The Montana Bureau of Mines & Geology developed this computer model showing Butte topography and the corresponding underground tunnels from the years of historic underground mining.
Ask and you shall receive. When I linked a few days ago to a New York Times graphic representation of the well bores underlying North Dakota, I said it would interesting to show “what all the underground mine shafts beneath Butte would look like if they were aboveground.”
I also said: “In fact, if there is anyone out there who could help us with that, we’d love to hear from you.”
Today I heard from Garrett Smith, who works in the Hard Rock Operating Permit Section of the state Department of Environmental Quality’s Environmental Management Bureau, who sent me a link to the computer model pictured above. It’s a underground representation, but it works just as well this way, given the relatively small land area under which the shafts were dug.
In North Dakota, where the development is so widespread, the aboveground view presents a clearer picture. Anyway, I hope you will agree that this is a beautiful illustration. It is certainly everything I had hoped for. Here’s a link to the page where it is found, with an explanation of the various colors and such.
Our thanks to Garrett Smith.
