The Montana Mining Town with a Heart of Gold
Downtown Butte, with its view of the Rocky MountainsTo see the best of Butte, Montana, all Joyce OBill has to do is look out her front window at the gleaming white Virgin Mary on the mountain.I look out every morning and say hi, she says.Perched high on a ridge outside of town, the massive statue known as Our Lady of the Rockies (or just Our Lady to locals) can be seen from almost everywhere in this famously hardworking city. Bob OBill built it as a tribute to his wife while she battled cancer. While Joyce was hard at work beating the disease, her husbands modest vision of a 5-foot front-yard statue was blossoming into a 90-foot mountaintop memorial to both family and motherhood.Bob said, Im not religious, but Ive got a lot of faith, says Joyce. I tell everybody that it doesnt have so much to do with me, or religion. Its for all mothers.Joyce ended up outliving Bob: He passed away in 2016, and shes still going strong at 90. So strong, in fact, that she drives twice weekly to the Butte Emergency Food Bank to give back to the community that has given so much to her.I started 31years ago, and kept going and going. Im the old one there, she says. When we started, it was only four of us. Now we have 60or 70volunteers.Its people like her who inspire Lorraine Hamry most. A retired banker and Butte native, Hamry started volunteering at the Butte Emergency Food Bank a decade ago and is now its director.Ive absolutely fallen in love with it. I had no idea how much Butte gives back, says Hamry of one of Reader’s Digest‘s Nicest Places in America finalists. People in Butte are so proud. They think everybody should know where Butte is. Its not Butte, Montanaits Butte, America.GetReader’s DigestsRead Up newsletter for more inspiring stories, humor, cleaning, travel, tech and fun facts all week long.Tough but kindFounded in 1864 and once the largest city in the West, Butte has always been a rugged place. Joyce OBill still remembers when the local high school got its first turf field.Our Lady of the Rockies watches over the city.The kids played on rocks and dirt for years, she says. When they finally put in grass for the football field, we thought we were big time.Now home to 35,000, Butte is most famous for its biggest scar: the mile-long crater on the east side of town known as the Berkeley Pit, or just the pit, a former open-pit copper mine almost 1,800 feet deep. The city was once among the worlds most important copper-mining regions. Workers created a tight-knit community that took care of its own.Everybody knew everybody, recalls Hamry, 61. People say theyre Butte toughthats because everyone here is surviving.Today, as mining gives way to tourism, Buttes blue-collar workers have been joined by artists, professionals and entrepreneurs like Demetrius Fassas, a Kentucky transplant who moved to Butte in 2015.People who come here tend to want to create something for themselves, to start things, says Fassas. These people are hardy. They know how to do stuff. Theyre survivors.Fassas, 34, came to Montana to ski, then stayed to build a career in service. In between, he has helped launch community gardens and two sober-living communities. He now runs the Covellite Theatre, named for the regions signature copper-rich mineral. The Covellite hosts concerts, potluck suppers, open mics and fundraisers.Curiously, Fassas has found that the less he asks for, the more he gets.Weve had donation events that do better than ticketed events,” he says. “If you dont put a price tag on it, people actually give more.Butte’s emphasis on communityA few blocks away at the Hungry Hill Center for Art, Education and Outreach, Butte native Mike Kujawa has found the same generosity. An art teacher at Buttes high school, Kujawa wanted to support the food banks youth programs. So he and his students made simple bowls to fill with soup and sell at a fundraiser. Patrons would pay $20 for their meal and the bowl it came in. At the time, Kujawa, 57, had no idea how much support his Empty Bowls Project would generate.That first year, we made 650bowls, and we were overwhelmed. We had just one soup line and so many people, Kujawa recalls. This year, we made 1,700bowls and could only sell 1,300tickets because thats all the fire marshal would allow in the building.The support reflects a deep Butte tradition, Kujawa says.It goes back to the minesthere was no insurance. When somebody died in the mine or got injured, everybody got together to help the family, he explains.Its that same Butte spirit that made the Our Lady of the Rockies statue possible.When Bob OBill shared his modest plans with friends in 1979, they started thinking bigger. A supporter donated land. The mining company lent equipment. It took Bob and his friends five years to build the road to the ridgetop and pour the concrete base. The 51-ton statue was completed in 1985, its seven steel sections flown in by Nevada Air National Guard helicopters as locals cheered from below.So many good guys, Joyce OBill recalls. Theyd all work their jobs all day, and then go up there at night and work some more. Then theyd come down all hungry and dirty and sit in the front room and giggle.A shrine at the site includes 15,000memorial tiles for mothers and grandmothers. One tile honors the great-grandmother of Butte native Shannon Hopewell.The view is spectacularyou can see the Berkeley Pit, the city, everything, says Hopewell.A resilient spiritOur Lady of the Rockies isnt Buttes only statue of note. Outside the town archives, where Hopewell works, stands a bronze-and-stone memorial to a true Butte survivorthe famously standoffish stray dog known as the Auditor, who spent 17years living alone at the Berkeley Pit.The number of people who stop by to pat his head is amazing, says Hopewell.Miners named the dog the Auditor because hed show up when least expected. He wouldnt let anyone near him, but miners left him food and built him a doghouse, where he would eventually pass away peacefully.The story captivated Hopewell, 32, who recently published a childrens book about him called The Richest Dog on Earth.We dont really know where he came from, but the miners took care of him, Hopewell says. Theres a resilience to the people of Butte. Even if youre alone, you can still find a friend.The city isnt perfect, says Fassas: Nine months of winter is tough.”Butte’s Berkeley Pit, a former copper mineBut Butte has held on to its history and builds its future.Visitors can see the World Mining Museum, hit the Montana Folk Festival and eat at the nations oldest Chinese restaurant, the Pekin Noodle Parlor, founded in 1911. Theres a film festival, the countrys most difficult 100-mile mountain bike race, and a two-day Fourth of July party (Buttes title as Montanas festival city is certainly earned). And the spectacular landscape around the city offers hiking, biking, hunting, fishing and any winter sport you can think up.The longer you stay, claims Kujawa, the harder it is to leave.You will see a rough edge, he says, but theyre the friendliest people around. What else is there to say?Why trust usFor more than 100 years, Readers Digest has been known for its heartwarming true stories and focus on community. In 2016, we launched the Nicest Places in America, an annual contest that honors kind, inspiring people making a difference in their hometowns. Readers send in nominations, and Readers Digests editorial team vets the entries and whittles them down with the help of a panel of judges. This year, the judges included Todays Al Roker, Tuesdays with Morrie author Mitch Albom, author and podcast host Mnica Guzmn, award-winning journalist and author Steve Petrow, Reader’s Digest CEO Bonnie Kintzer, and Craig Elston, a barber who helped Buffalo, New York, earn the title of Nicest Place in America in 2023. We are committed to producing high-quality content by writers with expertise and experience in their field in consultation with relevant, qualified experts. Read more about our team, ourcontributorsand our editorial policies.Random Acts of Kindness to TryKindness Quotes That Will Stay with YouThe Touching Kindness of Strangers The post The Montana Mining Town with a Heart of Gold appeared first on Reader's Digest.
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