USA > Montana > Silver Bow County > Butte > A brief history of Butte, Montana, the world's greatest mining camp; including a story of the extraction and treatment of ores from its gigantic copper properties > Part 3
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ity, stable and sure, is most certainly extending its leaven through the minds of the community.
Eloquent testimony to the improved morale of the labor employed in the mines is found in the rapidly increasing number of homes being erected by this class. Pretty little cottages of four and five rooms, built of wood and brick, are being
MEADERVILLE, LOOKING NORTHWEST.
East slope of " hill."
22
BUTTE, MONTANA.
erected in every portion of the city. In most cases these are convenient to the place of employ- ment, although the instinct of thrift and invest- ment, taught by the successes of earlier settlers, has inspired many to seek the best portions of the city in the hopes of future enhancement of prop- erty. Oftentimes a double house is built, the rentals of one assisting the thrifty home-builder in the payment for both.
Many pungent object lessons are found throughout the city in structures of different periods belonging to one owner, showing a mod- est beginning in an old log shack, an expanding
ing, the influences springing therefrom will, of their own force, speedily work out a like condi- tion for all.
The city at present is most pronouncedly cos- mopolitan. Nothing of which another metrop- olis may boast, in the way of up-to-dateness, is here lacking. Its public institutions are models of their kind. Twenty-eight schools and an- nexes are distributed throughout the city and its suburbs, attended the current year by 6,307 p11- pils and employing 170 teachers. Both curricu- lum and structures are of the most modern type. Gymnasiums and manual training are features
BUTTE
BUSINESS COLLEGE
LOUIS S.COHK CIGARS!
BUTTE COAL CO.
P.r.
SARAIR
CARS
MEAL !!!
LOOKING SOUTH FROM CENTER OF CITY.
means in a more pretentious cottage, and the final attainment of an independent state in a pretty home, a business block or other like material evidences. With the growth of such instincts, a growth in other elevating attributes logically fol- lows. Cleanly home surroundings, a higher standard of home life, assimilation of better ideals and more prominent participation in the city's affairs all have their beneficial effect, lend- ing a responsibility to the individual, which is leaving its imprint upon the mining class and raising it to the plane of loftier citizenship. To the very small minority now belongs the objec- tionable element and, with this condition obtain-
of the system, while training-classes for the teachers assure a constant introduction of new normal methods, and military organizations and school teams in many of the sports add the touch of completeness to an otherwise broad learning. For the first time in its history, Butte is but be- ginning to experience the benefits which must ac- crue to a public morality from the quickened im- pulses and higher ideals which are knit into the mind of the student of a city's free schools and. in turn, become the uplifting heritage of that city's economy. The untold benefits which this new condition assures must prove a potent ele- ment in Butte's future life, as each succeeding
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GREATER BUTTE.
generation injects a new morality into the place of the lingering old. Besides these institutions, opportunity for special instruction is found in the new School of Mines, and a half dozen or more
ment branches. A beautiful courthouse adds its quota to the enhancing architectural excellence of Butte's structures, and the city government is comfortably housed in an attractive city hall.
TACONN
PLL COMPANY
LOOKING WEST.
School of Mines and " Big Butte " in background, to which the city extends.
private schools of different character, teaching . Clubs of every description and organized for music, languages, etc.
The city is amply supplied with churches of a high order, twenty-eight church organizations telling their own story of religious activity. A public library, erected at a cost of $100,000 and containing 25,000 volumes, but emphasizes the
every purpose are making their influence felt in the regeneration of social and literary conditions, the Montana club supplying a public necessity as a club home for professional and business men and a place of entertainment for the city's guests, and is a model in its furnishings.
L.J.COWMELL COMPANY
WITTCAMMELL COMPANY'S
LOOKING NORTHWEST.
ORIGINAL MINE.
trend of public improvement. Plans are about completed for the erection of a new federal build- ing at a cost of $250,000, to accommodate the growing requirements of the postoffice service, with its six sub-stations, as well as other govern-
The theater has felt the uplifting influence of succeeding events and is patronized by the most critical of publics, who both exact and are fur- nished with the best in opera and drama that is known to the American stage.
