconic mining towns in American history. However, its mineral wealth came at a price.
Behind Butte's rough-and-tumble legacy lies a darker history.
The Granite Mountain/Speculator Mine disaster of 1917 happened when a cable being lowered to replace burnt-out bulbs sparked a devastating fire.
The fire spread rapidly through the mine and destroyed the wooden support beams.
One hundred sixty-eight people died due to the lethal carbon monoxide gas that the fire produced.
It became Montana's deadliest mining disaster.
The Berkeley Pit symbolizes the dual nature of Butte's mining legacy—transforming from America's largest open-pit copper mine into an environmental catastrophe.
In 1982, it closed down.
After its closure, the pit filled with highly acidic, metal-contaminated water.
The water continues to be a problem to this day, threatening wildlife and some residents of Butte.
In the late 19th century, Butte, Montana, was a notorious rough mining town.
Vice flourished.
Mercury Street became the epicenter of prostitution, gambling, and saloons catering to the men who mined the mines,
City officials periodically faced pressure for reform.
However, they largely tolerated these activities as an economic necessity tied to mining.
Mercury Street's red light district reached its peak in the 1890s.
It had over 300 prostitutes working through the dusty taverns and streets.
The ethnic diversity of Butte in the early 1900s was intense.
Immigrant groups, particularly Finns and Serbians—competed for housing and business opportunities in the Finnish neighborhood known as Finn Town.
These tensions erupted into a violent riot on February 14, 1914.
The Serbians were enraged during the riot—shooting of one of their own and rampaging through Finn Town attacking Finnish properties—one person died and left lasting trauma/scars on the mining town.
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The Anaconda Copper Mining Company dominated Butte, Montana, throughout the 20th century.
The copper company was a powerful dark force that controlled the city's economy, politics, and media.
At the same time, it provided jobs and prosperity to working-class folk.
Not everyone was happy about the economic benefits.
Anaconda's heavy-handed control bred deep resentment among some residents, as they suppressed labor strikes, destroyed neighborhoods for open pit mining, manipulated local politics, and censored media coverage.
The mining over the years has had a devastating environmental and human cost—unregulated industrial operations poisoned the region's water.
Heavy metals had filled the air with toxic smelter fumes.
The city's residents, especially miners, suffered severe health consequences, including:
It would take decades of grassroots activism to begin addressing the problems that these mines created.
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