As the Folk Festival arrives, I thought I would bring out another Historic Butte Segment, and as people start heading up the hill toward the Original mine and start working their way north toward the footing of Walkerville, I thought it would be fitting to talk about Walkerville. Walkerville is a suburb of Butte and is actually a small island within Butte consisting of about 2 and a quarter square miles and housing around 700 people. Some of the earliest mines in Butte were founded on Walkerville soil and attracted investors that started and fed the industry that formed this great community. Silver mining from Walkerville mines was a tremendous part of Buttes economy until the price of silver fell in 1893. Even then Walkerville mines earned their keep as so many other Butte mines did through copper production. Decades later Butte and Silver Bow county decided to join their governments. However Walkerville, last bastion of the dogmatic, Cornish immigrant miners who founded it were determined to retain their independence. Ive heard that Walkerville earned its name from the Walker brothers whose workers flooded to to area and lived there after their shifts were done. Im not entirely sure thats true, but I read it in a book so it seems as likely as anything. What is true is that the Walkerville streets, overlooking Butte contain just as many historic houses and other buildings, winding roads and fascinating sites as the rest of the town and locals and visitors alike can have fun wandering around and looking at living, evolving history right here in Butte (and Walkerville) America! The first two photos depict some earlier scenes of Walkerville (one is even a historic panorama shot,) while the last shows a more contemporary black and white photograph from Mike Drew showing that even today getting around in a mining town can be a bit challenging.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 16:24:09 +0000
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