Tag Archives: Tourism

10 Days In Croatia

Dubrovnik – Unesco World Heritage site

In 1979 Dubrovnik was named a Unesco World Heritage site in recognition of its medieval architecture and fortified old town. The fact that the city still exists is amazing in itself. The entire city was almost destroyed in 1667 by a huge earthquake. In 1991 the Yugoslav People’s Army shelled the city for seven months during the Croatian War of Independence. Over the centuries, because of its strategic location on the Adriatic Sea, it has changed hands more often than an old dollar bill. It has been overrun by emperors, sultans, Ottomans, Byzantines, Italians, Greeks, Romans, Serbians, Venetians, Hungarians, Germans, Croatians, Macedonians, and Crusaders.

Thanks to the Game of Thrones, mega-cruise ships and social media, it becomes difficult to talk about this beautiful city without obsessing on over-tourism. In 2019, before the pandemic, 1.5 million people roamed the narrow streets. To put it in perspective, that’s 36 tourist for every citizen. Things of cultural and historic significance are easy to overlook under the crush of overpriced tours, Game of Thrones t-shirts and Chinese made souvenirs. On a more positive note, the city is lovely and the gelato is fabulous.

The House of Marin Držić

Considered to be one of the finest Renaissance playwrights and prose writers of Croatian literature. Marin has even been called Croatia’s Shakespeare. His comedies, in particular, are lauded.

If it’s life that makes the writer then Marin can speak from experience. After a time in Sienna, Marin returned to Dubrovnik in 1543 and quickly became an acquaintance of the Austrian adventurer Christoph Rogendorf and began a series of vagabond exploits. He was connected with a group of Dubrovnik outlaws, and journeyed to Vienna, Constantinople and Venice, working as an interpreter, scrivener and church musician.

At one point he became convinced that Dubrovnik was being governed by a small group of elite aristocrats bent on tyranny. He wrote five letters desperately trying to convince the Medici family of Florence to help him overthrow the government in his home town. They never responded.

Split

Croatia’s Second Largest City

Split is a pretty interesting place. Much bigger than Dubrovnik, approximately four times bigger, it still has a much smaller and more relaxed feel. Now that may just be because we have confined our visit to the interior of Roman Emperor Diocletian’s large walled palace that sits at the harbor and haven’t ventured into the large bustling city that hovers just east of here.

Founded as a Greek trading colony in the 3rd century BC, Split really took off when the fortified Palace of Diocletian was built in 305 CE. It became a prominent settlement around 650 CE when Roman refugees fled here after Salona, the ancient capital of Dalmatia, was sacked by Slavs.

Although caught in the middle of the struggle between Venice and Croatia, Split managed to remain a free state for centuries until Venice finally won control of the Adriatic Sea and it became a heavily fortified Venetian city. That lasted until Napoleon beat the living daylights out of everyone in the late 18th century and the territory became part of the Habsburg monarchy. Then, in turn, became part of Italy, France, Austria, Yugoslavia, Germany and finally, after the fall of Yugoslavia, an independent Croatia.

Bishop Gregory of Nin

Bishop Gregory was always at odds with the power in Rome. He was the head of the rival Bishopric of Nin and attempted to institute the Slavic language into religious services. The Pope was having none of it and decreed that “no one should presume to celebrate the divine mysteries in the Slavonic language, but only in Latin and Greek, and that no one of that tongue should be advanced to the holy orders”. Bishop Greg’s pleas were rejected and his entire Nin bishopric was abolished in 928, but the Slavs still love him. Rubbing his toe has brought people good luck since 1929 when the statue was erected.

Marko Marulić

Marko is considered the father of Croatian literature and a major figure in the European renaissance. A lawyer, judge, author, poet and illustrator Marulić was the first to use the term psychology in his work “ Psychology concerning the nature of the human soul” published in 1524. His second most important work was Evangelistarium, an essay on ethical principles. A copy in the British Library belonged to Henry VIII and the margin notes indicate that the King was particularly interested in the authors religious views on choosing a spouse.

Apparently the great writer shared a mistress with his good friend Papalić. According to local stories they were very aware of their common affection, but like most threesomes, the whole affair ended in tragedy. The men would take turns climbing through the bedroom window of the young lady, the city commander’s daughter no less. Although it wasn’t his turn, Papalić asked Marulić to let him visit the girl’s bedroom. The local nobleman was caught and killed. The girl’s father, unable to live with the disgrace, buried his daughter alive behind a wall in the family home. It wasn’t until years later that her body was discovered. The whole debacle caused Marulić to move to a monastery on the island of Šolta.

