Butte is unique among Montana cities—some
say it is unique among cities anywhere—and now there
is a book that proves it. Butte Trivia by longtime Butte
resident George Everett is packed with 720 eye-opening
questions and answers about the state’s most raucous
and rollicking town. From Butte’s wide-open years
to modern times, this book mines Butte’s richest
veins of astounding facts and figures. Of course, Butte
claims many Montana superlatives, including the state’s
first millionaire, most expensive road, and deepest lake,
and Butte may be the only city on the planet to boast ringing
rocks, flying cowboys, and a memorial marker for a moose.
About
the Author
George
Everett is a writer and photographer who lives in Butte,
Montana. He has written more than 100 articles,
many illustrated with his own photography for a variety
of regional and national publications. Most of
his writing has focused on art, business, travel, and
history topics in Southwest Montana for magazines and
newspapers including Horizon Air, American History,
American Heritage, Conde Nast Traveler, Great Falls Tribune,
Highlights for Children, The World of Hibernia, Historic
Traveler, Irish America, Montana Magazine, The Chicago
Tribune, The Denver Post and The Seattle Times.
In 1995, Everett published Champagne in a Tin
Cup, a magazine story that grew into a book
for visitors that was widely embraced by long-time residents
of Butte.
Everett has been a small business owner for the past decade,
operating a small consulting firm that provides Internet
and editorial business assistance to businesses primarily
in Butte, but also in Anaconda, Dillon, Missoula, Philipsburg,
and Bozeman. For example, he maintains the city of Anaconda’s
portal web site www.anacondamt.org.
One of his accomplishments that he is most proud of is
his retail business portal site ButteAmerica.com to
showcase Butte’s retail sector to a broader trade
area. His writing about a variety of topics can be found
on butteamerica.com and
its companion online magazine, Only in Butte ( butteamerica.com/oib.htm).
Everett has served as the Vice President of the Butte Convention
and Visitor’s Bureau and has worked in tourism-related
efforts to promote Butte’s attractions on the boards
of the Mai Wah Society and the World Museum of Mining. For
the Mai Wah Society, Everett worked on their permanent
museum interpretive exhibit and with the government of
Taiwan through its consular office in Seattle to donate
a ceremonial parade dragon to Montana to reside in Butte
for use in parades and festivals.
Since October, 2002, Everett has been responsible for the
Mainstreet Uptown Butte program as its Executive Director.
This four-point approach incorporates design, promotion,
organization and economic restructuring to rejuvenate Butte’s
Historic Uptown business district to make it a cleaner,
greener, and livelier place to work and play. In
this role he is most content with his part in coordinating
efforts to light up seven historic headframes, put 12x18
flags on each and to plant more than 350 trees in the last
three years with strong community support for all of these
projects.
Everett has been a Butte native since 1983 and lives in
an old house on the Hill with his wife Barbara and son
Benjamin (two daughters Emily and Olivia have both gotten
big enough to leave the building). The house was once referred
to by the Chippewa-Cree who lived on the Big Butte nearby
as "The Bikky House," because the owner's wife
made the best biscuits on the Butte Hill and shared them
with anyone who came to the door.
Butte
is unique among Montana cities—some say it is unique
among cities anywhere—and now there is a book that
proves it.
“Butte
Trivia” by longtime Butte resident George Everett
is packed with 720 eye-opening questions and answers
about the state’s most raucous and rollicking town.
From Butte’s wide-open years to modern times, this
book mines Butte’s richest veins of astounding
facts and figures.
As
executive director of Mainstreet Uptown Butte, part of
Everett’s job is to be an expert on the Mining
City’s background and history. But writing a 124-page,
720-question trivia book on the Mining City? Everett
admitted it was a little intimidating.
The book is over 25 years
of learning,” Everett
said. “It’s almost everything I know about
Butte, in trivia form.”
Indeed,
there are answers to questions you never thought of asking.
If you’ve ever wanted to know how many bones Evel
Knievel broke during his career, or how long the nose
is on Our Lady of the Rockies, or what famous comedian
stole a tourist trolley from downtown Butte, then this
book is for you.
Everett
humbly acknowledges his book is by far the most definitive
source about everything Butte—from the city’s
official flower (it’s Clarkia pulchella, or the
pink fairy) to what Catholic miners called waste rock
from underground mines (Protestant ore).
One
of Everett’s favorite items he uncovered is about
a young man who was the stand-in for Charlie Chaplin. “A
lot of people know Charlie Chaplin preformed in Butte,” Everett
said. “But his understudy, Stanley Jefferson, was
also a good story.” Why? Because shortly after
leaving the Mining City, Jefferson changed his last name
to “Laurel” and became the first half of
the comic duo Laurel and Hardy.
Of course, Butte claims many Montana
superlatives, including the state’s first millionaire,
most expensive road, and deepest lake, and Butte may be
the only city on the planet to boast ringing rocks, flying
cowboys, and a memorial marker for a moose.
“I
hope people have as much fun reading this as I did writing
it,” Everett said.
Full
of unforgettable facts and fascinating tidbits, “Butte
Trivia” belongs in every classroom, bathroom, and
barroom. The 128-page paperback sells for $9.95 and is
available at bookstores or by calling Riverbend Publishing
toll-free 1-866-787-2363.
