Episodes 001-050

Episodes 151-200

Episodes 201-250

Episodes 251-300

Episode 251 - Charles Juttner

Charles Frank Juttner, born February 28, 1876, was one of ten children born to Joseph and Mary Juttner in Menominee, Michigan. He received a degree in law at the University of Michigan where he also played football as a 6’ 1”, 172-pound tackle and end in 1897.

Episode 252 - Tong War

When disputes erupted over business territorial rights or perceived problems between families, an all-out tong war could develop. The most significant tong war in Butte, in 1921-1922, appears to have spread to Chinatowns across the nation.

Episode 253 - Anaconda’s First School

The city of Anaconda began to grow the instant construction began on Marcus Daly’s concentrator and smelter system in the summer of 1883. Children lived in Anaconda from the start, and they first attended school in a small cabin about a mile west of town.

Episode 254 - Painted Wood Grain

Painting cheap wood to mimic the appearance of interesting grain patterns originated in the late 1700s. Painted wood grain, or “faux bois”, became an art form by late Victorian times and reached its peak during the Arts and Crafts movement in the early 20th Century.

Episode 257 - Front Street Hub

Front Street in 1884 had to be a busy hub where visitors coming in by train got their first glimpse of the Richest Hill on Earth. It was somewhat isolated from the rest of Butte, which was about a mile or so up the hill, and until the middle 1890s it was technically in a separate community, South Butte.

Episode 258 - The Brick Ordinance

Butte’s first mayor, Henry Jacobs, built the oldest surviving brick house in Butte in 1879—his home, at the corner of Montana and Granite Streets. The Jacobs administration promoted brick construction to try to combat the fires that swept the growing community’s wooden businesses and homes in the late 1870s and for decades thereafter.

Episode 259 - The Sixth Floor

A reporter in the 1920s characterized it this way: “Like the Lord God Almighty in His universe, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company is everywhere. It is all, and in all. Its titular Mercy Seat is on the sixth floor of the Hennessey Building at the intersection of Main and Granite streets.”

Episode 260 - Metals Bank Building

The State Savings bank was strong enough that in 1906, with additional financial backing by the Daly Bank owned by Marcus Daly’s widow, a $325,000-dollar skyscraper was constructed on the site. It was one of the first skyscrapers in Montana.

Episode 261 - Gertie the Babyseller

Gertrude Pitanken, whose maiden name is not known, was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1887, and came to Butte by 1907. Trained as a chiropractor, she worked as a nurse at the old St. James Hospital where she may have met her husband, Dr. Gustav Pitanken.

Episode 262 - Sandstone & Dolomite

An unusual natural stone found on Butte buildings is dolomite, a rock like limestone but containing magnesium. The added magnesium makes it a bit harder and less susceptible to dissolution by the natural acids found in rainwater.

Episode 263 - Sanborn Maps

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps provide some of the best resources for understanding the neighborhood context and history of old buildings in Butte. The Sanborn Company began making the detailed maps in 1867, beginning in the Eastern United States.

Episode 264 - The Idaho-Montana Boundary

The boundary between Montana and Idaho Territories was defined in the original acts describing the two areas, and with one tiny exception, it always was exactly as it is now. But even though it was defined in 1864, it was not surveyed until 1904 to 1906.

Episode 265 - Trinity Methodist Church

Situated at the border of two working-class neighborhoods, Centerville and Walkerville, Trinity Methodist was known as the “miner’s church” in Butte’s heyday, to distinguish it from Mountain View Methodist, which was the “mine owner’s church.”

Episode 266 - Herman Kemna

Herman Kemna was a native of Germany. He came to America at about age 30 to work as an engineer on the Great Northern Railway in Montana, but his true calling was as an architect. Kemna was in Helena by the late 1880s working with the Wallace-Thornburg Construction Company.

Episode 267 - The Copper Block

The Copper Block, built in 1892 as the Nadeau Block, was later known as the Empire Hotel. It stood at the corner of Wyoming and Galena Streets and was probably not constructed as a brothel, but its location near the heart of the red-light district led to its significant role in the seedy side of Butte.

