5hours in Butte - gonefishinstories.format.com

5hours 15photos

I can not remember how many times I have driven by Butte on the way to a fishing destination. The scars on the landscape from this city on a hill, once called,"The Richest Hill on Earth," are visible even cruising at 80mph on I90 .

The open pit mine and the "gallows frames" or Headframes that stand tall and stark against the big sky of Montana remind me that these structures once carried miners into the depths of the earth under the residential neighborhoods of Butte.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Butte experienced the boom and later the bust of an economic cycle for mining copper and also became one of the largest Superfund sites in the United States.

I visited Butte for the first time this January. Icy rivers canceled my fishing options, so I had no excuse not to pull off I90 for a quick visit.

I arrived mid-morning to a fresh chilly breeze and threatening gray sky. My attitude about what I had read about the history of Butte and my first impression of seeing the "Headframes" so prominent on the skyline influenced my decision to shoot in Black and White. As the day brightened, I explored the streets, walking into shops and engaging in conversation with a few residents of Butte. For lunch I sat at the bar in the M&M Cigar Store, listening to the barmaid's memories of growing up in Butte and the revitalization taking place. I realized that I made too many assumptions about a place I never took the time to visit. After lunch with the sun shining, I began to look through my viewfinder finding another Butte, one of scars and sad mining stories, but one also of ghost signs from a fascinating past and a city on the mend.

It wasn't until I edited my photographs that the story of what I captured became evident to me. My decision to show the other Butte I had not imagined and made assumptions about, needed to be in color.

Kelly Mine

There is no more important symbol of Butte than its headframes that stand over the Hill's now silent underground copper mineyards. These tall structures--they range from 99 to 200 feet--are remnants of the underground copper mining era that was the engine for the city's renowned prosperity and the source of its nickname "The Richest Hill on Earth."

Often mistaken for oil derricks by visitors, they were originally called gallows frames (or gallus frames) because they were used to lower miners to their stations below the surface. The double meaning of the name was not lost on the miners who knew the risks in their daily work. Many died below the surface in the dangerous business of "getting the rock in the box."

Today, about a dozen of these headframes have been preserved, immediately visible from anywhere in the valley below and recognized far and wide as symbols of Butte, Montana. You can't pick up a brochure or see a TV ad without noticing a logo that is some configuration of a headframe. They represent better than any other symbol the substance and spirit of the Butte community.

They represent Butte's mining heritage, the submerged sacrifice of sweat, toil and tears to get the precious metals from beneath the surface that helped win wars and fuel a global economy. The copper mines beneath each headframe made widows and orphans but their immense wealth also fed and clothed thousands of families, many of them immigrants from around the world who realized their American dreams here.

http://www.mainstreetbutte.org/headframes.htm

http://www.mininghistoryassociation.org/ButteHistory.htm

Mile High

Symbols of Butte

Metals Bank Building

http://metalsbancbutte.com/

http://finlen.com/

Ghost Signs

A ghost sign is an old hand-painted advertising sign that has been preserved on a building for an extended period of time. The sign may be kept for its nostalgic appeal, or simply indifference by the owner.

Street Shots

West Broadway Shop

http://www.terminalmeats.com/who-we-are/

Half lunch counter,half bar.

Beat poet Jack Kerouac stopped by for a visit and wrote the following description for Esquire Magazine in March, 1970:

"It was Sunday night, I had hoped the saloons would stay open long enough for me to see them. They never even closed. In a great old-time saloon I had a giant beer. On the wall was a big electric signboard flashing gambling numbers ...What characters in there: old prospectors, gamblers, whores, miners, Indians, cowboys, tobacco-chewing businessmen! Groups of sullen Indians drank rotgut in the john. Hundreds of men played cards in an atmosphere of smoke and spitoons. It was the end of my quest for an ideal bar..."

http://www.butteamerica.com/mm.htm

Largest Italian Store in the Northwest.

Marla Mia's and Front Street Market.

I found wonder.

" Butte,Montana,is filled with surprising neighborhoods ,where you'll find Blue Ribbon designated waterways-places famous for fighting fish,not other fisherman.A bustling,friendly uptown and its tempting homegrown restaurants."

restaurantshttp://www.visitmt.com/places-to-go/cities-and-towns/butte.html

http://www.mininghistoryassociation.org/ButteHistory.htm

http://www.mainstreetbutte.org/ghostsigns.htm

GFS Limited Edition Prints

Each image will be printed on high quality Archival paper,numbered 1/6 and signed by the photographer,David J Gallipoli. Printing options and pricing available upon request.