Southwestern Montana

BUTTE< MT



The Dumas Brothel in Butte, MT-- the oldest brothel in Montana and one of the few purpose-built brothels in existence...
Remind me to tell you a funny story about this one.





The 2 pictures above are both of the Berkeley Pit in Butte, MT. Butte is a mining town, or was. This pit has been filling with toxic water and is literally purple with a slick surface. Somewhat stunning, though not in a good way. I felt like I might become some kind of superhero (other than Super Allison) by just being near its toxic qualities.



These towers are still up all over Butte, which is built into a hill. A storm was coming in on Sunday morning when I visited and the towers looked awesome.

PHILIPSBURG, MT



Main Street, Philipsburg



This is the oldest schoolhouse in Montana still in use (1897, I believe). P'Burg, as it's supposedly called is a small town a bit southeast of Missoula. The building is granite, and while I was photographing it, a woman walked by who told me all about the school. She had gone there, and she told me about its additions, how they had rehabbed the inside a few years back to make it period again.



She also told me about fire drills, where they used to slide down the chute. She said they couldn't wait for the drills to get to slide. I wasn't sure at the time what she was referring to, but as I poked around the side of the building, I found this. sadly, it looks like it might be boarded up. I imagine it is, for safety. All the cool stuff gets removed "for safety"-- like the wrought-iron fence that used to be around the school and was replaced with wood. She said that was "for safety" also.



Looks like a shaft, but is actually an old trestle, fallen apart...