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BUTTE, MONTANA.
Of newspapers there are many. The Butte Miner and the Anaconda Standard, the latter published in Anaconda, twenty-eight miles dis- tant, but with headquarters in this city, are daily morning papers, enjoying an eighteen-hour leased wire service of the Associated Press, and are of a much higher order than cities of twice the size in the East generally know. The Inter Mountain is an afternoon paper published six
ville water system, there recently has been com- pleted a system which gives much promise to the city's future, when it shall have become the lead- ing manufacturing center of the State, which its logical location and prominence assure it. Some thirty miles distant from the city the Big Hole river - an exceptionally sanitary mountain stream - has been dammed and the electric power generated by this dam has been brought
LOOKING NORTH. Centerville in middle background on crest of " hill."
days in the week, and supplies the same high class of newspaper excellence as do the morning publications, it also enjoying the leased wire service of the Associated Press. In addition to these are nine weeklies, devoted to different pur- poses, ranging from mining news to religious matters.
The city is provided with power, water and light supplies sufficient for a city four times its size. Besides the old system of water-works, which supplies the city proper, and the Walker-
into the city, solving for all time the question of sufficiency of power. The water of the Big Hole is also piped into the city and large reservoirs are being prepared for its reception, which, in due time, will be connected with the city's present supply.
Railroads connect the city with all sections of the State and the whole country as well. The pioneer line, the Utah and Northern, is now a part of the Oregon Short Line system, connect- ing the city with the South and tapping the
-
LOOKING NORTHEAST.
West slope of "hill."
25
GREATER BUTTE.
Union and Central Pacifics at Ogden, and the Oregon Railroad and Navigation system in Ore- gon. The Northern Pacific penetrates the exact center of the State from east to west, giving Butte a direct line to the Pacific, and, with St. Paul connections, to the Atlantic, and is easily Montana's leading railroad. The Great North- ern reaches the city from Great Falls over the Montana Central Railway and handles the great quantities of ore shipped daily to the smelters of that city from the Butte mines. In addition
has a most enviable record in saving property from that element.
Within the last few years the system of pave- ments has been extended along all of the princi- pal business streets of the city. The material used is granite blocks, scientifically laid, and an extreme longevity is assured. The system is being pushed in every direction and is now reach- ing toward the residence portions.
Rapid transit, too, has felt the hand of im- provement. Electric lines now connect the city
MAIN STREET, LOOKING SOUTH.
to these roads, general agencies of the Chicago Great Western, the Burlington, Missouri Pacific, Oregon Railroad and Navigation, Rio Grande Western and Union Pacific have been established in the city, thus making Butte the center of rail- road activity in the Northwest, as well as of com- merce and mining.
The city has police and fire departments of unusually high standards. The former numbers a force of some forty patrolmen and detectives, is equipped with patrol wagon and is well disci- plined, while the latter is supplied with all mod- ern apparatus for fighting fire and, divided by sub-stations throughout the city and suburbs,
proper with every outlying district, including Meaderville, Centerville, South Butte, the West Side and the Columbia Gardens, while the cur- rent year will doubtless see Walkerville added to the list. A close schedule maintained on these many lines permits a free flow of traffic to any point and gives the city as a whole a system not enjoyed by many larger cities.
Electric lights are, of course, a conspicuous part of the city's public improvements, the sys- tem contemplating not only the lighting of évery section of the city, but also its extremest environ- ments.
Of hotels there are many of a high standard.
26
BUTTE, MONTANA.
DRTRA
BROADWAY LOOKING EAST.
GRANITE STREET, LOCKING EAST.
27
GREATER BUTTE.
The McDermott and Butte are first-class Ameri- can and European hostelries, respectively, while a new home for the traveling wayfarer, in the Thornton hotel, is in course of construction, and promises to be one of the finest of its kind in the Northwest. Private apartment houses, con- nected with up-to-date cafés, are becoming pop- ular with Butte's people who prefer the quiet which they afford, and many of these provide elegant homes for this class.
Both the telephone and the telegraph, it seems quite needless to say, have long since reached the
a potent deterrent to many prospective home- seekers from other States who might otherwise look Montanaward.
