I spent the last week in Butte for Thanksgiving. We made our way up to an overlook of the pit on Friday. We got to hear the wailers mentioned; there were no oth

I spent the last week in Butte for Thanksgiving. We made our way up to an overlook of the pit on Friday. We got to hear the wailers mentioned; there were no other actions but the dump trucks running material from the still open parts of the mine. It's odd visiting the thing that's messed up so much of what I call home in Montana. I grew up in Missoula, downstream of Butte. That city also had a nearby superfund site, Milltown Dam, that had captured mining tailings washed downstream from Butte and the other town I visited Anaconda. Of course to escape Missoula once they removed the dam I moved to East Helena, home of the East Helena Slag Pile a remnant of when the ASARCO lead smelter spewed smoke all over the town.