BUTTE & DEER LODGE

The old Anaconda Copper Company smelter stack, completed on May 5, 1919, is one of the tallest free-standing brick structures in the world at 585 feet, 1.5 inches. The inside diameter at the bottom is 75 feet and at the top, 60 feet. The stack can only be viewed at a distance,

HISTORIC BUTTE

The old Mining district Butte

Abandoned mining rigs and towers are found everywhere in Butte. Something like 40 of these old mining towers are found throughout the town. None of these are currently in use. They were used to pull the ore up from deep down below the surface  as well as to lower the miners up and down into the shafts.

DEER LODGE

MONTANA STATE PRISON. DEER LODGE

An Amusing prison story

Not all the inmates were too violent  and one was down right liked by the guards and prisoners. At the age of 40, Pete Eitner was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in 1918.

A model prisoner, he was assigned to tend to the prison turkeys and soon gained the nickname of "Turkey Pete." As he aged, he began to lose some of his mental facilities and when a man stopped one day to admire his turkeys, Eitner sold him the entire flock for 25 cents each. This ended his turkey tending days, but that was ok, because he soon fantasized a new "job" as the owner and administrator of the prison. Prison officials humored him, "allowing" Eitner to "run" the prison from his cell. Fake checks were printed for him, with which he paid the prison expenses and payroll. He would also tell anyone who would listen that he had the coffee crop in Brazil one year, sold pink alligators, ships to the navy, and grasshopper legs to Fidel Castro.
When Turkey Pete died in 1967 at age 89, his cell  was retired. His funeral was the only one ever held within the walls of the prison.Today, his cell displays photos of Turkey Pete, as well as his few belongings.