The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Our first visitors, after a long hike at Moulton Reservoir.

This weekend's short fall. This morning's snow fall.
Snow. Yesterday it was 70 degrees. Today we have snow. Please feel sorry for me; it would make me feel so much better.

Well, it has been too long since I last blogged. Keith's parents have come and gone--so nice to see familiar faces in a foreign land. And apparently summer and fall have come and gone. I guess Montana has two seasons: summer and winter. So now it is winter. I will put up the sandals and shorts I wore just yesterday and trade them out for my parka and snow boots. Poor Lucy may need boots too.

Mining headframe and Cabbage Town, metal housing for the poor of Butte in the mining days.

William Clark's former home, now the Copper King Mansion B&B.

The streets of Butte, red building is Jewish synagogue.

We took a Butte Historical Trolley Tour with Bob & Barbara and learned a lot about the rough and tumble history of Butte. Lots of brothels (like I mentioned before, the last one closed in the 1980s), murders (labor organizers), gambling, drinking, and poverty and wealth. Marcus Daly, F. Augustus Heinze, and William Andrew Clark, the industrialists called the Copper Kings who made Butte thrive were the wealthy. The poor were the miners, timber men, and laborers who came from Finland, Scandinavia, Ireland, China, Serbia, etc. to build this town and make it the largest town between Minneapolis and Seattle for much of it history. A town of over 100,000 at the turn of the 20th century today is one-third the size. Vacant buildings and abandoned mines dot the landscape.

I don't know what will happen to Butte. I have such mixed feelings. On the one hand the scenery just outside of town is breathtaking. But the town itself is cracking at the seams. There is a huge meth problem here and Butte has the highest fatality rate for drunken driving in the state. Just last weekend a drunk driver from Butte killed an advocate for domestic violence Missoula lawyer who was driving home. He rear-ended her on the interstate going the same direction. Her car flipped several times and she was killed at the scene. The driver walked away unharmed. I have a small understanding of why many Montanans have a disdain for Butte-tans (?). They seem lawless, rough and a little out of control. But the few people we have met are salt of the earth, kind, giving, and helpful. All in all its interesting and wild.

More views of Butte:

The infamous Berkley Pit, the most toxic lake in the world with a pH of 2.5.

From Wikipedia: The Berkeley Pit is a former open pit copper mine located in Butte, Montana, USA. It is one mile long by half a mile wide with an approximate depth of 1,780 feet (540 m). It is filled to a depth of about 900 feet (270 m) with water that is heavily acidic (2.5 pH level). The pit is laden with heavy metals and dangerous chemicals, including arsenic, cadmium, zinc, and sulfuric acid.

Restaurant scene of Butte: Liquor to Go!


Moulton Lake Reservoir area north of Butte.

Butte Thoughts

Arnica growing in the Lime Kilns area south of Butte.

Butte...a special place. The lovely Highland Mountains to our south and the urban sprawl of uptown Butte to our north. What a juxtaposition. Here is what I love about Butte so far:

Pekin Noodle Parlor in Downtown Butte.

No chain restaurants! Seriously, this is a independent thinker's and eater's town. The one aberration is the single McDonalds in the "flats." Instead we have Pekin Parlor, which is a second story Chinese restaurant. Each table is in a 4 foot x 5 foot "closet" that used to room miners between shifts. Or Muzz & Stan's Freeway Diner, which advertises Liquor to Go! Or Lydia's, a straight from 1960s red velvet supper club that offers ravioli, sweet potato salad, spaghetti, green salad, and more with your steak order. (Not a choice, but all the sides are included and come on a gigantic round wheely type tray.)

View of the Highland Mtns.

The mountains, so close and so wild. The Highlands just to our south may have snow until July every year. I hiked in an area called Lime Kilns that crosses the Continental Divide Trail (the longest trail in the U.S.). We saw many elk prints and grassy balds. The views were amazing. And just 30 minutes from my house! By the way, Keith and I saw a moose and her calf on Saturday wandering aimlessly through a neighborhood near where we hiked last Saturday. Our first close encounter of the animal kind!


