Montana - Day 5 - to Butte and Anaconda

Copper Court RV Park, Anaconda

Friday, 5 August 2022

When we woke up in Bannack State Park, the indoor temp had cooled to 57° so I had to close all those windows and skylights I'd opened up last night for the heat.  For some reason, the cabin heater didn't want to work, and the starter kept kicking off, then on, then back off.

I saw no signs in the campground that any wild animals had come through last night, but you never know.

The only trash I had to dump was one of Dexter's poop bags, but the critter-proof fastenings on the trash can were also me-proof.  I read the directions and tried several different ways of getting that lid to open, with no success.  Finally a guy came out of the toilet and I asked if he knew the trick.  Which he did, and he not only opened it himself but showed me how to do it, and then stood back and said "now you try" and waited to be sure I could do it myself.  Which I appreciated since I didn't think this was the last state park I'd be staying in.  Nice guy.

today's route

On the road

A sign said the litter cleanup in that area was provided by Greg and Barbara somebody that started with a D.  I was just surprised because neither of those is a particularly common name and those were my parents' names.

I passed the turn for the town of Argenta.  "Argent" means silver in several languages and, in fact, silver was mined in this area, along with several other precious metals.

In Dillon, a store had a sign that said, "Choose Kindness Whenever Possible - It's Always Possible."

Dillon is also the location of the University of Montana Western, which has a Montana Center for Horsemanship.  They say they're the "only educational center in the U.S. devoted exclusively to Natural Horsemanship," which is based on understanding horse behavior and a horse's instincts.  We have a lot of diversity in this country.

As I drove north (with an 80 mph speed limit), I saw flat land, vast crop fields, some cows, and mountains most of the way around my view.

I drove through miles and miles and miles of a "construction zone" with a posted 45 mph speed limit.  The right lane was closed for all these miles and I saw no construction activity at all - not even equipment.  What I did see was a guy towing a 5th wheel who camped right on my tail for miles.  Miles.  I just couldn't bring myself to pull over into this alleged construction zone, and I didn't dare speed up because all those stupid cones made it hard enough for me to drive in the narrow space they left me.  I suppose it's just as well that one of the verities of today's society is that people carry guns and are stupid enough to use them when they shouldn't, otherwise I'd have come to a stop and gotten out and told that guy to get off my tail.  That's how road rage incidents start (and end) so, as I say, I was lucky that wasn't a real option.

I finally came to a combo rest area/weigh station, and I was surprised to see the weigh station open.  I think that's the first open weigh station I've seen since maybe somewhere in Washington.  I sure didn't see any open ones in Idaho.  There was also an off-leash dog park, which we visited, and I found some informational signs.

I'm including this first one, which has a lot of very detailed geological information on it, because as you'll learn, I didn't go to the mining museum in Butte as I'd intended.  Since my geology literacy is nearly zero (except what you see from the blog that I've picked up in places like Utah), I find this information just a little too advanced.  But they're explaining the mountains I can see for myself, so I'm including it here.

this is the sign - details enlarged below

I know this looks just like the photo on the sign,
but it's my own photo of the mountains
I could see from the rest area.

how those mountains
above were formed

I also found this interesting blast from the past.

enlargements below

A little way beyond this rest area, I crossed the Continental Divide, at 5,879'.

Since Dillon, I'd been on I-15, and something made me curious about where this interstate runs so I looked it up.  It starts in San Diego County in California near the Mexico border, runs through CA, NV, AZ, UT, ID, and now MT, and ends in Alberta, Canada.  I think I mainly used it in Utah, because it runs from St. George on the AZ border up through Salt Lake City to eastern Idaho.  And here it is again.

Butte

As I was coming into Butte, a sign told me I was in the Butte National Historic Landmark District.  This district apparently encompasses big chunks of the towns of Butte, Walkerville and Anaconda and the mines in those areas.  Its historic significance is actually three-fold: these were important mining towns with their own history; the mines provided nearly a third of the world's copper (essential to industry); Butte was once known as the "Gibraltar of Unionism" for its role in the early formation of mining unions. 

Later in the morning, I stopped by the Socialist Hall.  Built in 1916, it's one of the few Socialist Halls remaining in the US.  This is what I found there.

inscription enlarged below

Today, this building is home to a sporting goods (i.e. hunters supply) store.

The inscription at the top reads "Socialist Hall" and "1916."