Zagreb – The Capital

Zagreb Is the capital and largest city in Croatia. With 1,250,000 people, greater Zagreb has about a third of Croatia’s population. The earliest settlements in the region date from between the 1st and 5th centuries AD. The history of Zagreb itself dates from 1094 A.D. when Hungarian King Ladislaus founded a diocese and began the restoration of public safety. He was a severe legislator and punished thieves with death or mutilation.

The Legend King Saint Ladislaus

Legend has it that King Lad made his bones at The Battle of Kerlés when a Cuman warrior tried to flee the battlefield with a kidnaped Christian maiden. The severely wounded Ladislaus took chase. He shouted to the girl to catch hold of the pagan’s belt and jump to the ground. As the King and the pagan began wrestling the girl cut the pagan’s Achilles tendon allowing Ladislaus to subdue and behead the villain.

Ban Jelačić Square

The name “Zagreb” dates from 1094, but the city actually had two different city centers, Gradec and Kaptol. The city was finally united in 1851 by Ban Josip Jela Jelačića for whom the central square of the city was named in 1848. Austrian authorities had the large statue of Josip on horseback erected in the square in 1866. It caused much unease amongst Hungarians who viewed Jelačić as a traitor. Apparently he would set out on his military campaigns ill prepared and would take provisions from the towns and villages he passed through leaving the peasants destitute. It was removed under Communist rule in 1947, but then reinstalled in 1990 after the fall of Communism.

The 2020 earthquake that rattled Zagreb damaged the Zagreb Catheral’s 13th century Gothic spires. Since then the world’s most impressive scaffolding has shouded the church’s two towers.

Podravka is an international food processing company particularly renowned for their line of soups. The company chose red believing that the warm tone has a positive influence on peoples lives. Heart is at the core of their company philosophy. Besides being in the company’s logo, heart has been in all their slogans “From heart to heart” and “Company with the heart” and “When you cook with the heart, you cook Podravka soup”.

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla is a national hero in Croatia. Born in the ethnic Serb village of Smiljan, about half way between Split and Zagreb, Tesla is considered by many the inventor of the electricity we use in our homes everyday, Tesla became famous during his lifetime. Noted for his showmanship at public lectures, he also demonstrated his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab. He made considerable money from early patents he had licensed to Westinghouse.

In 1893, he announced the possibility of wireless communications for practical use and plowed all his money into the Wardenclyffe Tower project, an intercontinental wireless communication and power transmitter, but the money ran out. He never completed it and he never completely recovered from it.

A bit of an eccentric, Tesla claimed never to sleep more than two hours per night, he curled his toes one hundred times for each foot every night, saying that it stimulated his brain cells, he had a photographic memory and said he used his ability to visualize in three dimensions to control the vividly terrifying nightmares he experienced as a child.

At his annual birthday parties he would announce his new inventions. In 1933 there was a motor that could run on cosmic rays and a way to photograph the retina to record thoughts. Tesla told reporters in 1934 that he had designed the “teleforce” death ray, a super weapon that would end all wars. On questions concerning the death ray, in 1937, Tesla said, “But it is not an experiment … I have built, demonstrated and used it. Only a little time will pass before I can give it to the world.”

By the 40s he had spent most of his money and moved from one New York hotel to the next, leaving behind unpaid bills. He died alone in Room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel on January 7, 1943, at the age of 86. The body went undiscovered for two days until the maid finally ignored the “do not disturb” sign.

Tin Ujević

Augustin Josip “Tin” Ujević is considered by many to be the greatest poet in 20th century Croatian literature and is compared to Thomas Hardy and early Yeats.

The Sisters Baković

Rajka and Zdenka Baković were Croatian students and a members of the anti-fascist resistance movement in the Nazi controlled puppet state of the Independent State of Croatia. The sisters used their family newsstand at Nikolićeva Street No. 7 to pass messages to other members of the resistance at the beginning of World War II.

The Croatian Fascist and ultranationalistic Ustasha Surveillance Service arrested Rajka and Zdenka in December 1941. Both sisters were subjected to five days of severe torture but refused to betray their fellow resistance fighters. When Rajka could no longer stand she was taken to the hospital where she soon died. Zdenka became so distraught by her sister’s death that she broke free from her captors and threw herself out of a fourth story window. The Sisters Baković have been honored as People’s Heroes of Yugoslavia.

See you next time. Stay curious.

