“Of the two Buttes—the surface city and that underground—it is not improbable that the latter possesses more and greater points of interest than the visible town. There are no drones there. The dark city’s people are all workers. There are no crimes committed there and vice does not enter. There is no police patrol—none is necessary. The laws that govern this underground city are recognized and obeyed without the necessity of brass buttons and nickel stars. When a man enters this city he lives under new conditions as long as he remains. He is a member of a well organized community, working under its laws and regulations, and for the time he loses his connection with the municipality upon the surface.
“There are no paving contracts let in this city that is out of sight. There are no legislative elections there, and the bungstarter’s union has no standing in the remarkable community. The boodler is unknown in the business of Underground Butte and the Salvation Army has no barracks there. All in all, this second Butte is a wonderful place. Many tales might be told of deeds of heroism performed within her limits, of devotion to duty that surpasses many an act that has been emblazoned upon the scroll of fame. The sturdy, honest toilers of this city work on without the inspiration that prompts deeds of valor upon the field of battle. They do their duty because it is their duty. They have made Underground Butte even greater than the greatest mining camp on earth.”
For further illustration of the greatness of the mines of Butte I have in my possession the following statement from the Anaconda Company’s last year’s report. There were brought by rail to the smelters at Anaconda one million four hundred and fifty-nine thousand tons of ore from the Butte mines. This company shipped one hundred and twenty-four million four hundred and eighteen thousand pounds of copper, and paid fourteen thousand dollars express charges, on five million seventy-four thousand and thirty-six ounces of silver and one hundred and thirty-five thousand two hundred and forty-four ounces of gold. One hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of powder and forty-one thousand seven hundred and sixty-one dollars and forty-nine cents worth of candles, were used in their Butte mines. The pay roll of this company alone amounted to five million three hundred ninety-two thousand three hundred and twenty-three dollars and twenty-three cents. As the above amounts are so large, I put them in words instead of figures, so that the reader will understand that there has been no mistake made, as often occurs in copying figures.
The Boston and Montana, The Butte Reduction Works, The Butte and Boston, The Montana Ore Purchasing Company and other companies that are operating in Butte, I am not familiar with. According to Mr. Braden’s account for the year 1899, the copper output of the mines of Butte was two hundred and twenty-three million pounds of refined copper.
The monthly pay roll of this “Greatest Mining Camp,” including smelters, is over fifteen hundred thousand dollars, or over eighteen million dollars per year.
The wealth of the copper deposits at Butte was first recognized officially by the United States commissioner of mining statistics, Raymond, in his report of 1870. From that date to the present time the development of the copper deposits has been rapid; and, at this writing the state contains not only the richest copper mines of the world, but also the largest and most modern reduction plants. Thus, in brief, are the footprints of the prospector and the “from the cradle to the throne” of the mines of Montana.
After this faint effort to give an illustration of the “Then and Now,” I can but think of the “Now and Then” thirty-six years hence, and that someone, perhaps, will have this little book in the year 1936 and take up where I have left off and write the “Now and Then.” “I wish I were a boy again;” if I were, I would not give my chances to watch the progress that will be made in the valleys and mountains of the West during the next thirty-six years for the pay roll of the “Greatest Mining Camp on Earth” from the time of its first existence until then.
Now I end this series of letters, hoping that the reader will have as much pleasure in reading them as I had when writing. If so, both of us will be satisfied. Faithfully yours,
Robert Vaughn.
Great Falls, May 30, 1900.