Turning lemons into tourist lemonade, the Chamber of Commerce in this mining city is charging admission to see one of the United States’s largest bodies of toxic water. And people are paying.
“Some people see contaminated water,” said chamber executive Marko Lucich. “I see wealth.”
The chamber launched a trial run last summer, charging visitors $1 to gaze at the Berkeley Pit and its placid, grey water. There were enough people willing to pay that officials decided to charge again this year — doubling the price to $2.
The Berkeley Pit is a former copper mine that began filling in 1982 with drainage from closed mines. It now holds about 136-billion litres of water laden with arsenic, copper, cadmium, cobalt, iron and zinc.
Tainted water covers about 202ha, goes to a depth of about 364m and is toxic enough that it was blamed for the deaths of 342 migratory snow geese that landed on the water in 1995. Now visitors sometimes hear noisemakers intended to scare birds away.
The pit is on the federal Superfund clean-up list of toxic sites around the US. It is also on the website of Travel Montana, the state tourism office.
“Our major attractions in the state continue to be our national parks, our outdoor recreation,” administrator Betsy Baumgart said. “But once people are here, they are interested in understanding the culture … and mining is very much a part of the history and current culture.”
Admission fees to the pit brought in about $18Â 600 between June 15 and September 30 last year. Some of the proceeds will go toward improvements intended to make the site even more attractive to tourists.
“The first time I drove through Butte, I thought, “This is a terrible place,'” said Gwenda Buckmaster, of South Dakota, who viewed the pit last summer. “But once you start to understand it, it’s fascinating. All that mining history.”
Butte’s mining industry created a few barons and supported legions of labourers. The city supplied copper for wire as cities were being electrified in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By 1920, Butte bustled with 100Â 000 residents, and brimmed with labour activism, violence and vice.
The city of 34Â 000 already has a National Historic Landmark District, which includes a restored brothel, the World Museum of Mining and Evel Knievel Days, held in honour of the motorcycle daredevil and Butte native.
The pit has an observation deck, built years ago. There is also a souvenir shop filled with copper goods, such as candlesticks and key chains.
Pit owner Montana Resources, which operates Butte’s only active mine, has deeded the Chamber of Commerce the observation deck and one hectare. The chamber plans $275Â 000 in improvements, including a pavilion, a playground, food service and flush toilets in place of outhouses.
Montana Resources’ parent, Washington Corps, has pledged $100Â 000 and, if the chamber provides matching funds, an additional $75Â 000. — Sapa-AP
On the net
Butte Chamber of Commerce
Travel Montana
Pitwatch