Montana Public Radio

Richest Hill

  • Richest Hill: exploring the past, present and future of America's largest Superfund site in Butte, MT
    Richest Hill: exploring the past, present and future of America's largest Superfund site in Butte, MT

If you don’t know Butte Montana, you might have heard it’s one of the biggest toxic messes in the country. But now the “mining city” is on the verge of sealing a deal that could clean it up once and for all.

So how did we get here? What comes after Superfund? And who gets to decide?

Find out on Richest Hill, a new podcast from Montana Public Radio coming in early 2019.

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Richest Hill Episode 01: Butte's Precarious Arrangement

By • Mar 5, 2019
Richest Hill: a podcast about the past, present and future of one of America's largest Superfund sites in Butte, MT

Richest Hill episode 01: Get to know Butte, Montana, one of America's biggest Superfund sites and one of Montana’s most compelling places. Richest Hill is a new podcast about the past, present and future of Butte, America, "The Richest Hill on Earth."

Richest Hill Episode 00: Series Preview

By • Feb 12, 2019
Richest Hill: a podcast about the past, present and future of one of America's largest Superfund sites in Butte, MT

Butte Montana is famous. It was at one time the biggest city between Chicago and San Francisco. It’s in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, and sits at the headwaters of the mighty Columbia River, which flows all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Butte boomed and thrived for almost a century because of one thing: copper.

Butte’s massive copper deposit was key to America’s success. The “Richest Hill on Earth” literally electrified the nation, and made the brass in bullets that won World Wars I and II. But in the 1980s, the last of the big mines shut down. Now, most of the riches are gone, and Butte is struggling.

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