The Armpit of Montana

The ride from Helena to Butte today spanned all varieties of trails. We rode some fun, semi-technical singletrack up to a divide crossing and finished up the day with 6 miles of the only interstate riding we’ll see on the trip, including exiting I-15 on to I-90. Not only is Butte reminiscent of Gary, IN (Butte has seen its own population decline from 115K to around 30K over the past century), it is the only city in the U.S. where possession and consumption of open containers of alcoholic beverages is allowed city-wide.  The city gets worse from there.

There are a number of great tourist sites in and around Butte, which mostly revolve around its mining history.  Called “the richest hill on earth”, the Butte mines produced more than 9.6 million tonnes of copper, 2.1 million tonnes of zinc, 1.6 million tonnes of manganese, 381 thousand tonnes of lead, 87 thousand tonnes of molybdenum, 715 million troy ounces of silver, and 2.9 million ounces of gold. The legacy of that mining is the Berkeley Mine Pit.  After mining operations ceased in 1982, the huge open pit began filling with toxic water.  Today, the country’s largest superfund site is also a major tourist attraction. Another major attraction that we did not have time to visit is the Dumas Brothel Museum, which celebrates Butte’s rich tradition of prostitution. If you survive the previous attractions, you deserve a relaxing visit to the Merry Widow Health Mine, where you can bathe in the “healthy” flow of radon gas.

City Rankings

We’ve created a list of the cities we’ve passed through from most favorite to least, based on our experiences in each.  We’ll continue to update it as we visit more locations, so check back frequently.