What A Deal

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Sometimes we’ll happen upon a quiet little burg that doesn’t seem to have a whole lot going on only to discover that it has a rich and varied history that stretches back a millennium. Deal is indeed one of those places.

Deal lies just 8 miles northeast of Dover where the North Sea meets the English Channel. between the Strait of Dover and the Thames Estuary. Now a resort town, in 1278 it was the busiest port in England. Historic accounts suggest that four or five hundred ships would be visible from the beach while they waited for a slight change in wind direction that would allow them to proceed into the North Sea or down the Channel towards London, which was then the largest port in the world for sailing vessels. Countless invading forces and pretenders to the throne have landed here only to be beaten back by locals on this very beach. World changing battles have played out in the waters just off shore. The Spanish Armada was twice defeated in full view of the town, first in 1588 by the English and then again in 1639 by the Dutch.

Deal was a town of many firsts. This is the possible location of Julius Caesar’s arrival in England. It was first mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1078 and was also the first English soil that James Cook set foot on when returning from his first voyage to Australia in 1771. In literature, more protagonists, heroes and nefarious villains have sprung from this little town than you could imagine. Over the years Deal has played an important role in countless novels by some of the world’s most famous authors including Jane Austen, Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens, Ian Fleming, Patrick O’Brian, H. G. Wells and, most recently, Anthony Horowitz.

The Deal Pier

This is the third pier in the town’s history. The first was a wooden structure built in 1838 and then destroyed by gale force winds in 1857. It was replaced by an iron pier in 1864 that survived until being struck by a Dutch ship in 1940. The present pier was opened in 1957 by the Duke of Edinburgh and is the last remaining fully intact leisure pier in Kent.

Boatsmen

The Deal boatmen were internationally famous for their skilled seamanship and bravery in operating their locally-built craft. Only the severest weather prevents the larger working boats from being able to launch.

The Time Ball Tower

This device was used by ships at sea and in the harbor to set their marine chronometers to ensure proper navigation. Ships navigators and captains would watch the tower through their telescopes. At exactly 1pm each day a signal was sent from Greenwich to the tower and the ball would quickly drop.

When I first saw the Time Ball Tower I thought, what a clever idea and so unusual. I could not have been more wrong. As a mechanism these date back to before Alexander the Great when the Greeks used them in their city squares. Although now they just historical oddities and have been completely replaced by electronic time pieces, there are still at least six in Australia, one in Canada, three in New Zealand, one in Poland, one in South Africa, two in Spain, eight in England and four in America including the most famous one of all, the one that drops in Time Square every New Year’s Eve.

“oh yeah, hurry on down
Come on now, meet me on South Street, the hippest street in town”
The Orlons – 1963

A Nation of Shopkeepers

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This is a much quoted and often misunderstood remark. Supposedly Napoleon, in 1794, described England as “a nation of shopkeepers”, referring to Adam Smith’s remarks in “The Wealth of Nations” from 1776. At the time Britain was the envy of the world and the phrase would have been a positive one. Britain being a nation filled with hard-working, local, small-scale productive enterprises providing jobs and serving the community.

Some have considered it a damning remark and that Napoleon was alluding to a nation of little ambition that was far too concerned with commerce to be a match for his army. However, the English newspaper, the Morning Post, in 1832 referred to the comment as complimentary as it applied to a nation which has derived its principal prosperity from its commercial greatness.

I am only sure of two things, the English did not like Napoleon at all and there are indeed a lot of small shops.

The White Cliffs of Dover

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These magnificent chalk cliffs hovering over the Port of Dover are much more than a geological oddity or a world renowned international tourist attraction. Like the State of Liberty is to Americans, these white ledges are an enduring symbol of British identity and pride. They represent home and hearth, warm and safety, shelter and tranquillity, all the best emotions that returning home from time away can fill you with. The sight of them rising from the mist has filled seamen, airmen and world travelers with confidence, hope and relief for ages. During World War II their significance was elevated even further. Like the iron gate of a castle, they came to represent strength, courage and an undying sense of perseverance and steadfastness.

Vera Lynn – The Forces Sweetheart

“There’ll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover
Tomorrow just you wait and see
There’ll be love and laughter and peace ever after
Tomorrow when the world is free”

Perhaps no one did more to solidify the White Cliffs of Dover’s reputation as a symbol of hope during WW II than Vera Lynn. Known as the “Forces Sweetheart”, she sang hits like “We’ll Meet Again” and “(There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover” to troops from air fields and munitions plants in England, across the Middle East to India and Burma.

