Butte - "Underground"

Aug 23, 2011 Monday

Butte “underground”

Butte is all about the underground, from the mining, to the town and on and on.  We take a tour first thing in the morning about the underground of Butte in it’s hayday where the population was over 100,000.00 and space was of the essence.  Our guide first gave us a mini-class on the mining - Copper was king in this area, and they mined over 20 billion tons of copper from this hill.  Enough to pave a 4 lane highway 1 foot thick 125 miles long - for those of you who have trouble imagining what a billion tons of copper.

We visit an underground jail which was still in use in the 70’s, in the belly of the town hall.  

The barbershop underground, which lead to a hidden door that lead you to a secret area to have alcohol (this was during prohibition) which lead to a hidden tunnel and sidewalk, stairs back to civilization.  The men could go for a cut and a shave, have a drink, and come out on a different street, and no one would know.  

The first speakeasy that I have seen was underground as well.  In a fancy hotel of it’s day, and assigned to the basement during prohibition.  The hotel stairs and walls were of marble, the wood was solid mahogany, and so were the doors were.  The speakeasy we visited was complete with a 2-way mirror, and secret password to get in.  

Was fun to see and learn about life during prohibition where people will do anything to hide their whisky from flasks with labels saying “ floor wax” to crates saying alcohol for “medicinal purposes” - 100 % whisky!

Off to the Old Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge.  This was built in the late 1800’s and was already too small for the amount of criminals to be housed.  It was built for 150 inmates, and they added another 182 at the peak of occupancy.  This prison was used until 1979. If there was ever a deterrent to “criminal activity” this would be it. 

I’ve seen movies where the inmates are held in solitary confinement, but it is quite different to see, stand in, and feel the very concrete where these prisoners were kept.  Pretty brutal existence.

We also checked out the Montana Mineral museum at Montana tech.  It was pretty cool, lots of rocks and minerals that look quite different than the polished things on jewelry.  Was really interesting, and we could have spent more time there learning about the rocks, formations and how precious gems are made naturally.  The one pictured here reminds me of chocolate!

The Berekley Pit is famous in Butte - it is their open pit mine.  We got a chance to view it, and it is monsterous!  

At the end of the day we were ready to come up from the underground and see some vegetation!