Butte’s Beautiful Legacy: Is This Perspective the Best?

BUTTE, MT - I could write about Butte all day—and not only because it's my job. It's because of the beautiful, intimidating-yet-extremely-friendly people; the serene landscape that can viewed outside of every door; the bars and restaurants that scream "individuality" and "unique" while each still being connected to the overall community; the loads of non-profits and organizations filled with those familiar and friendly faces that are always ready to drop everything and help out those who need it; and, of course, the history that is all-encompassing and inescapable.

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Many of us here in Butte, Montana are well versed in the rich mining history of "The Richest Hill on Earth," or the unlikely story of Evel Knievel and his ties throughout Butte, or the world-famous brothel that operated for almost 100 years (92, to be exact), or the countless other reasons us Butte Rats have to be proud of. But how do you sum up such a vast, expansive history to someone who doesn't live here? Or perhaps to someone who's just visiting?

Well, it seems that a local Butte joint may have the answer—and they did it in the most awesome way possible. Nestled on the busy strip of Harrison Avenue in the heart of Butte is a chain restaurant (though you'd never know it) called The Montana Club. The Montana Club, having locations all across—you guessed it—Montana, has special furnishings and artifacts that are hyper-localized to their location, and Butte is no exception. I'll be doing a full written piece on The Montana Club tomorrow, but for now, feast your eyes on this beautiful painting covering the big parts of Butte's past:

This work, in my humble opinion, is one of the best painted perspectives of Butte's history, and it's been sitting right under our noses. All credit of the work goes to Lane Timothy, a Montana native, and who's work you can check out here.

What do you think? Have you seen this depiction of Butte history?