mount view on three. one, two, three! mount view! some people must live in great spaces, where the sky goes on forever, where everyone must bend to the land. where to hunt, to fish, to sleep under that big sky aren t activities, but a way of life. it was right here in those mountains that the cheyenne and crow battle took place. but i like it. it s very peaceful. what was it like a hundred years ago? two hundred years ago? oh, not much different. this was never forested. this is the dry side of the river because the primary winds come from the west. rain tends to blow over here, and that brings the snow to the mountains. legendary writer and poet jim harrison is one of those people, and this is his home. i took a walk through this beautiful world felt the cool rain on my shoulder found something good in this beautiful world i felt the rain getting colder sha la la la sha la la la la la am i as old as i am? maybe not. time is a mystery t
by 1955, the berkeley pit had become the largest open-pit copper mine in the world. as it expanded, it devoured meaderville and the surrounding neighborhoods. there was money down there to be dug out of the ground, and that s what butte had always been about from the beginning. in 1983, the pumps that held back the groundwater from thousands of miles of tunnels beneath the city were turned off. the pit filled with 30 billion gallons of water. and as mine tailings and mineral refuse contaminated the water, it became a giant, insanely toxic lake of sulfuric acid. a monument to greed and heedless exploitation of the earth and something eerily, yet, tragically beautiful. if you re still living here, you ve got to have some kind of weird perverse pride in the pit. absolutely! i mean, correct me if i m wrong. no, you nailed it. obviously, the pit is an enduring emblem of that rapacious capitalist greed. but you also have people here who are proud of where they live.
dug out of the ground and that s what butte had always been about from the beginning. in 1983 the pumps that held back the ground water from thousands of miles of tunnels beneath the city were turned off. the pit filled with thirty billion gallons of water. and as mine tailings and mineral refuse contaminated the water it became a giant insanely toxic lake of sulfuric acid. a monument to greed and heedless exploitation of the earth and something eerily, yet, tragically beautiful. if you re still living here, you ve got to have some kind of weird perverse pride in the pit. aaron: absolutely! anthony: i mean, correct me if i m wrong. aaron: no, you nailed it. obviously the pit is an enduring emblem of that rapacious capitalist greed. but you also have people here who are proud of proud of where they live. the history of butte in many ways is you know this town that should have died and but never did. part of that is luck geographically but also the character of the people here.
meaderville and the surrounding neighborhoods. there was money down there to be dug out of the ground and that s what butte had always been about from the beginning. in 1983 the pumps that held back the ground water from thousands of miles of tunnels beneath the city were turned off. the pit filled with thirty billion gallons of water. and as mine tailings and mineral refuse contaminated the water it became a giant insanely toxic lake of sulfuric acid. a monument to greed and heedless exploitation of the earth and something eerily, yet, tragically beautiful. if you re still living here, you ve got to have some kind of weird perverse pride in the pit. aaron: absolutely! anthony: i mean, correct me if i m wrong. aaron: no, you nailed it. obviously the pit is an enduring emblem of that rapacious capitalist greed. but you also have people here who are proud of proud of where they live. the history of butte in many ways is you know this town that should have died and but never
obviously the pit is an enduring emblem of that rapacious capitalist greed. but you also have people here who are proud of proud of where they live. the history of butte in many ways is you know this town that should have died and but never did. part of that is luck geographically but also the character of the people here. you know, they endured. anthony: as you might have gathered by now, this is a working class town. and unusual in that it s a union town. a proudly union town in an otherwise very red state. bryant: butte is the most interesting, important town in america that nobody knows about. anthony: bryant mcgregor is the owner of the silver dollar saloon in what was once butte s chinatown. amanda: so we call ourselves butte, america. anthony: amanda curtis is a former state congresswoman, was born of the labor movement.