butte

“The weather was perfect for an outdoor meeting,” wrote an Anaconda Standard newspaper reporter. “The platform next to the court house was elaborately decorated with flags, and electric lights were hung among the trees, making the scene an attractive one. The demonstration tonight was a splendid one and was one of the grandest in Missoula's political history.”

By now, the whole world has seen a video of the “Great Escape of Viola,” the circus elephant, in Butte. But it’s not the first time a performing pachyderm has bolted for freedom in southwest Montana.

Dear Savannah Guthrie, I’m sorry I fired you. It’s actually true. Your humble history columnist actually did fire (well, “laid off”) the one and only Savannah Guthrie, in what became known as “Black Friday” in Butte: October 30, 1993.

“I take you to be my lawfully wedded (husband/wife), to have and to hold ... (blah, blah, blah) ... until death do us part.” “Until death do us part?” Well, not so much for a rather large number of vow-utterers over the last century or more.

The Butte-Silver Bow County employee who canceled a transgender woman’s lecture at the library citing the drag ban law said in a court filing this week he gave her opportunities to reschedule and comply with the law, and therefore did not violate her right to free speech.