Without hesitation and without equivocation, it can not be too heartily emphasized that no State in the Union enjoys so healthful a climate as does Montana. Its altitude, while not being excessive in any case, removes it from the blighting effects common to lower sections and provides for it an atmosphere which is pure and sweet and beneficial to the last degree. No water remains upon the surface to gather infectious germs, but finds its
PARK STREET, LOOKING WEST.
perfection mark. The latter is taking on the last improvement necessary to make it thoroughly cosmopolitan, in the acquisition of the district messenger service, while the former has just completed the recent innovations of the East, to wit, the abandonment of the bell system and the introduction of the electric light for call pur- poses, and the installment of long-distance serv- ice for all subscribers in place of older instru- ments.
One word should be said of climatic conditions in Butte, which, in a general way, applies to all of Montana. It is a question upon which rests much ignorance, and which, dispelled, removes
way immediately to running streams which carry it entirely away. The extreme dryness of the air secured by the altitude renders it far less pene- trating than is the case with damp-laden air, and it is no conceit to say that thirty degrees colder weather is felt less acutely than in sections of lower altitude. In other words, one is less con- scious of what ought to be the bitter cold of thirty degrees below zero in Montana than he is of zero weather in lower sections. An erron- eous impression should not be created by reason of this statement, for, if the thermometer ever reaches that point, it is never for more than twenty-four or forty-eight hours throughout an
H
17 1
F
-
EE EE
IT'S
Garfield.
Blaine.
High. Washington. REPRESENTATIVE SCHOOL BUILDINGS.
Lincoln.
Adams.
Webster.
Greeley.
29
GREATER BUTTE.
entire winter, and many winters pass without that point being reached. Its snows, too, do not acquire the depth popularly attributed to them. What would be rains in lower altitudes are often snows here, but they are short-lived and, once fallen, do not remain long upon the ground, being dissipated by the warm winds from the Pacific, which bare the ground as one sleeps. The holi- days have usually passed before the ground is covered by a snow which survives one day of sunshine.
Butte, as a center of mining industry, does not exhaust its virtues. The prestige which its great wealth of mineral affords makes it the logical
No more fruitful subject is presented to the progressive mind for consideration than are the manufacturing opportunities which exist, not only in Butte, but throughout the State. Al- though one of the greatest producers of raw ma- terials of any State in the Union, Montana thus far has consented to the importation of a large portion of the materials necessary to satisfy the needs of its people, whether it be for the cover- ing of the body, the feeding of mouths or for the purposes of construction, or for materials used in the larger industries of the State. In Butte alone $1,000,000 a month is paid in wages to the people working in the mines and smelters, to say
City Library.
County Courthouse. CITY AND COUNTY INSTITUTIONS.
City Hall.
center of capital, commerce, politics, and a leader of social life throughout the State. Its capital is doing much, not only in developing other sec- tions of the State, but also the rapidly opening sections of contiguous States as well as of Brit- ish Columbia. This fact has not robbed the city, however, of the blessings of this agency, and great institutions which are reaching out into the whole State and attracting the trade thereof to Butte have been established in all lines of commerce. Wholesale establishments of every character, as well as general agencies of large concerns of the East, are rapidly centering in the city. Manufacturing, too, is beginning to find encouragement by reason of new conditions throughout the State and many ventures have found in Butte the most logical site for their plants.
nothing of the large sums paid out monthly to thousands of others elsewhere employed, there being a total of 24,000 wage-earners in the city. Yet the production of a large majority of the sup- plies necessary to meet their demands is left to others foreign to the State.
With the vast amounts of wool, of hides and pelts and of mineral products of all kinds which Montana produces and the unequaled opportu- nities offered agriculturally, there exist advan- tages of which but few States can boast, and the wonder is that the present shall reserve to com- ing generations the task and profit of utilizing the great bulk of these raw materials where they may be obtained the cheapest, content to let in- terests wholly uninterested in Montana's devel- opment grow rich upon opportunities offered its own people. Yet this question, as well as many
Mountain View Methodist.
First Methodist, South. First Baptist.
First Presbyterian.
