Butte,
MT Guide : Butte Today.gif)
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| The
Berkley Pit reflects the mountains in Butte,
Montana |
Butte,
MT, today is obviously quite a bit different than it was
just 30 or 40 years ago. While the bulk of the historic
buildings built during the heyday of Butte remain (and many
have been or are in the process of being nicely refurbished),
numerous buildings are either fully or partially empty. Again,
this should not be a surprise. Butte built up an infrastructure
to support around 100,000 people during the 1920’s.
While the people moved out of Butte as the city declined,
the buildings (as they were made of stone), remained. As
such, a visitor to downtown Butte (also known as "Uptown
Butte" since the downtown area is on the "hill") will see
lots of buildings that seem nearly deserted. A closer look
at
many
downtown
buildings (beyond things like the courthouses, city government
centers, etc…) reveals that often-times only the street
level stores are occupied – while many of the upper-stories
of the buildings (especially in the back) are completely
deserted.
Likewise, when driving around Butte, both downtown and just
on the fringe of the downtown area, you will also see some
abandoned buildings scattered around. However, considering
the fast loss of population, the lack of large numbers of
completely abandoned buildings is a surprise. Butte, contrary
to popular belief, is not a town full of empty buildings.
Instead, most buildings are used, just not to their full
capacity.
Of course,
since Butte was a mining town, the most obvious thing about
Butte today has to be the dozens of abandoned
mining rigs that dot the skyline around Butte. Some of these
rigs are just a stone throw away from downtown, with most
of the rigs being less than 4 miles as the crow flies away
from downtown. These mining derricks, which are black in
color and often rise 200 feet in the air, make a definitive
statement about what drove the Butte earlier in the 1900’s.
One
of the neat things in Butte are all the “ghost
signs”. “Ghost Signs”, in case you’re
wondering, are old – often very old – signs painted
on the sides of buildings (a cheap version of a billboard).
Most of the businesses these signs promote are long-gone
now, yet the signs remain – promoting strange and long
departed businesses. These signs add a certain mystique to
Butte which is sort of hard to explain until you visit and
see them for yourself – especially since these signs
are often 70 years old or more. I was gratified to learn
that Butte is making an attempt to preserve these “ghost
signs.”
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| Ghost
Signs are numerous on the buildings in Butte, Montana. |
As is
common with other cities across America, downtown Butte
has had to battle the creation of strip mall areas
and shopping centers. In Butte, the new development is now
primarily occurring down in the “flats” of town – which
lie to the south of downtown (by about 2-3 miles). This is
where not only the new retail development is occurring, but
also where new housing is being built as well.
Curiously,
far Upper Butte (which lies further above town on the hill
and includes the tiny town of Walkerville) seems
to be completely ignored as far as development. Indeed, in
my travels around Butte, far Upper Butte seems to be the
most neglected. I really can’t figure out why, either,
since the whole area strikes me as being prime for housing
development
due to the proximity to the downtown area and the stunning
views of the surrounding mountains Upper Butte provides.
Butte
today, employment wise, is like most other Montana cities.
Service level jobs predominate. Until recently, Butte
still had some decent jobs from what was Montana Power. But,
complete screw-ups by the State Legislature allowed for the
sale of Montana Power to Touch America, which then sold off
its power division to Northwest Energy. As a consequence
of these horrible miscalculations on the part of Montana’s
legislature, Montana not only went from having dirt cheap
electricity to very expensive electricity, Butte also lost
a number of very high paying jobs as well – as both
Northwest Energy and Touch America have shredded their employment
rolls and have sought bankruptcy.
 
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