Town file
Butte, Montana
Butte, Montana (Silver Bow County, Montana) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 370, "The Dance Of Death" (11 March 2023).
- Town
- Butte
- County
- Silver Bow County
- State
- Montana
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 370
- Approximate location
- 46.013, -112.537
Episode 370 / 11 March 2023 / 69 min / express
The Dance Of Death
""We're going to Montana today... going to Butte, Montana", in southwestern Montana; Mary works at Silver Bow General Hospital, "which is the county. It's in Silverbow."" about 0:04:00
The case: Murder of Jesse Vialovos (April 26, 1966). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2023
- Population
- 34,465
- Median household income
- about $40,359
History, in brief
- Butte is nicknamed "the richest hill on earth", because of the amount of mining there. about 0:05:14
- On June 8th, 1917 a fire broke out in the Granite Mountain mine shaft, two thousand feet below ground, sending flames, smoke and poisonous gases through the tunnels and into the connected Speculator mine. about 0:05:58
- Rescue workers set up a large fan to stop the fire spreading; when they then used water, it turned to steam and burned people trying to escape. about 0:06:45
- 168 people died in the Granite Mountain fire. about 0:07:20
- As of 2017 it remained the largest hard rock mining accident in history. about 0:07:27
The reviews read out
5 stars
"Born and raised here; everyone knows everyone, a town that comes together when needed."about 0:07:46
3 stars
"Not as good as it used to be; some attempted robberies, mainly casinos, plus drug and alcohol abuse, but police are highly visible during uptown festivals so crime is less likely."about 0:07:57
1 star
"Butte is the butt hole of the U.S., the trashiest city this side of Mexico; trash everywhere, people nice on the surface until they get in a car, no respect for water, terrible businesses that only want tourist money, and the only positive is low traffic."about 0:08:53
1 star
"Butte is full of inbred, unemployed, alcoholic drug addicts; newcomers leave shell shocked, the locals are an angry lot of dulled zombies, and it is only fun for slumming for a day."about 0:09:52
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Manhattan, Montana59 miles
- Ovando, Montana76 miles
- Darby, Montana79 miles
- Stanford, Montana135 miles
- Hot Springs, Montana149 miles
- Geraldine, Montana154 miles
Everything here is as told in the episode, on the date it went out; figures and places may have changed since. Endings are covered: open an episode and use the spoiler switch to read them.