National Folk Festival - Butte

On Saturday, Larry and I traveled to Butte with Julie and two of the seasonal rangers to work in the NPS- Montana Booth. We were joined by one ranger from Glacier NP. I would like to say that we were able to see at least part of the performances that took place on three separate stages, but that just didn't happen. We did hear most of the performances of a French Zydeco group and a gospel group, since our booth was near that stage.
Julie, Larry and I watched a portion of a mining competition between two groups of students from the Montana School of Mines.

They competed in activities performed daily, deep beneath the earth's surface. The first competition was jack-leg drilling. This is the modern way to drill holes for the placement of dynamite.

Not a job I would want. I don't think Larry is interested either.

The next competition involved filling an ore cart to a certain depth, then moving it to the end of the track and back. It was a timed event.

Just about the time the first team finished, a storm rolled in. By the time it passed, we had to leave to get back "on duty" at the booth.

The structure above is called a headframe. It towers above the mine shaft. Elevator cars were used to move ore out of the copper mine and men, both up and down the mine shaft.
This is a huge wince used to move ore cars.

Meanwhile, back at our festival "pod," one of several tucked into areas around the historic, "uptown" area, the post-storm crowds increased, both in numbers...and in the amount of beer they were consuming. It was only noon!

Then storm number two came in. Larry and I had taken a break to try and see some of the First People's Market and were stranded in a doorway downtown for about twenty minutes. We managed to get back to the booth before the next round. Lots of people decided to join us in the booth!

Through out the day, we kept count of the people who stopped in the booth and had a "pool" going. I won with my prediction of 1625. The actual number was 1649. (My prize?- a peppermint patty) Lots of people and even more that did not stop! Today at the ranch, I encountered SIX visitors that I personally talked to yesterday and invited to the ranch. There were probably others that I did not happen to see. That kind of made my aching knee feel better. Standing for the better part of 10 hours is NOT fun.

Here are a few of the pics I took here and there on "potty breaks," etc..

The historic Finland Hotel. Lots of copper everywhere.

Some of the crowds gathered at the "Original" stage, located under one the the many, non-functioning headframes scattered around the Butte uptown area.

We found Tim, "The Toolman's" car!

By 8:30 PM, the crowds were still there, pretty "plastered," and pretty entertaining to watch. We started to think that we were the audience for this crazy show. Actually, ten hours standing and talking to people started to get to us and we all got a little silly...without any beer!

I can't even think of anything to say here!