Remembering the ‘Hood: Parrot Flat
The Butte Archives is excited to offer a new adventure in evening programming touching on Butte history!
Jim McCarthy, a local Butte historian and volunteer at the Archives, will be outlining his years-long research project on individual neighborhoods on Tuesday evenings, at 6:00 PM in the auditorium at the Butte Archives.
This session will focus on the neighborhood of Parrot Flat.
We would love to have the presentation attendees share their photos, stories, keepsakes and memories for a fun evening of reminiscing! Slainte
Remembering the ‘Hood: East Butte
The Butte Archives is excited to offer a new adventure in evening programming touching on Butte history!
Jim McCarthy, a local Butte historian and volunteer at the Archives, will be outlining his years-long research project on individual neighborhoods on Tuesday evenings, at 6:00 PM in the auditorium at the Butte Archives.
This session will focus on the neighborhood of East Butte.
We would love to have the presentation attendees share their photos, stories, keepsakes and memories for a fun evening of reminiscing! Slainte!
Brown Bag Lunch: Listening to Ghosts in a Haunted Land
A conversation with journalist Kathleen McLaughlin and historian Betsy Gaines Quammen on phantoms, history, and reconciliation with our unsettled past.
This Haunted Land by Betsy Quammen, investigates some of America’s most enduring legends and uncovers how ghost stories can illuminate some of the most unsettling parts of history. With curiosity, a touch of skepticism, and an open-hearted willingness to learn from the living and the dead, Betsy Gaines Quammen takes readers on a journey into haunted towns, forgotten lives, and abandoned places. From a once-booming uranium mining community in Colorado to a fort on the coast of Florida that predates the United States itself, this riveting exploration of memory, mourning, folklore, and social anxiety shows that politicized efforts to rewrite history can only be defeated by bearing witness to the specters of the past.
The first chapter of This Haunted Land is about Butte.
For more information call: 406-782-3280
Remembering the ‘Hood: Meaderville
The Butte Archives is excited to offer a new adventure in evening programming touching on Butte history!
Jim McCarthy, a local Butte historian and volunteer at the Archives, will be outlining his years-long research project on individual neighborhoods on Tuesday evenings, at 6:00 PM in the auditorium at the Butte Archives.
This session will focus on the neighborhood of Meaderville.
We would love to have the presentation attendees share their photos, stories, keepsakes and memories for a fun evening of reminiscing! Slainte!
Remembering the ‘Hood: McQueen
The Butte Archives is excited to offer a new adventure in evening programming touching on Butte history!
Jim McCarthy, a local Butte historian and volunteer at the Archives, will be outlining his years-long research project on individual neighborhoods on Tuesday evenings, at 6:00 PM in the auditorium at the Butte Archives.
This session will focus on the neighborhood of McQueen.
We would love to have the presentation attendees share their photos, stories, keepsakes and memories for a fun evening of reminiscing! Slainte!
Remembering the ‘Hood: Galloping Houses
The Butte Archives is excited to offer a new adventure in evening programming touching on Butte history!
Jim McCarthy, a local Butte historian and volunteer at the Archives, will be outlining his years-long research project on seven individual neighborhoods on Tuesday evenings, at 6:00 PM in the auditorium at the Butte Archives. The eighth and final presentation of the series will be on November 17th, and is entitled “Galloping Houses”, which will be an interesting compilation of houses that have been moved from their original location and have been relocated (because of mining OR other various reasons) to another location…in Butte or elsewhere!
We would love to have the presentation attendees share their photos, stories, keepsakes and memories for a fun evening of reminiscing! Slainte!
Brown Bag Lunch: Pie in the Sky
In her first work of fiction, Janet L. Finn brings decades of storytelling and social justice scholarship to life in a sweeping novel about struggle, solidarity, and unexpected connection. Pie in The Sky follows the intersecting journeys of two young women—one from Butte, Montana, the other from Santiago—whose lives collide amidst the political upheaval of 1970s Chile. Against the backdrop of labor movements, mining life, and the rising hope of social change, their friendship sparks a story of courage, loss, and transformation that crosses borders and generations.
Grounded in rich historical detail and emotional depth, this is a novel about finding common ground in uncommon places—and the power of human connection to shape the future.
About the Speaker
Janet L. Finn is an author, educator, and lifelong advocate for social justice whose work explores the human stories behind systems of power, inequality, and transformation. Raised in Butte, Montana, she grew up surrounded by the grit, resilience, and layered histories of a mining town—experiences that shaped her lifelong curiosity about the lives we inherit, the communities we build, and the forces that shape them.
Today, Janet brings that curiosity and commitment to everything she does—from teaching social work and writing books, to amplifying voices that too often go unheard. Her work span s genres and geographies, but always returns to one central truth: stories matter. They reveal what is broken, celebrate what is beautiful, and offer a path toward justice.
For more information call: 406-782-3280
Brown Bag Lunch: “Irish Born, American Made”
Born to poverty in the Irish county of Tipperary, John Egan participated in some of the most dramatic events of the nineteenth century, including mass migration to the United States during a catastrophic famine, the “opening” of Japan via gunboat diplomacy, Sherman’s March to the Sea, and homesteading in the Upper Midwest. In Irish Born, American Made, his great-grandson examines the processes by which a scorned British subject became a proud American citizen.
Although Egan’s life was filled with epic drama, the author does not shy away from unsavory truths, such as his ancestor’s doubts about the virtues of abolition or his enthusiastic participation in settling land appropriated from Indigenous peoples. Equally, Egan recognizes the real hardships his ancestor faced in assimilating to American society, from the prejudices of the ascendant Know-Nothing movement to the condescending caricatures of Irish soldiers by his Union compatriots during and after the Civil War. The result is both a moving reminder of the hardships of immigration and a timely reckoning with the imperfections of our forebears.
