Butte was an interesting pitstop on our drive from Bozeman to Missoula. 

The town lies on some of the world's richest mineral reserves and there's no mistaking how mining and the vast wealth shaped this community. A century ago, it was one richest towns in the Northwest and home to a strong labor movement. Downtown (known as uptown because it is on a steep slope) is still lined with ornate banks and other businesses, Irish bars, vintage Victorian homes, boarding houses and miner's cottages, though many are now vacant.

The open pits remain, with ribbons of copper, silver and ore colored soil. Mining towers still dot the hillsides. It's beautiful, despite the fact that most of the mines are no longer in operation and the legacy that's left is one of massive environmental damage. 

At the top of the hill overlooking the city is a memorial to 168 men who died in country's worst metal mining disaster. It's a work in progress with a construction fence still around it. No surprise, but that didn't stop Aunt Nancy from slipping through and reading the plaques about the accident, the mines, and the men and women who lived and worked here decades ago.