Vera Lynn 1943

Pink Floyd Remembers

In 1978, Roger Waters thoughts turned to Vera Lynn when he wrote “Vera”, for the Wall album. Pink, a disillusioned rock star, watches the WW II film ” The Battle of Britain” and sings, “Remember how she said that/We would meet again/Some sunny day?/Vera, Vera/What has become of you?” Well, apparently quite a few people did remember Vera. She had a career that spanned over 65 years. In 2000 she was named the Briton who best exemplified the spirit of the 20th century. She lived to be 103.

Keep Off My Vegetables

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Beningbrough is one of the most remarkable houses in all of England. The grand interiors, amazing woodwork and exquisite gardens are second to none and yet very little is known about Beningbrough’s past.

Ralph Bourchier inherited the estate in 1556, but the mansion we see today was built by John Bourchier (1685 – 1736) and his wife, the wealthy heiress, Mary Bellwood (1683–1746).

Sir John Bourchier spent two years in Italy during his Grand Tour of Europe. He was so impressed by his time there that several years after his return John built the current Beningbrough Hall in an Italianate baroque architectural style. It was his marriage to Mary Bellwood that provided funds to do so. The Hall was completed in 1716 and would become the family home for 150 years.

The Great Staircase

Completed in 1716, this truly remarkable staircase is an exquisite example of early 18th century craftsmanship. Hand built by York wood craver William Thornton, all three floors of inlaid wood treads are suspended on cantilevered iron rods giving the whole staircase the appearance of floating in air with no visible means of support. All the balustrades are hand craved oak designed to look like wrought iron.

During the second world war RAF servicemen damaged some of the balustrades. Lady Chesterfield hired York based master craftsman Derek Wall to do the repairs which are remarkably indistinguishable from the originals.

The gardens that surround the estate are being reworked by award winning landscape designer Andy Sturgeon.

*Florence Jane Helen Wilson – Lady Chesterfield’s Mother*

Sir John Bourchier – The Threat of Confiscation

Sir John Bourchier’s father suffered from mental illness and was declared legally incompetent in 1598. His upbringing became the responsibility of his strictly Puritan uncle. This greatly influenced his young nephew’s political and religious beliefs. He never believed that God spoke directly through the Monarch. When King Charles I dissolved Parliament and sought to raise money through Forced Loans in 1627, Sir John refused to go along with the scheme. The English Civil War broke out in 1642 and John was arrested and imprisoned in York. After his release he was elected to Parliament and sat as a judge at King Charles’ trial. Sir John was one of 59 men to put his signature and seal on the King’s death warrant.

*The Execution of Charles I – January, 30 1649* “Men cried, women fainted and the crowd groaned”.

After the Monarchy was restored in 1660 all the signers were ruthlessly pursued. The elderly Bourchier was captured but was too ill to be tried for regicide. In the end he remained unrepentant saying, ‘I tell you, it was a just act; God and all good men will own it.’ Through political ties, his son, Barrington, somehow rescued the property from confiscation by King Charles II and managed to keep Beningbrough in the family.

The Honorable Enid Edith Wilson, Countess of Chesterfield

In 1900, at the age of 21, Enid married Edwin Scudamore-Stanhope, a man twice her age, and became the Countess of Chesterfield. Her father bought Beningbrough Hall as a wedding gift for the couple. In the early 1920s Lady Chesterfield started to raise thoroughbred racehorses. Her husband died in 1933 and she stayed on at the hall until her death in 1957. The couple had no children and Beningbrough was then acquired by the National Trust in lieu of death duties.

The Second World War

When WWII broke out and the house was requisitioned by the RAF. Clifford Hill, one of the soldiers living on the estate, recalls an encounter with Lady Chesterfield. She was very irate that he and his companions were mistreating her gardens. She is reported to have said to them, “Good luck boys, and keep off my vegetables”.

The Race To The Bar

The airmen risked their lives every night on bombing raids in enemy territory. All sorts of capers were dreamed up to relieve their stress. If you could run from the bar, the full length of the house, up the stairs, along the top floor and then back down to the bar in one minute, you won a free pint. It was a mad rush. Running, push bikes, and on at least one occasion, a motorbike was used to try and win the pint.

Tredegar House – a ‘faire place of stone’

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The Tredegar House dates back to the medieval age. The red brick house, described as a ‘faire place of stone’, was built in the 1670s by Sir William Morgan and his wife, Blanche. The wealthy couple turned the old stone manor house into an extravagant and fashionable country mansion. But it was really Sir Charles Gould Morgan, a brilliant businessman, who in the late 1700s expanded the estate to over 40,000 acres and with mining and shrewd investments solidified the family wealth for almost 200 years.