TYPES OF CHURCHES.
Trinity Methodist, Centerville. Episcopal.
Christian.
31
GREATER BUTTE.
others, will undoubtedly be met, as have the questions of the past. The city is too large and its industries, as well as those of the whole State, are too great for them to be held back by these questions.
For the city a great future is in store, and the prediction is well founded that four or five years hence will witness a city as easternlike, as mod- ern, and of as high a public morality as the mis-
ter, covering one generation - yet today it stands the peer in wealth and prospects of any inland Western city.
Mining activity of wider range but increases the belief that the supply of mineral is limitless, and that, as time shall unfold, works of greater magnitude covering an immensely larger field will take the place of those which today seem in- credibly great and point the truth that Butte is
Church. Hospital.
guided East can expect or the most exacting de- mand. What it will be in point of number con- jecture alone can prophesy and events prove. That it will approximate a total of 100,000 is a conservative statement. Such a total would be in harmony with its present ratio of increase and every sign would point to an abnormal increase over present ratios rather than a recession there- from. History records but few parellels to Butte - with such unpromising nucleus, rapid transi- tions, undesirable hordes, marvelous growth, whose Genesis to Revelations is but as one chap-
CATHOLIC INSTITUTIONS.
Parish Home. Parish School.
not yet out of its swaddlings in greatness nor opportunity.
True, it is not a haven for the unemployed of a whole nation, and it is not for the purpose of attracting the unemployed to this particular city that these statements are made. More specific- ally is it intended to show the general conditions which exist in the whole West, and point the thought that what exists in Butte today will exist elsewhere tomorrow, and that these gen- eral conditions are an invitation to a sturdy class of people who would carve out for themselves a
Hennessy. Mantle.
Owsley.
Connell.
Silver Bow.
A FEW BUSINESS BLOCKS.
33
GREATER BUTTE.
future in a land where large opportunities exist. No more uninviting spot in the world could be found for profligacy than in the great West. No more tempting a field is offered for sobriety.
ability and business acumen. It has ever been the graveyard of the indolent and ne'er-do-well, the goal of success for energy, pluck and persever- ance.
PRODUCERS OF WEALTH.
An unpardonable slight would mark our effort to reflect true conditions if prominent attention were not drawn to the miners and smeltermen as a class, as upon them rests no light mantle of honor. For they are primarily the ones whose efforts really make Butte great. They are the men whose lives are jeopardized in the perilous duty of wresting riches from the bowels of the earth and of refining it, and it is the wealth so produced by them upon which a few are enabled to mount to positions of great power and influ- ence. While the raw material produced by their efforts is shipped to the East and converted into dividends for the mine owners, their wages, amounting to a million or more a month, goes to increase the prosperity of the city. No factor which enters into the life of Butte as a metropolis stands so conspicuously in relief as a guarantee for greater things than does the enormous pay- roll of the wage-earners, always excepting the life of the mines themselves, and in the case of the mines of Butte, years of increasing productive- ness are assured for them.
Too little thought is apt to be the portion of this courageous, honest, hard-working class of men. Not only does the miner, who goes beneath the ground to delve in semi-darkness, subject himself to accidents of every description, any one of which may render him a cripple for life or lay him cold in death, with a large family dependent upon him for support, but it is equally true of the smelter- man, whose task at all times is a most hazardous and a dangerous one.
From eight to ten hours a day is the miner engaged at his perilous task, with giant-powder and deep, cavernous shafts as his work-fellows, with not the best of ventilation, subjected to the dampness common to deep levels, and, in no few cases, working in deep mire by reason of the pres- ence of water, perspiring like a stoker, with hol- low, unnatural noises as the only sounds to reach his ear, and shot to the surface or dropped to the bottom, thousands of feet below, day after day, with only a cable or steel belt between him and
certain death. Yet he goes cheerfully to his task that he may meet the responsibilities of life like a man, educate his children to lives of usefulness and provide for his family in a manner fitting and appropriate. He is a hero, every inch of him, and he heroically performs a daily task from which a strong man might well quail and shrink back in terror.