Finally, what I love about Butte:

History. Butte's history is gritty, rough and the people here are real and down to earth because of that history. This was a town of gambling, prostitution (the last brothel was closed in 1988!), hard drinking, unions, and long winters. I say was, but in a way Butte still is this town. The urban center (on the hill) is not too different from inner city Pittsburgh or Detroit. And with just nearly 34,000 residents, Butte is the 4th largest city in the state. The gritty exterior houses some of the most interesting jewels, just a scratch below the surface. There is Front Street Grocery, which carries the best in gourmet non-perishables and wine and rivals The Fresh Market or Byerly's in selection (I'm not joking here). Judging a book by its cover would make me miss out on all the interesting and lovely parts of town. My favorite new fabric store is in a falling down grey house. I almost didn't go in because it looked so derelict from the outside. But inside was an amazing selection of fabrics. I could go on and on. But I won't.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTING IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT BUTTE:

PBS' show Independent Lens is showing the documentary Butte, America, which highlights the dusty, hard living and historical town that was once the largest copper mining city in America. I believe the premiere is October 20th, but check your local listings.

Views of the Highland Mountains: Lime Kilns trail that includes a small section of the Continental Divide Trail.

Poor Lucy after our Lime Kilns hike. She got into a fight with a stick in the woods. Dog heaven.

Keith with Rick Bass, a wonderful fiction and nonfiction writer who lives most of the year in the Yaak Valley of N.W. Montana (of Ted Kazinski fame). We met him last week at a reading at the University of Western Montana in Dillon and picked up his book Why I Came West. He is a former geologist who worked in the oil fields in Mississippi. The Yaak Valley is 4000 feet below Butte (Butte is about 5200 elevation and the Yaak is 1200) and interestingly enough a warm, rainforest area of MT on the Canadian border.

Rainbows and hot biscuits

Last week right before dinner, it started raining at Our Lady of the Rockies, which as I mentioned before you can see from our kitchen window. When I hike up the Maude S. trail, 1 mile from my house, Our Lady is just across the ridge. So needless to say, Our Lady is not far. The rain never made it down into the valley, which is how it seems to go in the high desert.

Instead we had a lovely rainbow to remind us that good and beautiful things can happen even when it seems dry here and dark everywhere else.

I have spent the last week hiking new trails, painting our pink trim brown, and messing around in the kitchen (I have to not look at the kitchen carpeting because it is an appetite killer for sure.) I have been running lots of different routes, missing my Hamburg climb, but the "urban" streets of Butte do offer a lot of different views and viewpoints. I did run the old railroad track that hovers to the east of town, but my neighbor said I should get bear mace before I do that again. It is very remote. I think I will get some this week. Oh, and this bear mace would be for the mountain lions, which are more common around here.

So Keith is settling into classes, and honestly it is tough. He gets discouraged and then encouraged and then discouraged. But we both agree that we are here to learn and grow and certainly doing the same old thing, while it may have its appeal, doesn't do much in the learning and growing arena.

I have been trying to get a grip on high altitude baking, which as it turns out does call for some tweaking. Water boils in no time here (200 degrees fahrenheit boiling point) and bread bakes in two-thirds the time. Keith and I keep saying we feel like we are in a foreign country and at least the differences do make the distance seem a little farther from "home."

Do I sound melancholy? I think Sundays do that to me anyhow. We do feel blessed and happy, despite my tone.

Today we hiked at Homestake Meadows. Just south of us by 5 miles. Lovely, grassy and full of deer and elk tracks. Oh, and wild sagebrush, too.

My neighbor has been taking me out hiking, twice last week. We did a 6-mile loop called Beaver Ponds and the 4-mile loop at Homestake.

I don't think I could ask for a better tourguide. She is a mother of two 20+ year old boys, an avid biker (she frequently does 50 milers just for fun, and has done many 24 hour rides) and exerciser. I am in heaven. We are heading out tomorrow for a Continental Divide Hike (longest US trail). Generally we hike for 1 1/2 to 2 hours and then she rides for 3 more hours. Crazy.

I promise something more interesting later this week. We were headed to the rodeo in Dillon (Montana's best weekend event!) But Keith has studying to do and I have all that pink trim to paint.