From 1983: Montana's collapsed copper mining industry

From 1983: Montana's collapsed copper mining industry

In western Montana, where copper was once king, shuttered mines in the 1980s left the people of Butte, Anaconda and Great Falls groping toward the future. Correspondent Liz Trotta reported on the economic hardships facing thousands of out-of-work miners in this “Sunday Morning” story originally broadcast September 4, 1983.

33 Comments

  1. Tony Parks on November 5, 2022 at 1:43 pm

    Fresno California the same thing happened to us we had something and we have it no more so we can get work damn it Jim we are workers we don’t like to be cowboys in the wild wild West

  2. Debbie Cooper on November 5, 2022 at 1:44 pm

    it was the same thing in Kentucky. with the coal mines.

  3. Dude Guy on November 5, 2022 at 1:44 pm

    Wow, the Berkeley Pit before it filled up with highly toxic water and turned into America’s most famous migratory bird death-trap. She was pointing out the smelter smokestack as a symbol; if only she had known about the Superfund site destined for Butte’s future legacy

  4. Tony Parks on November 5, 2022 at 1:46 pm

    Nobody need copper no more what we don’t need no more

  5. Gerry Nightingale on November 5, 2022 at 1:48 pm

    *These men are either long-dead or ‘one foot in the grave and the other on a banana-peel’*
    *If these men knew that Unions that were once crocodiles are now ‘toothless worms’ or extinct altogether they would surely rise from
    from their graves and demand to know ‘What happened?’*
    *And what could we tell them?*
    *"We don’t know ‘what happened’ but we don’t like it either!"*
    ( *When I was young, my grandfather could’ve walked me into the ‘Rouge Plant’ and said "This is my grandkid…put him on the line and see if he works-out" and I’d have a Union card in my wallet in a week and a good job for the next forty-years or so* )
    *NOW THERE IS NOTHING!*

  6. Rube Goldburg on November 5, 2022 at 1:50 pm

    Get in, make money, rape the environment, pollute the water, air, and ground, and get out.

  7. Tony Parks on November 5, 2022 at 1:52 pm
  8. Don Doyle on November 5, 2022 at 1:55 pm

    I live in Kern Co California the heart of the oil Patch, could this be our fate 🤔

  9. CapnCody1622 on November 5, 2022 at 1:56 pm

    11:50 It’s absolutely insane that the minimum wage has barely doubled since 1983.

  10. TheWarrrenator on November 5, 2022 at 1:57 pm

    News + time = history. I remember growing up in WV and waking up on Sunday mornings before church and my mom would watch this show. She probably saw this very article. Mom was a school teacher and belonged to the teachers’ union. WV is an extraction economy much like Butte and is following its similar fate.

  11. M. Gustafson on November 5, 2022 at 2:01 pm

    Is that what copper mining will look like in the 🛶 Boundary Waters Canoe Area of Minnesota…..? 🤔

  12. Rob Joswiak on November 5, 2022 at 2:10 pm
  13. Christopher Quinn on November 5, 2022 at 2:11 pm

    Montana is on my bucket list, its so Beautiful

  14. MarbleWhornets on November 5, 2022 at 2:15 pm

    More of these old stories please!

  15. Boondocks on November 5, 2022 at 2:16 pm

    I wonder if any black people lived there around this time. Didn’t see any.
    But it is Montana so it’s understandable.

  16. Daniel Valle on November 5, 2022 at 2:16 pm

    I know reporting is faster and more concise now but seeing stories like this one that let the subject breathe is refreshing. No music attempting to drive the viewer’s emotion. Just the story and the people who live(d) it.

  17. Tony Parks on November 5, 2022 at 2:17 pm

    Yeah I need to buy some property one day and rent rooms to people veterans denied housing and a halfway house

  18. Somebody’s grandma on November 5, 2022 at 2:20 pm

    Wow! I lived in Great Falls in 1983. This was the year my daughter was born. Living there during that time was so difficult, I joined the army in 1984 and moved my family to Texas. Now my daughter is back in Montana and struggling to keep her apartment. There’s jobs but no place to live.

  19. Somebody’s grandma on November 5, 2022 at 2:23 pm

    Little did the man (talking about the mine closing) know at the time how wrong he was…

  20. Ryan iverson on November 5, 2022 at 2:25 pm

    Its montana so i cant tell if this was shot in 2021 or 1981.

  21. Bob Edwards on November 5, 2022 at 2:27 pm

    GOOD RIDDANCE

  22. Tony Parks on November 5, 2022 at 2:27 pm

    https://youtu.be/9WsPT51BJVg pictures of Katt Williams Church passing out food to the homeless Portland Oregon black panther program housing program. State farms stop me from getting non-profit 6 years ago because I want to compete with housing grants for black people denied housing yes my counselor at Central City concern did not give me housing my counselor at transitional projects Incorporated was fired for not giving black people housing yes he happened to be black his name was Larry or Barry doreen’s place. History housing discrimination #documentary hashtag news hashtag discrimination #discrimination #donate hashtag help #rithm #rhythm SpaceTime continuum

  23. Brendan Maloney on November 5, 2022 at 2:27 pm

    M&M bar and grill burned down last year

  24. Tony Parks on November 5, 2022 at 2:28 pm

    Portland Oregon unemployment people prostituting no money

  25. Emme Summerlin on November 5, 2022 at 2:28 pm

    One of the worst shows on television.

  26. Frederick Moller on November 5, 2022 at 2:29 pm

    I was a unionized underground miner in Timmins Canada for 29 years, but switched to nonunionized (mining contracting) underground mining for the remaining 14 years till I retired, and I made way, way better money than I ever did for a unionized mine!!!

  27. a g on November 5, 2022 at 2:34 pm

    Los Angeles at a taco stand geez haha..it was the aerospace industry

  28. SSIfluencer on November 5, 2022 at 2:35 pm

    Recently, ESG (environment/society/governance) has become a hot topic in management, but in preparation for this, even SMEs and non-profit organizations, except for large companies and listed companies, still have what ESG is? You don’t seem to know what to prepare and run. So, the May webinar was held under the theme of ‘ESG, SSI and Digital Trust’.

    The Government of British Columbia, Canada, demonstrates a demo along with an explanation of how to manage and trust the data generated by the self-sovereign identity technology to reduce GHGs generated during various operational activities in copper mines. Please refer to the video below…………….

    "No business is allowed on a dead planet." This message from environmental activist David Brower is, in a way, the best way to explain the origins of ESG. This is because if the market collapses due to the climate crisis and social problems, the company loses the ground to continue doing business. – One-book ESG class (Jihyun Shin, JoongAng Books) –

    https://youtu.be/zDPrVZ3k104

  29. Justin Nampui on November 5, 2022 at 2:35 pm

    butte is a good place to drink

  30. Johnny Cashh on November 5, 2022 at 2:36 pm

    At 13…we never got the impression of how really rough we had it as a community. I know everyone rallied around each other and used the barter system to get the car fixed for a family dinner. Been away for 30 yrs serving the country but my family is still chipping away!! Thanks for sharing. 🇺🇸🍻

  31. soulseeker aka sandy wolf on November 5, 2022 at 2:36 pm

    The future for any natural resources

  32. Aaron Oneal on November 5, 2022 at 2:38 pm

    Yall need to talk about ecosia they are a search engine that plants.

  33. Rob Joswiak on November 5, 2022 at 2:40 pm

    Why delete my comments?!

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