Episode 268 - When Bryan Came to Butte

In the presidential election of 1896, Butte and most of the western mining states favored William Jennings Bryan because of his pro-silver stance in the wake of the silver crisis of 1893. Although in Montana he gained nearly 80% of the vote, Bryan ultimately lost that election to William McKinley.

Episode 269 - Marcus Daly Statue

Marcus Daly died November 12, 1900, at age 58. Within weeks, the Marcus Daly Memorial Association was organized with the primary goal of commissioning a monument to the Copper King.

Episode 270 - The Klan

Butte may seem an unexpected place for activities by the Ku Klux Klan, but in its early days the Klan targeted Catholics, Jews, and foreign-born immigrants including Irish and Italians, as well as Blacks.

Episode 271 - Charles Lennox

About midnight on the night of May 19, 1902, John Williams, a railroad brakeman, was about to board the Great Northern train for Anaconda at the Silver Bow station when two armed men attempted to rob him. In the struggle Williams was shot at least three times and died a day later.

Episode 272 - Night Nurse

Beatrice Murphy was 29 years old in 1909 when she worked as a night nurse at the Murray Hospital at Quartz and Alaska streets in Butte. She kept a diary for the month of November 1909 that reveals much about the times as well as Miss Murphy’s humor and wit.

Episode 273 - Burton K. Wheeler

Burton K. Wheeler came to Butte in 1905, looking for a job as a lawyer. But he got only one offer, at $50 a month, which he turned down, and was waiting to head out on the next train west when he got into a crooked card game in a saloon near the railway station.

Episode 274 - Mary MacLane

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1881, Mary MacLane came to Butte with her mother, stepfather, and siblings about 1892, when Butte was an incredible booming, cosmopolitan city.

Episode 275 - Anaconda Company Heritage

Depending on how you measure things, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company grew to become at various times the largest copper mining company in the world, one of the five largest mining companies of any sort, and one of the ten largest corporations in the United States.

Episode 276 - Original Court House

Deer Lodge County eventually was subdivided into what are now mostly Granite, Powell, Deer Lodge, and Silver Bow Counties, with Silver Bow established February 16, 1881 and its seat at Butte. A county court house was needed.

Episode 277 - Fred Gamer

Although Gamer’s restaurant is a household name in Butte today, the Gamer family was historically more famous for their shoe stores. Fred Gamer senior was born in Baden, Germany in 1844, and came to America when he was seventeen.

Episode 278 - The Capitol Fight

Two days after Montana Territory was established in May 1864, the territorial capital was set at the mining camp of Bannack. It wasn’t a stretch to say Bannack was almost the only game in town, in terms of a city, so it’s no great surprise the capital was established there.

Episode 279 - Granite Mountain Disaster

The North Butte Mining Company was working to electrify its Granite Mountain and Speculator mines, to improve safety, on June 8, 1917, when the cable fell. Cables in those days were wrapped in oil-soaked cloth to reduce friction, and when foreman Ernest Sullau descended to the 2,400 level, the flame of his carbide lamp set the cable on fire.

Episode 280 - The Apex Law

The General Mining Act of 1872, a federal law, established mining practices and rules, many of which are still in force today. In Butte, arguably the most important provision was the Law of the Apex. The apex is defined as the point at which a mineral vein reaches the surface to form an outcrop.

Episode 281 - Influenza

I had a little bird, and its name was Enza. I opened the window, and in-flew-Enza. That was the new jumping rope song prevalent across the United States and in Butte in the fall of 1918.

Episode 282 - Thanksgiving 1892

News notes from the Anaconda Standard for Thanksgiving, Thursday November 24, 1892. John J. Garrity, “an intelligent looking man about 38 years old” who lived in South Butte, was arrested for mail theft on the Northern Pacific main line through Butte.

Episode 283 - Red-Light District

Butte’s long-lived red-light district represents a loss to which many would say “good riddance,” but like it or not, it was a vital element of Butte for more than a century.

Episode 284 - First Airplane Landing

The first airplane to fly in Butte arrived in Montana by train from Salt Lake City, and was piloted by a Butte daredevil known only as Moroni in a 45-minute flight on July 4, 1910. The only problem with that statement is that almost all of it is untrue, even though you find those “facts” in many newspapers and books recalling the famous first flight in Butte.