The Edney Gates were made and erected, between 1714 and 1718, at a cost of over £1,000. That would be over $250,000 today.

I found this a somewhat troubling courtyard. It is very large and completely enclosed in the center of the house with nothing in it except a lamp post and hand pump. You enter it through one of only two small doors. It has no access to outside the building. I asked the docent what was it used for. He said, “Ya know, stuff.”

Godfrey Charles Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar

The Crimean War broke out in 1854 when a 22 year old Godfrey was a captain in the 17th Lancers. He was anxious to make a name for himself and led his section of the Light Brigade into the ‘Valley of Death’ at the Battle of Balaclava. Both the Viscount and his famous horse, ‘Sir Briggs’, returned to Tredegar heroes. ‘Sir Briggs’ was well cared for and lived to be 28. He was buried in the Cedar Garden at Tredegar House with full military honors.

*Sir Godfrey Morgan & Sir Briggs at The Battle of Balaclava*

How The Mighty Have Fallen

Godfrey’s great-nephew Evan marks the end of the Morgan family at Tredegar House. Evan was a multi-millionaire that never even thought about working. He was considered one of the most outrageous and toxic eccentrics to ever stain the aristocracy. He threw wild parties, befriended occultists and practiced black magic. One of his favorite party tricks was to hide a parrot in his clothes only to have it emerge from the zipper of his trousers to the amusement of his drunken party guests. Although a notoriously promiscuous and flamboyant homosexual, he somehow managed to marry twice. First to an English actress and then to the Russian princess Olga Sergeivna Dolgorouky, which was annulled less than four years later. Evan died in 1949, disgraced, broke and without an heir. His relatives were forced to sell Tredegar House to pay debts and estate taxes.

Yo Ho Ho!

The Morgans certainly come from hearty stock. Sir Henry Morgan, a great grandson of the original Morgans, made his fame and fortune on the high seas. He is considered one of the greatest scoundels in history. He roamed the Caribbean as a Privateer plundering Spanish ships and settlements with the approval of the Crown. The ever-shifting political climate between England and Spain made staying in the good graces of the King a difficult task. Henry was responsible for so many atrocities and brutal rampages that eventually the King could no longer tolerate his lawless behavior and Sir Henry found himself arrested and imprisoned. In the end he bribed his way out of trouble and became a wealthy plantation owner and Governor of Jamaica.

His exploits have become the stuff of legend. He was immortalized by John Steinbeck in his 1940 novel ‘Cup of Gold’, Rafael Sabatini’s novels ‘the Black Swan’ and ‘Captain Blood’ were adapted for films that made Errol Flynn and Tyrone Powers stars and launched an entire swashbuckler genre. Even Sci-Fi writer Isaac Asimov took a swing at the buccaneer in ‘Robots In Time’ when time travelers meet up with the Captain while searching for a fugitive robot. He is probably most well known today as the Captain Morgan that stands proudly on bottles of rum around the world.

The Croome Boom

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Croome began with Thomas Coventry who had purchased Croome D’Abitôt in 1592, but the Croome Court we see today was really the creation of George Coventry, the 6th Earl of Coventry.

After inheriting Croome Court George quickly married the famous Irish beauty and London society hostess Maria Gunning in a move designed to prop up his dwindling fortunes. He then set about using all her money to update and transform the aging Neo-Palladian mansion. He commissioned Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown to redesign both the house and the expansive grounds. This was the architect and landscape designers first large-scale commission and is often described as his ‘first and favorite child’. He completely transformed the vast landscape, literally moving the entire local village out of view of the house and hiding it behind a newly planted veil of trees. He knocked down the old Medieval church and replaced it with a lovely Gothic church on a hilltop above the park. Brown cleared the grounds of everything formal and added flowering shrubberies, wooded walking paths, temples, follies, carriage drives, a Chinese Bridge, a lake and, even, a 1 3/4 mile long hand-dug illusionary serpentine river, all designed to create a perfect natural parkland as far as the eye could see. Although, now devoid of sumptuous furniture, paintings, tapestries, carpets and a small army of house servants, Croome Court remains stately and grand.

