Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/tag/butte/page/2/)
You may have seen the news that a researcher in California claims that there is no Missoula. The Nevada County (Calif.) Scooper reported last week that Skyy Wolford, of North San Juan, Calif., had concluded that Missoula “is an elaborate hoax and does not exist.” (more…) Continue Reading →
BUTTE, America, 1967—In nearly a century of existence, the Mining City was no stranger to labor strife, and when Christmas came in 1967, Butte was living through its longest-ever strike. Underground miners there and smeltermen from Anaconda had been off the job since mid-July and would stay out until the following April. As a show of support, members of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union at what then was the Farmers Union Central Exchange refinery south of Laurel put together a pre-Christmas caravan for their Butte brethren. (more…) Continue Reading →
“You know how much money came out of the Butte copper mines?” Shann Ray Ferch asked. “It’s 300 billion dollars! I can’t even imagine it because it’s so much.”
Such is the background of Ferch’s much heralded first work of historical fiction, “American Copper,” released this month. The Montana native, who writes under the pen name Shann Ray, launched his book at a release party last week in Spokane with Sherman Alexie as the keynote speaker. (more…) Continue Reading →
“Being Evel,” a new documentary about Butte’s most infamous son, works hard to capture Evel Knievel as he really was—a monumental daredevil and self-promoter who could also be a selfish jerk. The film presents abundant evidence for his having been a jerk. There’s talk about his pursuit of lowlife crime as a young man, and footage of a surly Knievel cursing at the press corps before his big jump over the Snake River Canyon. (more…) Continue Reading →
At the end of what must have been one of the most open winters in the history of Montana—a year after one of the snowiest winters on record—it occurs to me that I didn’t do nearly as much traveling as I should have. And then it occurs to me that when I set out on my first big out-of-town trip this winter, to do a story on the Beaver Creek Brewery in Wibaux way back in mid-November, it was snowing, windy and bitterly cold. (more…) Continue Reading →
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.” (more…) Continue Reading →
Just in case you didn’t have enough photos from the Montana Folk Festival in Butte this weekend, here’s another collection of shots, these from Anna Paige, a Billings photographer and freelance writer. Some are of the musicians and some are of people taking in the music, busking and walking the streets of Butte. Continue Reading →
BUTTE — During the opening ceremonies of the Montana Folk Festival on Friday night, a woman on the Original Stage was signing for the hearing impaired while a speaker welcomed everyone to Butte. (more…) Continue Reading →
Editor’s Note: This essay first appeared in the summer 2011 issue of the Montana Quarterly. We are publishing it today on Last Best News because it is included in a new anthology, “An Elk River Books Reader: Billings and Livingston Area Writers,” which is officially being released tonight at Elk River Books in Livingston. The Mai Wah Building on Mercury Street in Uptown Butte is a Chinese cultural museum these days, but when I lived in Butte in the early 1980s, the main room on the ground floor housed a junk shop. The first time I saw it, the store was closed, so I pressed my face to the window to see what was inside. What I saw, amid the heaps of tools, battered home furnishings, tennis racquets, bottles and decomposing rugs, was a small collection of books. (more…) Continue Reading →
As the ugly, confusing squabble over Evel Knievel Days continues in Butte, a Colorado filmmaker’s plans for making a documentary about Knievel are moving forward. Daniel Junge, the director of what will be called “Being Evel,” was awarded more than $94,000 in state incentives by the Colorado Economic Development Commission. (more…) Continue Reading →
