I began the new statewide survey in May 2012, traveling about 3600 miles in three weeks in May.  The major find was Butte–not that historians, writers, and folklorists had not long loved the place.  I always found that it was difficult to understand what Butte was–a true cosmopolitan urban environment locked into the high mountains of Montana–if you could only look at it from the downtown up towards the mines.

But today as the city reclaims its mining landscape and builds a series of world-class greenway trails linking the city and its headframes and mines on top of the world’s richest copper mountain, you can visit this high country, peer down, and really understand why it is a special place.

. from the Mile High Mine site on the greenway