July 15, 2009
Butte, Montana. I have been surprised. It is somehow not what I expected. I have only been in Montana once before and that was only for an hour or so in Missoula. I thought it would be spectacularly beautiful. Maybe I have been spoiled by spending some time in Norway--the most physically beautiful landscape I have ever personally seen. Maybe it was those 9 years in Alaska. Whatever it is, I have been singularly unimpressed so far. The areas we drove through yesterday were nice enough, but somehow just not what I was expecting. Granted, that is a very narrow sample. Maybe the really spectacular stuff lies elsewhere in the state. I can tell you this--it is not in Butte, whose big selling point appears to be a giant hole in the center of town that used to be a mine, just like everything else here, I guess. Town itself is pretty old and, as Bill put it, dingy. He is having a great time photographing it all--it’s right up his alley! I find myself uncomfortable in a place like this, though. Where Coeur d’Alene had a really great vibe going and downtown was an inviting place to be, this place just looks like it’s been kind pf patched and papered over. And there is something disheartening about the idea that if you can dig a huge hole and suck something out of the earth, exploiting people along the way, that this is a history to be proud of. I know that whatever kinds of things they’re digging up I probably use, so I don’t necessarily have clean hands either. But it is somewhat disconcerting to have this kind of grimy exploitative, earth shattering industry be celebrated. On the other hand, I suppose if you want a few tourist dollars, then you will work with what you have. And this, apparently is pretty much what they have. We went into the visitor’s center, which is right next door to the campground, and it has a few old photos, an extensive display of fishing flies, and a bunch of information about other places! Bizarre!
So I can stand here at my campsite and look at the giant hole known as Berkeley Pit and think about that old Midnight Oil song which contains the line, “nothing’s as precious as a hole in the ground.”
