Butte,
MT : Location Highlights.gif)
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| Downtown
Butte, MT. |
Butte,
MT, lies in the Southwest portion of Montana. It’s
about a 2 hour drive to the Idaho border to the south down
Interstate 15. Likewise, Missoula is about a 2 hour drive
to the west down Interstate 90. Helena, the state capitol,
is about 80 miles to the north of Butte along Interstate
15. Perhaps not unexpectedly, the convergence of the Interstate
15 and 90 seems to have brought back some growth to Butte,
at least in the form of hotels, truck stops and other things
that cater to traveling motorists.
The location of Butte is both beautiful and, well, rather
ugly, all at the same time. On the good side, Butte is located
right on the western edge of the Continental Divide in Montana.
Granted, the mountains that form this portion of the Continental
Divide here are not that tall (not rising above 9000 feet).
Still, the Continental Divide, in combination with several
other taller, nearby mountain ranges (the Anaconda-Pintlar
Range is about 20 miles to the west) do provide a nice, scenic
backdrop for Butte.
The
whole area itself is also a nice mix of open fields and
wooded hills. As such, lots of various outdoor activities
can be done in Butte – from 4x4’ing, hiking,
hunting and yes, even fishing now that the nearby rivers
have been substantially cleaned up.
Yet,
detracting from this whole thing are two big ugly scars
that won’t be going away anytime soon, unfortunately.
First, the legacy of 50 years of active strip mining can
be seen from everywhere. These strip
mines
essentially
took
apart
a
small mountain/large
hill. These strip mines, in combination with the “small
wasteland” that surrounds some of the old mining rigs
in around town (particularly in Upper Butte), detract from
the view from Butte.
 |
| The
Berkley Pit and Other Strip Mines seen from the
Miners Memorial |
The
other big detraction of the area occurs just down the road,
near Anaconda. Here is where the heart of the Sueprfund
Site is, a vast swath of old mining tailings with either
little or no soil. The whole valley around Anaconda is essentially
a previous wasteland that is only now beginning to recover
(with grass and small trees now beginning to grow in the
cleaned up spots). Granted, the area has recovered remarkably
well from where it was back in the 1960’s and 1970’s
(when it was a true wasteland in every sense of the word,
according to my Mom who lived around here in the late 1960’s).
But, it still has a long way to go – and is certainly
no match for the scenic valleys found elsewhere in Montana
that do not have centuries old mining scars to contend with.
Butte
has even used this environmental cleanup to create some
parks and bikeways. Just down the hill from Uptown Butte
is Silver Bow Creek, which is part of the Superfund Site.
To
clean it up, numerous settling ponds were built to trap the
metals – preventing them from being washed downstream.
Not only has this worked remarkably well in cleaning up the
Clark Fork further downstream, it allowed Butte to create
some nice walking and biking trails around these tailing
ponds. Several small park areas were also built.
Unfortunately,
beyond these parks, Butte is sadly lacking in open park
areas. While there is no shortage of open space
just outside of Butte, the town itself has a lacking
of established and developed parks. Thus, if you plan on
visiting Butte and want to have a picnic lunch at a nice
park, don’t plan on doing it in Butte. While the handful
of parks Butte does have are decent, the town just doesn’t
have enough of them for a town of its size – with most
of their parks also being tucked away in hard to find spots
of town.
 
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