InsaneJournal

Butte, America is a shit hole. The place even has a shit hole left over from all the copper mining. Largest superfund site in the whole damn country-- but don’t expect anyone to clean it up. Fuck, they turned the damned thing into a goddamn tourist attraction. They say that when ducks land in the Berkeley Pit their legs melt off and they die.

Not that the place is all bad but when you drive Uptown and see all the old brick buildings it looks like a decrepit Western. Even The Finley looks pretty damn rundown on the outside. Course it’s always a shock to go into that old hotel and see marble fucking floors, marble walls, like it’s some kind of fucking palace. And in the basement there’s this bar that looks like its both brand new and made in the 1960s with orange mod leather chairs, orange shag carpet and dim retro lighting. The price of the liquor in that place is goddamned amazing, too. You can’t get four dollar gin and tonics in a city.

And there’s Saint Patrick’s Day-- largest Patty’s Day celebration outside of Boston. Maybe Butte ain’t all that bad. It’s a shit hole, but it has its moments.

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Links

♦ Wikipedia article on Butte, America.

♦ Video of Butte, Montana, native, Rosie Desjordins tells how these very kind women came to Butte from Paris and Quebec City to work as prostitutes. Rosie's mother, a skilled seamstress who spoke French, knew the women and made them dresses they picked out of the newspapers. Rosie's father, Big Hank, modified his Ford automobile into a pick-up truck and would transport each woman, and her baggage, to the Butte train station when time came to return to Canada or France.

♦ Butte High School. This link offers some general information about Butte's only public high school, including sports, class sizes, number of enrolled students, etc. If they didn't go to school here, then they went to the private Catholic High School.

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Places

Uptown • Butte's historical and cultural district. Named because it is literally situated on top of hills overlooking the rest of the city. Many of the buildings are older brick box shaped structures common to a number of western cities that started out as mining towns.

The Finlen • Known as The Finley to the locals, it's one of the first hotels and also one of the tallest buildings in the entire town. The outside of the building looks run down and the large, red neon letters which read "FINLEY HOTEL" look foreboding. The inside of the hotel is covered in marble flooring and walls, kept in pristine condition like a rich museum. The basement houses the hotel's bar which looks both brand new and straight out of a 1960s groovy espionage movie. The owners are old and do not yet use computers, preferring to keep all their records in massive organizers which makes setting up a reservation more than a few months out impossible.

The Mint • Originally a bank The Mint is located just blocks from The Finlen bar in Uptown. It's been converted to a bar with a strange antique feeling to it. All of the old teller stations were kept just as they were with bottles of alcohol shelved on display in the background. The bartenders wear bow ties and vaguely resemble old fashioned bank tellers. Popular with both tourists and the locals.

Berkeley Pitt • Read the wikipedia article here.

The Dumas Museum • Formerly the Dumas Hotel, also known as the Dumas Brothel. Read the wikipedia article here. (Note: for the purposes of the game the museum is still in operation.)

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Festivals

Chinese New Year Parade • Though not as touted as Butte's Irish heritage the town also has a large Chinese community. Hosted by the Mai Wah Society, the Dragon is 60 feet long and came to the town of Butte from Taiwan. Between 1850-1900, a quarter of a million Chinese immigrants lived in Montana, working the railroads and mines. Despite extensive discrimination, efforts to evict them, and even violence, Butte was home to Montana's largest Chinese community and a thriving Chinatown with hundreds of residents.

St. Patrick's Day • March Seventeenth is the most insane day of the year in Butte, Montana. Locals will tell you it's the large St. Patrick's Day celebration outside of Boston. Whether that's true or not, people come from all across the state (especially the colleges), Washington, Wyoming and the Dakotas to celebrate the holiday. The day starts off with a family friendly parade but families stay indoors for the night when the party really starts. Massive amounts of booze, drunken brawls, occasional flashing is nothing new. The police will largely look the other way unless violence or minors are involved. A video that shows a hint of the day's rowdiness.

Montana Folk Festival • One of Montana's largest music festivals bringing in some of the best acts from all over the Northwest. A few of the streets are blocked off and three stages are set up so that music can be played without interruption. Held in mid June.

Evel Knievel Days • A festival of crazy motorcycle stunts and antics. See the youtube video about the 2007 event here. See the BBC news piece on the festival here. Held the last weekend of July.

An Ri Ra • Butte's Irish Festival organized by the Montana Gaelic Cultural Society. Irish dancers, music and the same three stage set up thankfully mastered in part because of the Folk Festival. This 2010 was the first year the organizers were thoughtful enough to include tarps so that the musical acts aren't held hostage to the weather. Of course it was also the first year it didn't rain during the event. Held the first weekend of August.