Mining and Montana: How the Former Tempered the Identity of the Latter

About one third of the state of Montana is located in the American Rockies, a region famous for its serenic beauty and rich resources such as natural gas, oil, and precious metals. In fact, Montana did not get the nickname "the Treasure State" for no reason. Considering Montana is the country's fourth largest state by area, one third of 147,040 square miles is indeed very large, and there is definitely an impressive amount of natural resources that can be extracted within this area.

Montana, which means "mountains" in Spanish, has 1/3 or its area covered the American Rockies and is home to some of the world's most famous parks such as the Glacier National Park.

Mining is one of those industries that has always been a part of western Montana's history and identity since the days before Montana was even a state. Today, mining in Montana is a $2.9 billion dollar industry, or 6.1% of the state GDP. It provides over 9,000 jobs and the average pay in the industry is 96% higher than the average income in the state. 

A mining site near the Berkeley Pit in Butte

Mining activities in the past played even a bigger role in forging Montana. As a result of the state's abundant gold, silver, coal, and gemstone deposits, individual diggers and huge mining corporations were drawn to Montana from all over the world seeking for big money. Butte, Montana is one of many mining towns established in the Rockies because a large quantity of copper deposits were found near the site of the town.  Once called by many as "the Richest Hill on Earth", Butte was the largest city in the Rockies during the late 19th century.  In its heydays, one would expect to find miners from all over the world, from Croatia to China. Saloons, brothels, and banks popped up at a very fast speed in order to keep up with the population explosion. Mansions were built to accommodate the newest millionaires who profited from mining activities in the area. 

Downtown Butte and the Berkeley Pit, a Former Open Pit Copper Mine in the Background

Mining had led Butte and the surrounding region to be thoroughly developed and created so much fortune and so many resources. Railways were constructed to link towns and mines together to major cities east of the Rockies and the Mississippi River, which further helped Montana to be admitted to the union as the 41st state. However, such activities had also brought catastrophic consequences to the people and the natural environment in the region, which had sparkled controversies both within the state and in Washington DC. 

A mineshaft in a residential neighborhood

In 1917, a blaze caused by an electric cable, then a very new and expensive technology led to the death of 168 miners. The disaster still remains one of the worst mining disasters in the history of the United States and even the world. To commemorate the victims, a memorial was erected on the site where the blaze occurred, reminding the future generations of tragedies in the past. 

The Granite Mountain Memorial Overlook

Because the mines were so close to the city, health problems began to rise among citizens of Butte. The city once had the highest rate of cancer in the entire country, and many were died because of the pollution caused by both running and dysfunctional mines. Together the people of Butte built a 90 feet tall statue called "Our Lady of the Rockies" in commemoration of women everywhere, especially those with cancer. It all started with one man's prayer, that he would build a statue to the Holy Mary if his wife could recover from cancer. Later the prayer was answered, so the statue was built. It was once the second tallest statue in the United States, only dwarfed by the Lady Liberty in New York Harbor. This statue of Virgin Mary today stands tall and high on the Continental Divide in the Rockies, overlooking and blessing the city of Butte and its people.

Our Lady of the Rockies

As the price of copper dropped and the demand of copper went down, mining companies started to close down some of the mines in Butte and people who lost their jobs moved on to other cities. Today there were many mansions standing like monuments across the city, reminding visitors of Butte's glory days as one of the wealthiest cities in the world. Another legacy mining has left  to Butte was the Montana Tech, one of the best mining engineering schools in the United States.

The Chancellor's Residence at Montana Tech

Downtown Butte from the Montana Tech

Montana's capital city, Helena, had a very similar history in compare to that of Butte. The city was once a booming mining town: It had the world's first indoor swimming pool, and it had more millionaires per capita than anywhere in the world in the late 19th century.  Today, Helena is just a government town hosting the gorgeous Montana State Capitol, which was built with materials from all over the state. 

The Montana State Capitol, which has a dome made of copper.

Inside the State Capitol. All materials used for the construction were from the state of Montana only.

Digging down doesn't always lead to precious metals. Montana is home to a large number of discovered and yet to be discovered dinosaur fossils. With the helps of cutting edge technologies used and developed for modern mining, many fossils were able to be excavated out safely without causing them too much unnecessary damage. The Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana is home to the largest collection of Dinosaur fossils in the United States, including the largest Tyrannosaurus skull in the world. 
 

"Big Mike", The Museum's famed T-Rex statue

One of six Tyrannosaurus skulls in the museum

The state of Montana is like a textbook that shows what mining is all about: It shows the economical benefits mining is able to bring to us as well as the historical role it played to help the wild west to be developed. It also shows us the serious consequences mining is able to do to both humans and the environment around us. Whether the benefits are greater or lesser than the perils of this industry, one thing for sure is that mining has definitely shaped what Montana was in the past and what it is today, and it will certainly carry the Treasure State into the future.