This morning we left Spokane Valley and spent all day heading east on I-90, going through the remaining few miles of Washington, the narrow width of the northern panhandle of Idaho, and across Montana to Bozeman. We went up and down fairly high mountain passes where we saw the signs for chaining up and chain removal parking areas. We looked out at snow-covered mountain peaks on both sides of us. We went through flat river valleys where there were farms and ranches. And we went through the dry, rolling plains where there was very little other than light brown grass and the pale green sage brush bushes.
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| Typical scenery for the first part of the day. |
In the afternoon there were storm clouds all around us and we did have some misty drizzle and some steady rain. On the radio we heard the severe thunderstorm warnings for the area that we had just come through. In these valleys you can see the storms and the lightning from a long way off.
Our one stop of the day was late in the afternoon in Butte. As we arrived it was still raining, so we went and did some grocery shopping, hoping that the patches of blue sky would catch up with us - and they did. We visited the Berkley Pit which is the most contaminated mine pool. There are embankments around the edge and you must walk through a short tunnel to get out to a platform that overlooks the large pool of water.
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| Looking out at the Berkeley Pit. |
Mining at the Berkeley Pit has been in operation since the 1890's. They first panned for gold in that area. They have had underground mines from which they obtained gold, zinc, silver, and cobalt. Most recently there has been an open pit copper mine there for many years. After the open pit mine was abandoned, the pit has gradually filled with water and it contains a variety of metals (copper, aluminum, cadmium, zinc, and sulfate as well as arsenic). The pH level of the water is 2.5. Their displays emphasized the positives; they stated that life does exist in this water in the pit, but it turns out it is one small aquatic insect (the water boatman) and some iron-eating algae.
There is still a working mining operation here, the Continental operation, just to the southeast of the Berkley Pit.
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| The Continental operation, being watched over by Our Lady of the Rockies (the large white statue on the ridge). |
The water level is currently at about 5,100 elevation level. When it reaches 5,410 elevation (which they have predicted will happen in 2018) it will reach a critical level that would endanger the groundwater of the town. They have built a water treatment plant on the east side of the pit that will be able to treat seven million gallons per day, or five thousand gallons per minute.
The town has old Victorian mansions and a multistory old hotel that show the historic prominence and wealth of this town. The center of the town shows the decline that came with the decline of the mine. There are some lovely new houses on the outskirts of the town that look out on to the snow-covered mountains in the distance.
The rains caught up with us as we left Butte but the darkest storm clouds stayed to the north and south of us. We have been very lucky in that the only times that it has rained has been when we were driving and in the car.
Today we have lost the first of the three hours as we head home. Yesterday we were in the Pacific Time Zone and now we are in the Mountain Time Zone. We had been three hours different from Morgantown and now we are only two. From here we are heading for Yellowstone and the Tetons. For the next two nights we are probably not going to have internet access, so it will be a couple of days until there is anything new here
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