"WHAT A BUTTE!"

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Galatians 6:6-9)

The title of this posting is sort of a pun or play on words. I know that a long time ago on my blog I wrote about my father and that when he was angry with someone in traffic he would yell, “What a beaut!”. It was his way of getting out the anger and frustration without swearing or demeaning himself in public. I am not sure that my family appreciates it, but I have that same tendency. I must yell, “What a beaut!” at least 5 times a week when I’m driving! This posting is not about yelling when driving, however, it’s about Butte, Montana of all places.

Perhaps this should be featured on a PBS website or in a PBS publication because I want to write about the impact that the documentary “Butte, America” on the PBS program “Independent Lens” had on me this week. I love history- especially American history, and I enjoy watching a good documentary. A couple of nights ago I tuned into “Butte, America” on one of the new digital Channel 44s (“WGBH World”). Wikipedia’s entry about “Butte, America” is as follows:

"Butte, America is a 2009 documentary film about Butte, Montana's history as a copper mining town. It was created by Pamela Roberts, narrated by Gabriel Byrne, and includes a mix of first hand accounts and scholarly analysis from John T. Shea, Marie Cassidy, David Emmons, and Janet Finn, .The movie focuses on developments in American labor and production during the "dawn" of the electrical age in the 1880s when copper was discovered in Butte. The mining activity brought an influx of immigrant workers and their families to the boom town that grew to be a "Western" metropolis of 45,000 people forming a Rocky Mountain city that with similarities to Pittsburgh in the East. Labor relations and the corporate operations of Anaconda Copper are also related."

That’s all true, but it makes it all sound rather dull. If you love American history, especially learning some of the more obscure stories of American history, you’ll LOVE this documentary. It’s superbly done! The film portrays Butte from the late 19th Century right up to the 1980s. If you really “get into” this film you’ll find yourself laughing and crying at various times. Butte was the copper mining capital of the world for several decades in the early 20th Century. The big copper company was “Anaconda”. Do any of you remember a piece from The Three Stooges’ “Men in Black” short in which The Three Stooges meet a hospital patient named Anna Conda? Immediately upon meeting her, Moe pretends he’s reading a ticker tape and begins yelling out the stock price of Anaconda as if he’s a stock trader! I’m showing my ignorance here, but I’d figured Anaconda was just a made up name for that short. In fact, Anaconda was the big copper company which essentially controlled the City of Butte and the State of Montana.

I learned from watching “Butte, America” that one hundred years ago Butte was a boomtown much more like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania than any western city or town. Most of the residents were immigrants from Ireland, Mexico, or eastern Europe. The culture was European and ethnic. This was NOT primarily a “cowboy town”. Thousands and thousands of men worked in the mines in deplorable conditions. Anaconda made fabulous amounts of money while the miners barely survived. The documentary had a definite left-wing bias. (Well, on PBS, that’s no surprise!) In this case, however, one can certainly appreciate the left’s point of view. If it were not for the formation of a strong Union, these families would barely have made it.

I don’t mean to say that Anaconda was all bad. Much about Anaconda was good. The company built homes for its workers and poured a lot of money into the community. They even built a first class amusement park. Film clips from the ‘50s showed a happy American community where families went to the amusement park for picnics and junk food and to enjoy the rides.

In the 1940s, Anaconda expanded into South America, setting up a huge copper mining operation in Chile. Things were great until 1971 when a far left politician took power in Chile and nationalized the copper mining operation. Anaconda’s financial situation took a major dive. The company gave up traditional mining in Butte, and began a HUGE eleven year excavation project in which they dug up as much copper and other precious metals as they could. In 1982, they went belly up and everything ceased. A giant ugly and toxic hole and man-made lake were left behind. (Incidentally, in order to do the excavation, whole neighborhoods were bulldozed and EVEN THE AMUSEMENT PARK which Anaconda had built was excavated!) Most of Butte’s residents were devastated but seemingly nobody cared. At one time the city had 90,000 residents. Today it has about 33,000.

I couldn’t help but think of the above verses from Galatians. Anaconda had made great money on the labor of poor miners. In later years, they’d seemingly become a kinder, gentler company. Yet, their history and ways caught up with them- and the people’s trust in Anaconda ultimately left them, well, with a toxic hole in the ground.

Amazingly, the film ends on kind of a positive note, but leaves the viewer wondering how things could have and should have been much different. Frankly, many people laugh at the Bible-thumping preachers who proclaim the importance of honoring God and His Word in all you do. I know this will sound really idealistic, but if the overwhelming majority of the people of Butte, Montana, both white collar and blue collar, rich and poor, had truly followed the tenets of God’s Word, I suspect this whole story would have had a different and much better outcome.

If you have the opportunity to view “Butte, America” please do so!