*The windows were designed to capture landscape views*

Unlike George Coventry, Maria didn’t inherit her status and fortune, she had to earn it, the ”old fashioned way”. In the early 1740s, the Gunning’s fortunes were so diminished that Maria’s mother encouraged her daughters to take up acting, a profession filled with “working girls” and considered very unrespectable. Still teenagers, the sisters, dressed as Lady Macbeth and Juliet, attended a ball in Dublin Castle and were presented to the Duke of Hamilton. He was so impressed with their beauty and, perhaps even a little more, that he granted the family a pension allowing them to flee Ireland and rejoin English society. While trolling for titled husbands, the girls attended scores of balls and parties where they eventually met the elderly King George II who was hugely amused by the notoriously tactless Maria. The King’s approval solidified her place at the Court of St James and newspapers began following her every move. She quickly became an 18th century influencer. In 1752, Maria married the 6th Earl of Coventry and became the Countess of Coventry. George’s marriage to Maria was short lived. Her love of fashion quite literally killed her. Her lead-based whitening make up caused skin eruptions, which then encouraged women to apply more make up to cover the blemishes, eventually causing lead poisoning. Considered a beautiful but vain woman, Maria eventually became known in society circles as a “victim of cosmetics” succumbing to the lead and mercury toxins in her beauty creams at the age of 28.

During their marriage Maria’s husband had became involved with the scandalous Kitty Fisher, which caused his wife much distress. The women even traded barbs in public. Kitty, a prominent British courtesan from her teenage years onward, was a brilliant marketer who developed a carefully molded public image This was enhanced by portraits done by Sir Joshua Reynolds and other well known artists of the day who emphasized Fisher’s beauty, audacity, and charm. These portraits, coupled with numerous newspaper and magazine articles promoted her notorious reputation and made her one of the world’s first celebrities, famous simply for being famous. She eventually married an Admirals son in 1766 and retired to the country only to die a year later at 26. It is thought that she died of lead poisoning as well.

So many books and articles claiming to tell Kitty’s life story were published, both during and after her life, that separating fact from fiction is difficult. She was portrayed by Paulette Goddard in the 1945 blockbuster film Kitty, which told a Pygmalion-like rags-to-riches story of a beautiful young cockney pickpocket who is completely made over by an impoverished aristocrat in hopes of arranging her marriage to a wealthy peer, in order to repair their fortunes and regain their social status.

Butte, Montana

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Violence, Vice and Pork Chop Sandwiches

Butte, Mt. was formally established in 1864, it began as a mining camp that lured would-be prospectors from around the globe. It was one of the largest copper boomtowns in the West. The city is still home to the largest number of Irish Americans per capita of any city in the United States.

This influx of miners gave Butte a reputation as a wide-open town where any vice was obtainable. Beer halls and brothels all thrived. The city’s red-light district, called the “Line” was filled with elegant bordellos and the notorious “Venus Alley”, where women plied their trade in small “cribs”.

The red-light district remained open until 1982 and was one of the last such urban districts in the United States.

German immigrants first opened breweries in the 1890s and were a large part of the city’s early economy. Everyone, including children, enjoyed all types of locally brewed beers.
Butte was also the site of various historical events involving its mining industry, labor unions, socialist politics, labor riots, civil unrest and lynchings. Between 1910 and 1920 hundreds of lives were lost in mining accidents, each followed by strikes, protests and walkouts. Between 1914 and 1920, the U.S. National Guard had to occupy the city six times to restore law and order.

Frank Little

Frank was an Industrial Workers of the World organizer in july of 1917 when he arrived in Butte to build strike support, picket lines and spread the strike to other trades in the city.
In the early hours of August 1st six masked men believed to be renegade police working for the despised Anaconda Copper Company broke into Nora Byrne’s steel block boardinghouse where Frank was staying. He was beaten mercilessly, tied to the bumper of a car, dragged through the streets to the Milwaukee Bridge and hanged from a railroad trestle.
A note with the words “First and last warning” and the Montana vigilante numbers 3-7-77 was pinned to his thigh.

An estimated 10,000 workers and 3,500 citizens lined the route of Frank Little’s funeral procession. The funeral is still the largest in Butte history. He was buried in Butte’s Mountain View Cemetery.

His epitaph reads “Slain by capitalist interests for organizing and inspiring his fellow men.” Days after his lynching, martial law was declared. Labor radicals were then arrested and charged with espionage. The miners strike and union were crushed. Nobody was ever arrested for the murder of Frank Little.