About the Speaker
Ken Egan Jr. is the former executive director of Humanities Montana, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He previously taught American literature at colleges and universities in the United States and abroad. The author or editor of five books, he lives in Missoula, Montana.
For more information call: 406-782-3280
Brown Bag Lunch: Historic Tax Credits
Owners of historic buildings, take heart. Ed Gulick of High Plains Architects will explain why the popular refrain that “it would be cheaper to demolish and build new than to renovate a historic building” is almost never true. In fact, a properly designed and executed historic rehabilitation project can actually bring funds to a project in the form of Historic Tax Credits, which are worth 25% of the total project costs. Come hear about how Historic Tax Credits work and best practices in rehabilitating historic buildings.
For more information call: 406-782-3280
Remembering the ‘Hood: East Side
The Butte Archives is excited to offer a new adventure in evening programming touching on Butte history!
Jim McCarthy, a local Butte historian and volunteer at the Archives, will be outlining his years-long research project on individual neighborhoods on Tuesday evenings, at 6:00 PM in the auditorium at the Butte Archives.
This session will focus on the East Side.
We would love to have the presentation attendees share their photos, stories, keepsakes and memories for a fun evening of reminiscing! Slainte!
Mining City Matinee: The Tinderbox
While the cat’s away, the mice will play! Our directors are out of the office, so the rest of the Archives staff is taking advantage of the opportunity to host a movie matinee!
Join us as we screen The Tinderbox, a locally produced film that puts a uniquely Butte twist on the classic fairy tale. The story follows a shell-shocked soldier who returns home to Butte and falls for a young woman held captive in a tower by her paranoid father. In a local twist on the classic tale, instead of magical dogs, the soldier is aided by a lightning-fast leprechaun who lives under the historic Pekin Noodle Parlor.
Come enjoy a little local history, a little folklore, and a lot of fun with us at the Archives! Popcorn will be served! Free admission for ALL!
Remembering the ‘Hood: Finn Town
The Butte Archives is excited to offer a new adventure in evening programming touching on Butte history!
Jim McCarthy, a local Butte historian and volunteer at the Archives, will be outlining his years-long research project on individual neighborhoods on Tuesday evenings, at 6:00 PM in the auditorium at the Butte Archives.
This session will focus on the neighborhood of Finn Town.
We would love to have the presentation attendees share their photos, stories, keepsakes and memories for a fun evening of reminiscing! Slainte!
Brown Bag Lunch: The West—Past and Present, Myth, and Reality
The Irish writer Billy O’Callaghan, who thanks to an almost certainly excessive lifelong diet of novels, movies, and television, retains an abiding fascination for all things Western-related, and Montana writer Darby Minow Smith, whose family has ranched in Boulder for generations, will get together for what is sure to be a lively discussion on the West, both bygone and as it is today. They’ll discuss what gives the West its aura, and compare and contrast the mythical cowboys of O’Callaghan’s childhood with the living, breathing ones in Butte’s backyard.
For more information call: 406-782-3280
Remembering the ‘Hood: Dublin Gulch
The Butte Archives is excited to offer a new adventure in evening programming touching on Butte history!
Jim McCarthy, a local Butte historian and volunteer at the Archives, will be outlining his years-long research project on individual neighborhoods on Tuesday evenings, at 6:00 PM in the auditorium at the Butte Archives.
The first session, Dublin Gulch, will entail a brief history of Butte mining, the birth and growth of the Gulch and the connection to the adjoining ethic areas. The details of the neighborhood community will be revealed through research documents including Polk City Directories, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, Owen Smithers and other Butte Archives photos and maps of the neighborhood, as well as stories and insight from those who lived in, near or by Dublin Gulch!
The Gulch was one of the first areas affected by mining growth and expansion due to the onset of the Greater Butte Project and the creation of the Kelley Mineyard and its expansion and development! Join us as we take a virtual historical tour of Dublin Gulch as it looked before its demise and what remnants are remaining in place at present!
We would love to have the presentation attendees share their photos, stories, keepsakes and memories for a fun evening of reminiscing! Slainte!
Brown Bag Lunch: Discretion Series
Beginning just after the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the “Discretion” series delves into underexposed and accurate history of the American West, founded in aggressive 19th century political policies inspired by manifest destiny and intended to destroy Native American cultures and people.
The Discretion Series is an accumulation of engaging stories intended to challenge pre-existing cultural and historical generalizations, especially regarding American Indian peoples. While intended to educate as well as entertain, these novels are eminently provocative, comprehensively researched and woven into the fabric of the 19th century West, populated by authentic historical figures, compelling events and vivid landscapes. The reader becomes immersed in the language, daily existence and predominant societal perspectives of the waning days of the American West.
Most importantly, Native American cultures and languages are respectfully portrayed throughout the series via the author’s own indigenous worldview, personal experience, accurate research and consultation with mentors from specific tribal nations.
About the Speaker
Juliana “Hoolihan” Clayton is an indigenous woman of Turtle Island (First Nations Plains Cree/Nehiyawak) who was adopted by a white family and raised on a cattle ranch in Wyoming. She has lived and worked with Native Americans and cowboys throughout the West during her years as a ranch hand and wildland firefighter. With a degree in history and education from the University of Montana, it has long been her goal to create a series of entertaining novels that are rife with impeccable research, unflinching veracity and forthright cultural perspectives on American history.
For more information call: 406-782-3280