What’s with all the B towns we have been visiting? Buffalo, Billings, Bozeman and now Butte... although we are actually in the small town of Anaconda just outside Butte, so I guess that breaks the trend.
Anaconda is a small copper smelter town that was established in 1883 by Marcus Daly. He bought the land to build a town that would support his mining and smeltering operations. In an unusual move, he didn’t maintain control of the real estate, so it wasn’t a “company town”. He sold land to realtors and small businesses.
Back in its heyday this was a very bustling place but the smeltering stopped in the 1980s so it’s a little quieter now.
Our first outing was to a walking trail that took us around the ruins of a smelter. There were interpretive signs, and a nice view of the town. The smelter was built on the hillside to take advantage of gravity, and these are the remains of one of the flues that took the gasses from the smelter up to a smoke stack.
The next morning our plans to hike were thwarted by the pitter patter of rain drops on the roof.
The aftermath was pretty though.
Instead we drove to the small town of Deer Lodge to check out the museums. This small town has at least 5 museums! Luckily, the admission price gets you into all of them. Note the bottom sign on this post. Cute.
The main attraction is an old prison. As old as it was, built in the late 1800s, it was used up until the 1950s, and its the most modern prison we have been in. It was a bit creepy for me. So creepy that I didn't take many pictures.
It was hard to fathom that quite a few of the inmates were incarcerated for sedition. This guy was sentenced to 2 years in 1918 for saying that the citizens of the United States would have hard times unless the Kaiser gets over here to rule this country.
Anyone who was an escape risk had to wear these shoes- they weigh 20 lbs each. I don’t know what would stop them from taking them off if they wanted to escape though.
In a nearby building is the auto museum, with over 150 cars. Many of them had plaques detailing the history of the car.
When the current owner of this 1929 station wagon bought it in 1958, he asked the seller if he had ever seen the side curtains (which were missing). The owner said he hadn’t, and didn’t think it had come with windows when it was new. So, the new owner puts the car on display at his auto dealership, and soon, an elderly man sees it and approaches him, and says “ I bet you don’t know where they stored the side curtains.” And with that, they got a screw driver and opened the hidden compartment. viola .....brand new side curtains !
Also part of the collection was one of the first “jet skis” ever made- it was called a water scooter. I think I like mine better.
The following day we did manage to get in a hike. It wasn’t the most spectacular hike, but it wasn’t the worst, and it was 6 miles and about 1000 ft of gain, which was a good workout. We hiked Lost Creek Trail- its an out and back trail so we hiked as far as we wanted, then turned around.
Our last day in the area we decided we should check out the town of Butte. Being in Montana, I wanted to have a steak, which I rarely do. There is a restaurant in Butte that has steak au poivre on the menu- my favorite. I didn’t realize the restaurant doesn’t open till 5 pm, but we called and did reserve a table for 5 pm.
Now we just had to find something to do for 4 hours. We started at the World Museum of Mining.
The mine tours were sold out, so we just bought tickets to tour the “recreated” mining town. Apparently you used to be able to go into the buildings, but with Covid, all you can do is look in the windows.
Luckily, holding my phone up gave me a good idea of what was inside.
This armored car used to carry the cash for payroll from the bank in town, to the payroll office at the mine. Along for every ride were 3 armed guards. in 1933, the payroll system switched to checks, and the car was no longer needed.
We managed to kill a couple of hours doing that, then headed to the mineral museum, which is located on the college campus. This museum is free (nice). I actually do enjoy looking at gemstones and minerals.
I particularly like it when the exhibit shows what would be found in the local area, and what it would look like if you came across it on the hiking trail. Paul and I have often said we would walk right past expensive minerals, silver, etc. without giving it a thought.
Azurite is one of my favorite minerals, especially when it is found with malachite (the green). So gorgeous. There weren’t many people (2) in the museum, and we managed to kill a lot of time.
Soon, it was time to go to dinner. I wish I could say the steak was awesome, but in reality we made a better au poivre at the house with Liz and Julie. Oh well, I didn’t have to cook.
The next morning our plans to hike were thwarted by the pitter patter of rain drops on the roof.