Pork Chop Sandwiches

Despite all the murder and mayhem Butte’s real claim to fame is the Pork Chop Sandwich, invented nearly 100 years ago. According to the Butte-Silverbow Archives, John Burklund created the first pork chop sandwich in 1924. He sold his popular sandwiches to hungry miners out of the back of a wagon at the corner of Mercury and Main streets.

Before long, demand for Burklund’s tasty treats grew and he opened his first shop with only a countertop, 10 stools and a window where customers could walk up and place their orders. The orginal location is still opened today

Uptown Historic District

Over the years the city’s Uptown Historic District has remained relatively intact and is one of the largest National Historic Landmark Districts in the US, with almost 6,000 properties.

The Sheep Shearer’s Union

The Sheep Shearer’s Union of North American #1 was incorporated in 1903. The Sheep Shearers Merchandise and Commission Company, Inc. was opened in 1908. Still operating today, The Union and the Merchandising Company are one of only four in the world.

Smithers & Son

C. Owen Smithers came to Butte in 1921 and worked as a staff photographer for the Anaconda Standard. Over the years he became an avid collector of photographs from Montana’s frontier era and displayed them in his studio at 41 West Granite Street.

The Smithers Collection of Historical Photographs was listed among the city’s must see tourist attractions in the 1940 WPA Federal Writers Project’s Guide to Montana. After his death over 15,000 historical photographs were donated to the Butte – Silver Bow Archives.

The Metal Bank & Trust Company

The Metals Bank and Trust Co. was founded in 1882. One of Butte’s most well known citizens, Patrick Largey, was president of the bank. He also managed a company that had suffered a powder house explosion in 1895.

The accident cost one Thomas J. Riley a leg. As you can well imagine, Riley held a grudge and on January 11, 1898 Riley entered the bank, called the bank manager to the cashier window and an argument ensued. After five minutes Riley pulled a gun and shot Largey in the forehead, killing him instantly.

The Wah Chong Tai Co.

The Wah Chong Tai Company constructed its building in 1891 in the heart of what was Butte’s Chinatown. It housed a mercantile stocked with a general line of Chinese goods, including porcelain, teas and silk. In 1909 the company added the Mai Was Noodle Company. The “beautiful, luxurious” noodle parlor occupied the second floor of the building.

In the 1890’s, nearly 400 Chinese lived in this area. Chinese physicians, druggists, tailors, laundries and restaurants like this served the population.

The Leggat Hotel

The Leggat Hotel officially opened its doors on January 22, 1914 and was advertised as being nearly fireproof. The new hotel had the most modern conveniences including a buffet, Turkish baths, a barber shop and shower-baths located between the suites.

Gus’s Lunch

This building sits at an intersection that was the dividing line between Butte’s Chinatown and red-light district. The attached building was a Chinese boarding house and brothel called The Lucky Seven. Gus’s Lunch occupied the building from the 1930’s to the 50s. It is now the Silver Dollar Saloon.

Push Saloon/Silver Dollar Saloon

The Push Saloon opened at this location in 1894. At the time it was one of 165 saloons in Butte catering to Swedes, Frenchmen, Scots, Irish, Blacks and rich and poor alike. Just a four block walk up Main Street offered over 35 similar establishments. The Silver Dollar took over after prohibition in 1934 and is still a link to Butte’s colorful and distinctive past. Advertisements for Chili & Sandwiches and Blatz’s Old Heidelberg Beer still grace the sides of the building.

The Hotel Finlen

In 1924, the Hotel Finlen opened the doors to a grand, 9-story hotel with 250 rooms. It was designed in the second French empire style after the Hotel Astor in New York City and has been a center of commerce and culture since. It has been regarded as one of the grandest hotels in the region and hosted notable figures and dignitaries including John F Kennedy, Thomas Edison, Richard Nixon, and Charles Lindbergh.

The Exer-Dance Building

In 1892 John F. Kelly commissioned the Butte architectural firm of Freys, Bartlett and McMillan to design this Queen Anne style structure, known as the Exer-Dance Building. The ground-floor commercial space housed Kelly’s wholesale fruit and produce firm with apartments and lodgings available on the upper floors. Butte’s first radio station, KGIR, began broadcasting from a studio located on the third floor of this building on January 31, 1929.

The Scandia Hall

The Scandinavian Brotherhood endeavored to unify Scandinavians through fellowship, high standards of citizenship, and “to fulfill a vacancy in the social world.” This ornately embellished three-story meeting hall, Butte No. 1, was built in 1898. This was the “Mother Lodge” being the first lodge hall built by this national organization.