Episode 285 - Quartz and Main

The southwest corner of Quartz and Main Streets in 1884 was a half-block west of the first house in Butte, and a half-block south of the new Miners Union Hall that was under construction.

Episode 286 - School of Mines

In addition to the contentious fight for the location of the state capital after Montana became a state in 1889, the legislature faced the political decisions involved in divvying up various state institutions. Not surprisingly, the School of Mines was assigned to Butte.

Episode 287 - Trolley System

Public transit in Butte started with horse-drawn railroad cars, but by 1888 steam-driven locomotives traveled around Butte and a cable car went up the hill on Main Street to Walkerville. William Clark and his Deer Lodge banking partner Samuel Larabie were the forces behind the street railway company.

Episode 288 - Christmas in 1889

In December 1889, the Anaconda mine in Butte had been shut down for a month, boding ill for the economy, but by Christmas day in Anaconda, “the smoke [was] quote pouring out of the big stacks across the creek in volumes that gave ample assurance of a merry Christmas in the town.”

Episode 289 - North Main

The parking lot east of the Archives buildings wasn’t always a parking lot. In fact, in Uptown Butte, virtually no open spaces, parking lots, vacant lots, were open—there were buildings there.

Episode 290 - Clark’s Senate Election

Copper King William Clark’s long-standing political ambitions came to a head in the election for US Senator in 1899. It was also the climax of his long-standing feud with his primary competitor in Butte, Marcus Daly.

Episode 291 - First Policewoman

According to historian John Astle in his book, Only in Butte, Butte’s and Montana’s first policewoman was Miss Amanda Pfeiffer. In 1913, Butte’s Socialist Mayor Louis Duncan proclaimed prostitution a “social disease” and began to enforce prostitution laws seriously for the first time since they were enacted in 1890.

Episode 292 - Mules

My sweetheart’s a mule in the mine / I drive her with only one line. On the dashboard I sit, and tobacco I spit / All over my sweetheart’s behind. The well-known miner’s tribute to the mules underground finally came to an end in Butte in 1934, when, as ropeman Ray Barrott recalled, the last eight mules came up from the Emma Mine for the last time.

Episode 293 - Paul Clark Home

The Associated Charities of Butte, led by Mrs. J.M. White and Mrs. John Noyes, was organized in 1897 with the mission of “helping the worthy poor to help themselves.” They initially established a small children’s home in a house at 541 Nevada Street, but their goals and capabilities soon outgrew that facility.

Episode 294 - Frank Stephens

Frank Stephens was a native of Ireland, born there in 1835 or 1836. He emigrated to the United States in 1847, most likely one of the many consequences of the Irish potato famine. Both his parents died that year when he was 11 years old, so he traveled with an older brother, first to Indiana.

Episode 295 - Clark-Daly Feud

It’s well known that Copper Kings Marcus Daly and William Clark didn’t get along, and that they were actually enemies in politics and business. What’s not clear is how it began, and why it seemed to be so much more than normal business competition.

Episode 296 - Jeanette Rankin

Jeanette Rankin boasts several firsts. She was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1916, the first woman in the nation to be elected to Congress. She was a life-long pacifist, and was the only person to vote against the United States’ entry into both World War I and World War II.

Episode 297 - Jere Murphy

Butte’s legendary chief of police, Jeremiah J. Murphy, died in the line of duty September 20, 1935. He had responded from the police office in the City Hall on Broadway street to a disturbance call at the Montana Power Company office at Granite and Main, just a block and a half away.

Episode 298 - Columbia Gardens

Was Clark ingratiating himself with the people of Butte in a year in which he was actively seeking election to the US Senate? Maybe, but the bribery of state legislators, who actually elected Clark, probably had little to do with the general population. It seems that Clark actually wanted to create something memorable and good for the city that made his fortune.

Episode 299 - Bert Mooney

The first scheduled commercial airline flight in the United States was a 23-minute trip across Tampa Bay, from St. Petersburg to Tampa, Florida, in 1914. That was three years after the first airplane flight in Butte in 1911, a daredevil display that attracted thousands of people.

Episode 300 - Richest Hill?

“The Richest Hill on Earth.” It’s an easy claim to make, and a remarkable thing for Butte to brag about. But is it true? The short answer is almost certainly “yes.”