During the first half of the 20th century, the mines in Butte, Mont., were the most dangerous in the world. The work was tough, and the immigrants who did the work were even tougher, a quality that served them well underground but wasn’t always the right tool for the job aboveground. Heavy drinking was common. […]
Edwin Dobb
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Us and them vs. all the rest
Ethnic diversity strengthened early Butte, Montana – and still can.
Posted inJune 21, 2010: Immersed in the Wild
Immersed in the Wild
An ‘open-water’ swimmer finds a risky intimacy with nature.
Posted inNovember 27, 2006: The West: A New Center of Power
Crafting the everyday
Stridently male: That’s how journalist Joseph Kinsey Howard characterized Butte, once the world’s greatest producer of copper. Not only was hardrock mining physically demanding, it was the most dangerous industrial occupation in America. Small wonder that Butte developed a reputation for being a man’s town or that its official history has always been told from […]
Posted inDecember 18, 2000: Still here: Can humans help other species defy extinction?
Still here
Can humans help other species defy extinction?
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Mining the past
Note: an introductory, front-page sidebar, “The hidden West,” accompanies this feature story. BUTTE, Mont. – George Bigcraft, John Bjornstorm, Daniel Budovinac. Near midnight on June 8, 1917, an electric cable caught fire at the 2,400 level of the shaft that served the Granite Mountain and Speculator mines here. Toyvo Kokkonen, Ben Konecney, Mike Kubilus. All […]