Club 13

This historic, once handsome brick building was built around 1884, and opened as the Milwaukee Beer Hall. Originally designed as an upper class place for drinks in the downtown area, aimed at the gentry class, but eventually the profits from prostitution were impossible to ignore.
The women had their “cribs” on the second floor of the clothing store next door. After a woman was chosen, the client would go next door, enter the clothing shop, and go upstairs. The woman would walk across the wooden catwalk to the second floor to meet him. The law was none the wiser or simply chose to ignore it.

Citizens Of Note

Robert Craig “Evel” Knievel

Over the years a vast array of successful and notable people have been tied to Butte including artists, sports figures, politicians and businessmen, but her most famous son is undoubtedly Robert Craig “Evel” Knievel. At the tender age of 8, Evel attended a Joie Chitwood auto daredevil show and from that moment on his career choice as a motorcycle daredevil was a forgone conclusion. He would make history over the course of his career by attempting more than 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps and, in the process, making himself a household name.

Knievel was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999. He is also in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most broken bones in a lifetime, 433.

Dashiell Hammett

In 1917, the author, Dashiell Hammett was working as a strikebreaker in Butte for the Pinkerton’s, and was offered $5,000 to assassinate Frank Little. He was filled with guilt and troubled deeply that a person would think him capable of committing murder. He would later depict Butte as the city, Poisonville, in his novel Red Harvest.

Some reviewers regarded his book as a remarkable achievement, on a parallel with Hemingway. It is considered the last word in atrocity, cynicism and horror in which every character is trying to deceive all the others and in which the truth slowly becomes visible through a fog of deception.

Wim Wender

In 2004, acclaimed German film director, Wim Wenders, made the film Don’t Come Knocking about a Western movie star fleeing Hollywood to seek his long lost love in Butte, Montana. Wenders worked with photographic images of desolate landscapes and themes of memory, time, loss, nostalgia and movement.

He began a long-running photographic project in the early 1980s that he pursued for over 20 years. The initial photographic series was titled “Written in the West” and was produced while Wenders criss-crossed the American West in preparation for his films Paris, Texas and Don’t Come Knocking.

The Road to Tonopah

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We left Bryce in the euphoria of early morning sunshine and set out on the long and uneventful journey from Utah across the center of Nevada. But, before we had crossed into the Silver State, ominous clouds began to form in the west. With the road stretching out across the desert before us, Wendi at the helm, we plunged head long into the maelstrom. For half the day she fought bravely through snow, sleet, hail, fog, rain, thunder, lightening and cattle.

“The storm is threatening my very life today. If I don’t get some shelter I’m going to fade away.” – RS’s

Tonopah, Nevada

By late afternoon the clouds parted revealing a welcomed oasis ahead. Tonopah, Nevada may not be paradise but it has everything people in our predicament could want; beer, buffalo wings, a bed and a 3,275 lb meteorite.

Rags to Riches

Legend has it that sometime around 1900 prospector Jim Butler went looking for his perpetually wandering burro. Having finally discovered the disobedient creature hiding under a ledge he picked up a rock in frustration but before hurling it at the beast noticed it was unusually heavy. He had stumbled upon the second-richest silver strike in Nevada history. Jim Butler, named the settlement, from what is thought to be Shoshone for “hidden spring”.

In 1902, a some time buckaroo and cattle drover, 24-year-old George Wingfield arrived in Tonopah. He dealt faro-cards at the Tonopah Club. Once he had a small bankroll, he talked Jack Carey, owner of the club, into taking him in as a partner. Wingfield began investing his profits in mines and by 1906 was worth more than $30 million.

The Mizpah Hotel

We’re staying at the historic Mizpah Hotel which sprung up in 1907 during the great Nevada silver boom. When it was completed the following year, the five story building was the tallest in Nevada. This high class hotel’s bar and restaurant was the center of social and economic activity in Tonopah all during those heady boom days. Many political and mining notables of the day frequented the bar that boasted boxing promoter Tex Rickard and future heavyweight boxing champ Jack Dempsey as bouncers.

The Lady In Red

“Lady in Red” – Charles Webster Hawthorne

It was in the 1920s when Rose, the lady in Red, was murdered in room 501 of the Mizpah Hotel. Stories vary but the most excepted version of the gruesome event suggests that Rose’s husband returned to their room after having missed his train only to discover his wife had been in bed with another man. The husband flew into a jealous rage and savagely stabbed and strangled Rose.

She still haunts the hotel, whispering in men’s ears and leaving pearls from her broken necklace on guest’s pillows.