The smelterman, too, does not escape the haz- ard consequent upon the production of the " red metal." Though working in the bright light of day, or by artificial light, which makes his voca- tion less dangerous, his task is not for children or weak-hearted men. Dangers are his, every moment of the day, and one has but to spend the briefest of time in witnessing the progress of his efforts in order to lend assent to this statement. As the furnaces are tapped and throw out their myriads of sparks of molten matter, which mer- cilessly burn to the bone whenever human flesh is touched, and as the larger volume comes splutter- ing out, the smelterman stands closely at his post of duty, conveying the burning liquid to converter and back to furnace again, if necessity requires, subject at any moment to direful accidents which . may horribly mutilate him or cost him his life. All honor is due to the class of men who will con- sent to follow a vocation so dangerous - an honor as lasting and as exalted as was ever extended to the pioneer.
No less than thirteen thousand men are em- ployed in the mines and smelters. Their pay runs from $3.50 to $4 per day, and, in some cases, still higher, and a finer aggregation of wage-earners can not be found the length of the land. They are an extremely intelligent class, differing in this respect from those of many other mining sections, and among them will be found the student of every profession, the musician, the thinker, the mining expert, the orator and the political leader. Many of the leading professional and business men of the city are graduates from the mining and smelting classes, and their success denotes the character of the men engaged in these vocations.
3
34
BUTTE, MONTANA.
F.
-
T. M. Hodgetis. Mrs. P. A. Largey.
Hon. W. A. Clark. PROMINENTĪRESIDENCES. -
C. W. Clark. J. H. Vivian.
35
1523766
GREATER BUTTE.
The nationalities represented among these two classes are principally American, English and Irish, although other nationalities are encountered in smaller numbers. The vast majority of the thousands following the respective vocations are thrifty, have built pretty homes, own bank accounts, attire their families in the warmest and best and are raising their children in such a way as to make them aggressive and independent, giv- ing them good educations in the public schools and, in a large number of cases, providing them with higher advantages. Unlike mining sections of other States, no class distinction is drawn between those working in the mines in Butte and the general public, either socially or otherwise, it being recognized that some of the best types of citizens are thus employed.
The miners and smeltermen, as well as every other branch of labor in the city, have their labor organizations, which have done much to improve the conditions and morals of the entire class. One lodge alone of the Miner's Union numbers some- thing over six thousand members, and the union as a whole is the parent organization of all organ- ized mining labor throughout the West, the lodges or branches of the larger organization, until a short time ago, if not at present, receiving their
A
MINERS' UNION HALL.
charters from the Butte body. Many of the offi- cers of this larger body are, or until recently were, employed in the mines of the city and are recog- nized as the foremost advocates of organized labor in the entire West.
BOSTON AND MONTANA BAND.
To the miners of Butte has been reserved the proud distinction of furnishing the finest musical organization in the State. It seems quite unneces- sary to state that this organization is the Boston and Montana Band, the entire State for many years having recognized this truth.
Prof. S. H. Treloar is the organizer of the band, which took place so long ago as December 22, 1887, and for these many years the band has had no successful competitor for first place.
The band was encouraged by a former manager of the Boston and Montana mines, Capt. Thomas Couch, himself an ardent admirer of high-class band music, and, as the original members, num- bering six men, were employed by the Boston and Montana Company, the organization took the name of that company for its own. For over a year and a half after organization, the band did not make a public appearance, confining itself to careful study and gradually increasing its membership, until it numbered eighteen. Its first
appearance was met with an enthusiastic welcome and its popularity slowly increased, until the whole State learned to seek its services when a high order of music was required. When it is remembered that many of the military posts had their crack musical organizations, the palm thus yielded to the Boston and Montana Band receives added significance.
In June, 1890, the band was installed as the regimental band for the Montana National Guard and its presence did much to enhance the inter- est taken in the State encampments of that mili- tary organization.
In May, 1892, the band was incorporated and at this time numbered twenty-one members. The band henceforth began to receive engagements from all parts of the State and was oftentimes taken beyond the borders. In 1896 it was taken to Chicago by the Montana delegation to be in attendance upon the national Democratic conven- tion. The press notices of the Eastern papers
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