Mining Cultures: Men, Women and Leisure in Butte, 1914-41

Western Folklore, Winter 1998 by Swaney, Alexandra

Mining Cultures: Men, Women and Leisure in Butte, 1914-41. By Mary Murphy. Women in American History Series. (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1997. Pp. xviii 279, photographs, notes, bibliography, subject index. $39.95 cloth, $18.95 paper)

Perhaps more has been written about Butte, Montana, than about any other city in the West. It is famous for its "richest hill on earth," its rival copper barons, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company monopoly, the murder of IWW leader Frank Little during the labor/company conflicts before WWI; and, in the sixties, for the motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel, who seemed for a while to epitomize the hard living, diehard, masculine character of the place.

Butte has never been much associated with the feminine aspects of culture (or rather, with those aspects we are inclined to attribute to women), but Mary Murphy's book, Mining Cultures: Men, Women and Leisure in Butte, 1914-41, goes a long way to filling in the outlines of the lives of Butte's women and children, and of its men, when they were not deep down in the mines. Mining Cultures is part of the Women in American History series from the University of Illinois Press, designed to redress the relative absence of women's lives and perspectives from history scholarship. Murphy's book does more than this. In its attention to the lives of women and children, and in its close look at the variety of recreational activities pursued by Butte's residents, Mining Cultures provides a fresh look at the history of Butte, which has almost always been centered around the work life of miners and mining companies. Originally Murphy's dissertation, the book is prodigiously researched from hundreds of diverse sources, and it delivers a highly satisfying level of detail about the daily life of Butte people. The chapters are arranged somewhat chronologically, but the real dividing scheme is the domains of human behavior described, i.e. "Habits of Drink," "Manners and Morals" and "Imagination's Spur" (describing the impact of radio in people's lives).

Of course, men played a huge role in the history of Butte, and Murphy makes sure we understand the overarching explanation of Butte's social character: in the early days, immigrants who flocked to work in the mines were overwhelmingly single men, setting up the dynamic that influenced the city's life for years to come. "Hard work and hard play were partners.... Condemned vices in other American cities were tolerated pastimes in Butte, a city designed for adult men" (233). Men who risked their lives deep in the ground needed this intensity of play in their free time, and were not afraid of behaviors that might have appeared risky to family men. The mining companies, as well as the Catholic church, tacitly condoned behaviors that might have appeared risky to family men. The mining companies, as well as the Catholic church, tacitly condoned the rougher sorts of recreation, such as drinking, gambling, and prostitution, to keep the work force both satisfied and broke. In fact, "Prostitution was one of the most common occupations for women in Butte in the early twentieth century" (77), and Butte men maintained the nineteenth century distinction between "good" women and "bad." Good women stayed home with the family, bad women inhabited the Red Light District on the working class east side.

These male mental and physical domains were primary in Butte, but eventually women tampered with most of them. Working class people were taught early the necessity of being tough. Boxing was a popular sport, and was thought to be the ideal way to instill manliness. In later years, some men were dismayed at the increasing presence of women at boxing matches. As the roles of women changed nationally, Butte women made inroads into the other traditionally masculine areas of recreation-saloons, gambling halls, and keno parlors -despite male antagonism. Some even started their own home distillery businesses during Prohibition (which never really "took" in Butte) when "the independence of women bootleggers challenged male notions of women's place" (61).

Those who attempted to provide citizens with the recreational activities typically found in other cities and towns were frustrated in Butte. Murphy points out that the boom-and-bust cycles of the mining economy made it financially and psychologically harder for people to invest in long-term capital improvements such as libraries, parks, and playing fields. "Faced with the choice of supporting public recreation or spending money in private amusements, Butte residents chose to invest in the private sector" (234). But in the twenties, Butte's many women's clubs, volunteer and neighborhood associations, though often riven by class antagonisms, provided assistance for the poor and spearheaded what community improvement efforts they could. They were a mainstay of Butte society until the thirties, when the Depression destroyed many members' financial resources. During the thirties, the WPA and the radio took up some of the work of keeping Butte people entertained-and employed-when so many were out of work. Sunday afternoons, KGIR/KXLF broadcast live radio performances of such favorite Butte bands as "Johnny and the Hot Shots" from local clubs, a practice that continued into the fifties, when I listened to them as a fascinated child.