I remember living in an apartment building on Mercury street, which eventually became part of the pit near Continental Dr., before moving to a nice home on the flats.

My Dad worked the undergroud mines and began bringing home a collection of rocks and crystals in his lunch bucket. That finally gave him the idea for us kids to sell ore samples during the summer, to tourist at the pit viewing stand. He was an extremely resourceful man, always having many “irons in the fire”. He also became the 1st person to win both the State “indoor” and “outdoor” Archery championships in the same year.

I sold rocks as a kid. Shoveling snow, mowing lawns, and delivering papers had become side jobs. Although I hated spending my summer in the basement gluing rocks onto postcards, it allowed us to buy our own school clothes, bikes, and even shop Hennessey’s. At my father’s suggestion, I was even afforded the opportunity to became a pilot at the age of 16, not realizing at the time that he was living his dream through me.

We were the first to sell souvenirs at the viewing stand and did so for 4 or 5 years, until we were no longer allowed, as there became too many tables practicing free enterprise. But, I feel I had already become an official “business man” at the age of 11, being so engrained in the mining industry. The following summer, there was a “company” owned gift shop at the viewing stand.

Not realizing I would never live in Butte again, I left for college in Bozeman in 1978, got married, and settled in Phoenix where I raised a family. We return as often as possible to visit an extended family and friends. The hunting, fishing, skiing, and scenery is unmatched any where in the world.

Today, at 50 years old, I find myself more and more thirsting for any tidbit of Butte culture and history, via the internet, book, or movie such as this. With the kids grown now, I so long for Montana, my plans are to move back this summer. I have never met any people so genuine or so proud of their upbringing and heritage as those from Butte America!!

Thank you for telling OUR story!

Dustin-

This film brought tears to my eyes on several occasions. Watching the scenes unfold and the events take place I was reminded of the innate reason I will always have the connection I have to Butte. My husband’s family settled in Big Horn/Hysham and built a ranch with money they made in the Butte mines after they emigrated from Yugoslavia in the late 1800’s early 1900’s. Often with a name like Bogunovich people will guess that I am from Butte and I am forced to tell them the story of our two families and how this Butte girl married a Hysham boy with ties to Butte.

Thank you for bringing the story of this hard rock mining town to the world. I am proud to be a Butte Rat. In Butte I learned how to endure, how to compete and remain friends and most importantly that when ever I crest that pass that drops into Butte coming out of Elk Park that I am home.

My paternal grandfather ran Hennessy’s department store for decades. This was the Macy’s of Butte. My grandmother raised my father and her family, Uptown, on North Montana street and Caledonia Avenue. She made and sold pasties every day to the miners and workmen.

My father and erstwhile co-conspirators derailed several trains, with blasting caps, in fun of course, off the line on North Montana street, when they were kids.

My parents married in Butte in the late 50’s and moved away to escape to better lives, away from the brutal conditions that came with the mines.

As kids, we visited Butte many times. My uncles worked in the Berkeley and my aunts at Montana Power and Montana State Univerisity. We would go to the Columbia Gardens and burn the days, only a kid can know, riding the planes, the swings, the rollercoaster and working every machine along the nickelodeon.

I came of age in Butte, traveling to see my grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins–raising hell and growing up. My family still retreats there for reunions, or when one of us marries or somebody passes.

It is a place of beauty and heartache and an honest and rough-hewn a place as I’ve ever known.

While not hailing from that area, your approach to this subject
lent deep empathy on my part, and enlightened me to the history of the
area. So much so that it brought both tears of frustration and
positivity at the robustness of the story.

Amazing work, and amazing people. My only hope is that both you
and the town of Butte continue with your talents, vision, and fortitude.

-I started working for the Anaconda Company in 1970 as a laboror on the “Bull gang” in the converter department on Jan 12th 1970. and later transferred to the Weed concentrator in Butte as a laboror on swing shift operations. I worked my way up the ladder as a mill operator,flotation operator, bumpup foreman, and finally working as a shift operations foreman in 1973.I had just delivered my leach an precip crew to the Berkeley dry and headed on my rounds to the tailings pump station,tailings ponds and Kelly surface water pumps when I received a call on my truck radio to shut the surface pumps down as water was no longer going to be pumped out of the Kelly Mine. I took my water sample out of the flume and watched as the water q uit coming. I knew then it was the end of underground mining in Butte and the jobs it provided. I also shut the pumps down at the leach and precip plant just before the June 30th 1983 closure and started the flooding of the pit. I guess I was always in the wrong place at the wrong time to be caught up in these lifetime events.I will never forget that 6:30 AM morning walk coming off nightshift at the Weed concentrator! I never looked back!! I can only hope that this film shows the “Company side” as well as the “Union Side” so the real side of “Butte America” can and should be told The “Company” provided thousands of people a good living and although they could not always see eye to eye the stories about Butte and its people and yes the company will seep out story by story every year. Butte is mining again today withhrecord high copper prices and moly too! Butte lives on!! Thank you for making this film and thank you for Montana PBS Walter and Phyllis Johnson