Tuesday May 16, 2023 - Butte MT to Bozeman MT

 

Clean clothes, hot showers, we are good for another week.

We had the La Quinta breakfast and a walk to the grocery store to pick up a few things. Milo had a mine tour reservation at 10:30 so a leisurely morning. We drove to the mine tour parking lot with the idea we would park here early and do a little walk but we met another couple from Illinois. He's a pilot for American Airlines and they're doing a two week road trip.  We gave them the van tour and basically used up all the walking time chatting. Deb walked downtown and I did the mine tour. 

Butte started with a silver and gold operation and evolved into the copper business. Silver and gold were valuable enough that the operation did not have to be very efficient so the barrier to entry was pretty small. Copper was a lot less valuable so the operation had to be big and efficient to break even. So lots of capital and because of the crude technology, lots of human labor. The copper history is just like back home in Bisbee but 4 times bigger. They mined for 100 years, went through labor strikes during WW1 (and actually pretty much the whole 100 years), and closed in the 1980's. They did leave behind the Berkeley pit and a Superfund site, unlike Bisbee which does not have the pollution.

Downtown Butte has a lot of historic buildings, a lot empty now, but 4 times bigger. They grew to 100,000 people and are now 25,000. Bisbee grew to 25,000 people and now we are 5000.

Next stop was Bozeman to check in with our good friends' son Spencer, his partner Nicki, and their newborn, Emerson. We all went for a walk in the park down the street from their house. It's a quick climb up to a beautiful vantage point looking over the city of Bozeman. This town has a young people vibe to it. It reminds us of Burlington, VT and Butte is much like Barre, VT. It was nice to catch up with them and meet Emerson.

Next stop was our friends David & Kim Kembel who went to grad school just before Deb in the same department. Deb and Kim overlapped in grad school for a year and have kept in touch, along with their mutual friends Kathy and Darcy back east. They have a lovely place overlooking Bozeman and a nice flat driveway where we could park our van. David made a lovely dinner and we got caught up on careers and our kids. We retired to the sleep crib but used their nice hot shower in the morning. 

Wonderful catching up with old friends!

Odo = 7,2999