150 years: How Butte newspapers told the city's story to the world

The fire that took the lives of 58, including 13 firefighters, on Jan. 15, 1895, prompted extensive coverage in the local newspapers. The Daily Inter Mountain’s main headline the morning after the unspeakable disaster stated: AWFUL CALAMITY: Nearly Half a Hundred Lives Lost by a Powder Explosion at a Fire.

Meanwhile, The Daily Miner’s front page countered with DEATH AND DESOLATION: About 50 People Killed.

The following day, the Anaconda Standard wrote, “Alas for the lost!” A subsequent report by the Miner included AFTER THE EXPLOSION - Thousands of People Visit the Scene of Carnage and Carry Away Mementoes.

One survivor was William Gemmel of Montana Union Railroad Co., whose escapability was described as a miracle, because most men around him died during the first explosion. Gemmel explained the second blast emanated from a “beer storage house,” and the third fire stemmed “simply from an explosion of oil.”   

From its sister newspaper, The Butte Daily Post, came this graphic attention grabber: PIECES OF HUMAN FLESH 

In the Miner’s Jan. 16 edition, an editorial under the header "Butte in Mourning" cut to the chase with its opening line: “This, unquestionably, is the saddest day in the history of Butte.”

What’s more, countless telegrams from near and far expressed condolences and offered help. Spokane, Washington, Fire Chief F. B. Winebrenner wrote to Butte, “Can we contribute to a fund to assist deceased or injured firemen and families?”

Martial Law/Labor Disputes/Granite Mountain Speculator Disaster

1914, 1917, 1921

When Montana Gov. Samuel V. Stewart declared martial law in September 1914, The Butte Daily Miner published his official proclamation. It included the decree that “No publication … tending to influence the public mind” against the officers would be tolerated.

An editorial in the Sept. 2 Miner that year praised the action like so: “No person residing in Butte … has any reason to object to the re-establishment of order in this community.”

Months earlier, in the June 29 edition, the front-page headline — despite intense labor disputes culminating in striking miners dynamiting the Butte Union hall — indicated President Woodrow Wilson “Will Not Send Troops to Montana Now.”  

The Butte Miner’s initial front-page headline June 9, 1917 — the morning after America’s worst underground hard-rock mining tragedy — stated, "Disaster at No. Butte Mine, Many Lost," followed by an extensive list of those “Known Dead” as of 5:30 a.m. Conversely, The Butte Daily Post’s “jump” page had an all-caps header with a typo: 162 MISSING IN GRANITE MOUNTAIN DISASTED (sic).

A day later, reality set in as the Miner’s updated headline caught everyone’s attention: MINE FATALITIES ESTIMATED AT 193. A sidebar about conflicting eyewitness reports quoted shift boss John Collins signing a statement that “Ernest Sullau accidentally set fire to the cable with his carbide lamp.” Sullau was a foreman, Butte resident and native of Germany.

An editorial published June 10 titled “Butte’s Appalling Disaster” referred to citizens’ dread about the “long roll of death.” The opinion piece ended with, “In an hour like this, the sorely rent soul will turn for solace to a higher source than mankind can give.” 

A noteworthy brief on the agonizing subject — under the subhead News Service Value — pointed out the Miner’s need to report what transpired: “It was very important that the news of it be made known as quickly as possible.”

Columbia Gardens and Anaconda Co.

1973

After the Anaconda Co., owner of Butte’s storied Columbia Gardens, shut down the amusement park on Labor Day 1973 to clear space for additional mining operations, The Montana Standard’s above-the-banner headline read: "Butte sheds tears as Gardens close."

All told, the Standard published more than 400 stories and other items about the theme park’s demise in 1973. Readers both young and old wrote letters to the editor: In April 1973, elementary student Tami Williams exclaimed, “Don’t tear it down!” After the fact, Eva Williamson lamented the park’s closure in a subsequent missive published Sept. 5 titled "Columbia Gardens memory will remain."

Concessions stand worker Frank Panisco described that fateful day as being “like a wake, with the whole town turning out.”

One elderly resident was quoted by the Standard as saying, “I think of all the kids who won’t be able to bring their children here.”

Our Lady of the Rockies

1985

The Montana Standard made note of Our Lady of the Rockies — the tallest statue in the West — long before its completion in December 1985. The newspaper published photos while the 90-foot structure was under construction and when it was being transported atop the East Ridge of the Continental Divide. 