I'm not myself a particular fan of socialism - too idealistic to work, what with human nature being as it is - but I am a fan of worker solidarity to achieve better employment conditions.

But before going to the Socialist Hall I stopped at the World Museum of Mining.  Based on its name, I had high hopes I could learn about at least Montana's history of mining and methods used and products unearthed.  The name implied I could learn about mining around the world, but I'd've been happy with just the US - or even just Montana.  It had none of that.  Instead it was the history of one particular mining operation that was located here.  They still had intact buildings and equipment from that operation, but they wanted $10 to see it - more if I wanted to go on a tour into the mine.  Well, I've already gone on a tour of a coal mine in West Virginia, and I'm not from Montana, not from a mining background, and this local operation just wasn't interesting to me.  Besides, I was seriously disappointed.  I really was hoping this place could answer a lot of my questions.  But the nice young women at the front desk told me I was out of luck (they said it nicer than that).

There's a nursery in Butte called the Petunia Factory.

Butte has more than 34,000 residents and is big enough for me to get lost in (Google sent me on several wrong roads and impossible left turns), but my impression was that this place doesn't have much going for it now.  Quite clearly it was once an extremely important place, but the part of the town I saw looked tired and old.  A shame if that's true.

Anaconda

I hadn't been able to find a campground in Butte that I could afford (the KOA wanted $80 for one night for a 30 amp water-and-electric site - way out of line), so I went on down the road to Anaconda.

Along the way I passed an open pit copper mine that I think is no longer being worked but was very active for a long time.

I also passed a dozen horses and a couple of llamas out in the fields.

Anaconda seems a lot smaller than its 9,400 residents would suggest.  But the primary campground there was full - they told me there was some kind of rally this weekend and campgrounds all over the area were packed - but they also directed me to a fairly new campground down the road.  I called them and they had room for me.

I guess they were indeed fairly new to the business, because the guy at the front desk didn't know where I could get propane that didn't come in separate bottles.  But he sent me to a gas station, and they sent me to the Ace Hardware.  Everyone was very nice, except the guy pumping propane, who seemed to be really upset about something.  He was insistent I back up and pull straight in to an area that I knew I wouldn't fit in, and wouldn't listen to me say so.  He wouldn't listen to me telling him where my propane tank was, which was accessible to his hose in my opinion, and he kept yelling at me for not doing what he wanted.

That space on the sidewalk between the blue car
and the yellow protectors - that's where
he wanted me to put the RV.

So I tried to pull in where he said, but he kept yelling at me to stop because I was about to rip off my mirror (I got out and looked and he was wrong), and I finally stopped almost exactly where I'd been originally, and he said that was fine.

I was ready to just give it up, except I was nearly empty and some chilly weather was forecast for the next few days.  But I got my propane and it was just a shame his bad mood was front and center in a business dependent on customer approval.

Dexter was ready for a walk so I went across the street where I could see some grass.  It turned out to be a sports complex with 4 baseball diamonds, soccer goals and signs everywhere that read like this:

Really, the signs were everywhere.  What on earth do you suppose happened that caused this panic over sunflower seeds?

I saw a Jeep with a Montana license plate that said VGABOND.

One of the things I'd wanted to see in Anaconda turned out to be easily visible - the Anaconda smelter stack.  It's protected now by a state park, and their website provided this information about that stack.

The old Anaconda Copper Company smelter stack, completed in 1919, is one of the tallest free-standing brick structures in the world at 585 feet. The inside diameter is 75 feet at the bottom, tapering to 60 feet at the top. In comparison, the Washington Monument is 555 feet tall.

The stack dominates the landscape like the company once dominated the area's economic life. Since the smelter closed in 1980, the stack has become a symbol of the challenges that face communities dependent on finite resources.

I didn't bother going to the park because I could see the smelter stack clearly from the highway into town.

You can see how tall it is, relative to the buildings below -
even without the added height from the hill.

a closer view

Anaconda was originally built as a company town to support the smelter for the Anaconda Copper Mine.  That smelter closed in 1980 and left behind a large area of hazardous wastes which the EPA has been cleaning up.  One beneficiary is a new 18-hole golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus.  But I couldn't figure out any sources of income for the town other than the service industry.  

I guess it's like the state park's website said - this place is a good example of the challenges that face communities dependent on finite resources.