The Standard posted a retrospective in January 2018 replete with a video and archival photos headlined “Watching over Butte: A look at Our Lady of the Rockies through the years.”

On Christmas 1985, the statue was celebrated with a pair of Montana Standard editorials titled “A reflection of Butte’s will” and simply, “Well done.”

Subsequent reports included “Our Lady celebrates second year with documentaries & telethon” published on Dec. 12, 1987; the half-page chronicle comprised three stories. The top article quoted Al Beavis of the OLR Foundation as saying, “Many good things are happening in Butte. The Lady wants to be part of this.” The radio and TV benefit’s theme was “Remembering the Lady.”

Sidebars delved into “A brief history” of “Our Lady of the Rockies” and described ongoing interior work of the statue. Beavis heralded the surge in tourists: “The number of people who visited the statue tripled from the same period a year ago.”

Titanic, Lusitania sank with Butte residents aboard

1912/1915

The Butte Miner’s first report about the Titanic sinking was published on April 15, 1912, with the headline: "Great Ocean Liner Wrecked by Iceberg."

The paper’s subsequent in-depth story April 17 included an all-caps header spanning seven columns: TITANIC DISASTER IS UNPARALLELED IN THE HISTORY OF MARINE DISASTERS. Accompanying that report was a large, foreboding image of the ship.

In a 2012 story on the disaster’s 100th anniversary, The Montana Standard reported 11 people with connections to Butte and Deer Lodge were aboard the “Queen of the Ocean” when over 1,500 souls perished.

Among those who succumbed to the frigid Atlantic was Copper King W.A. Clark’s nephew Walter Clark, whose widow Virginia described conditions as “beautiful and calm” before the Titanic hit an iceberg. Lutie Parrish and daughter Imanita Shelley survived and ultimately returned to Deer Lodge, the Standard reported. Butte carpenter William Gilbert, as well as immigrant miners, died in the catastrophe.

In May 1915, there were a dozen Butte residents aboard the ill-fated Lusitania when a German boat torpedoed it. Shortly thereafter, a Butte Miner headline read “Butte Man Is Among The Saved,” while a report in the Anaconda Standard was titled “One Miner from Butte Among Lusitania Saved.”

In 2021, The Montana Standard chronicled two follow-up stories under this headline: "Once the torpedo hit … ‘pandemonium reigned.’"

A survivor named Risca Williams gave a first-hand account to a captive Butte audience, stating that after the Lusitania was struck, everything "went deadly pale and there was a moment of silence.”

Presidential visits to Butte

1903, 1909, 1911, 1923, 1948, 1950, 1964

Butte has played host to five sitting presidents and another eight who visited before their elections or after the end of their administrations.

Theodore Roosevelt was first, on May 27, 1903.

“It was not alone the welcome accorded to a great man, for in Butte greatness is not measured by rank or fortune; it was not the mere tribute of any political party; it was the hearty spontaneous greeting of a Western people, of miner and mine owner, rich and poor, a Rocky mountain greeting to a Rocky mountain man,” reads a story in the Reveille newspaper the next day.

It was reported that Roosevelt paraded down Granite Street in a horse-driven buggy, and later the president spoke from the balcony of the Finlen Hotel and addressed a labor meeting at Columbia Gardens.

It was actually a group of newspapermen that were responsible for a 1911 visit from then-President William Howard Taft, who stopped in Butte “to have a good time” upon the request of the Butte News Writers Association.

“At that time, the organization of news writers here had a reputation for social affairs second only to that of the famous Gridiron Club of Washington and the entertainment for Mr. Taft added further luster to its record,” reads a remembrance article published in the Butte Daily Post about the visit.

When President Warren G. Harding visited on June 28, 1923, the Butte Daily Post published an eight-page special section dedicated to the visit. The cover is adorned with an illustration of the president and a photograph of the new “Harding Way,” what is now Montana Highway 2, which was named to honor the visiting president.

“Truman Lashes Out at Congress; Thousands Greet President Here,” reads the front page of the June 9, 1948, edition of The Montana Standard after President Harry Truman’s first visit to the Mining City. He also visited in 1950 and in 1956 as a former president.

Reporting on the event at Naranche Stadium, which drew 10,000 attendees, describes it as a fiery “fight talk” political speech aimed at Congress.

The Montana Standard reported 46,000 people turned out for the Oct. 12, 1964, visit by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The headline on the front page read, “LBJ Hits Hard on Responsibility.”

Other future and former presidents that visited Butte include Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Deputy Editor Thom Bridge contributed to this report.