Questions about Butte (Missoula, Bozeman, Whitehall: houses, job transfer, buying)

[Junior]

My wife was just offered a job transfer to Butte, MT. We were wondering if somebody would be willing to give us some information about the place. Such as, who is the phone company, is there High Speed Internet, is there local cable or do we need to get satellite?

Could somebody please post this information and possibly some other random facts that might help us decide about Butte please?

Thanks,
Junior

[ladyflyfsh]

Junior,

Butte has Qwest for phone service and Bresnan Communications is the local company for cable, high speed internet and they even now have digital phone connection all three for one price and one bill.

Butte has been a very depressed old mining town but little by little it is coming back as some mines have re-opened and more jobs (tech) have opened up. Housing is cheap by comparison to other areas but it has most of what you need. There is no Home Depot or Costco so you have to drive to Bozeman for that which is a good 80 miles or so each way from Butte. There is a super Wal-Mart with grocery store and a few building centers for lumber and supplies etc. Car dealerships, a small shopping mall and a great Italian market that has everything one could ever want. Butte is lacking in some things but they try hard. They have a symphony and an interesting old part of town called "uptown" which used to be the old down town but since it is up the hill from everything else, it is "uptown". There is a farmer's market in the summer months and some beautiful old architecture uptown.

As fas as drawbacks, it is still an old mining town and the battle scars are very apparent on the hillside which has been lovingly referred to as "the richest hill on earth" where they mine everything from copper to silver, platinum, gold, you name it. It is quite the eye sore and then there is the Berkeley Pit...a big ugly pit of sludge up where the mining museum is. All in all it is a less expensive place to live but it is always colder than most anywhere else nearby (almost always 20 degrees colder than where I live and I'm only 25 miles away). You get valley inversions in the winter so the colder air is sucked down into the valley and it gets very cold. It is 2 below 0 there right now this morning. Right now, here where I am, it is 18 above. They always get more snow than I do and it is on the west side of the continental divide. The elevation is over 5,500 feet and there is a mountain pass just to the east where you cross the divide. That gets up to 6,400 feet and gets lots of snow and ice.

Anyway, I hope some of this is helpful. It is still kind of depressed and it would appear there are not a lot of college graduates living there even though there is a college there (part of U of M) There is a hospital and costs are definately cheaper than Bozeman or Missoula etc.

[Montanaman1]

Hi,

Ladyflyfsh said it better then I could. But Butte grows on you. The town has a fantastic history. And, as she said they really try. Some of the outlying areas, ie. Anaconda, Whitehall might also be considered.

If you are looking for a lower cost of living then some of the more "trendy' areas of Montana, then Butte is the place.

Rick

[Junior]

Thanks for that info. I couldn't live with dialup internet.

Now, could you tell me, possibly, the average cost of living for 4 people? I'm not finding much about Butte on the internet, other than its history, of course.

[MHT]

Originally Posted by Junior

My wife was just offered a job transfer to Butte, MT. We were wondering if somebody would be willing to give us some information about the place. Such as, who is the phone company, is there High Speed Internet, is there local cable or do we need to get satellite?

Could somebody please post this information and possibly some other random facts that might help us decide about Butte please?

Thanks,
Junior

Why do so many people think that Montana is so behind - asking if there is high-speed internet and cable? I have moved all over the country and for the most part Montana is way ahead as far as technology goes.

Butte is a great town. My Dad grew up in Butte and I still have relatives and friends there. It has had some hard times but as mentioned in other posts is coming back. The people there are great. Very friendly. It does get cold though.

[Montanaman1]

Hi,

From what I found on the net, Butte is 14% lower then the average cost of living for the U.S. . With low housing costs being the main contributor to its lower average.

Rick

[ladyflyfsh]

Junior,

Have you read the thread on this forum called Reality Check? There is some good generic info on there that might answer some questions. As for cost of living, that is hard to say. There are houses on the MLS from $140,000 on up to half a million. Groceries will be similar in what you probably pay now, although you haven't told us where you are living now. Gas right now is $2.28 a gal, propane for heating ran me a month or so ago, $1.60 a gallon, firewood about $100 or more a cord, phone is more than other areas because there is not enough population here to bring it down and share the costs. Bresnan has a website, look up the prices there for cable, internet and digital phone.

Like I've said before, you people need to do your homework and don't expect us to spoon feed you. The internet has all this information. We can help with some things but much of this you need to find out yourselves. If I can find it online, you should be able to also. Read the Reality Check..lots of useful info for you.

Now, a Googling you go...good luck!

[rambrush]

We who are in a area called clear creek south of Anaconda use wildblue internet. works good via satelite dish.
just need a decent view to the south.
We are only summer snowbirds at this point but Butte is where we go for all of our supplies.

[acdc28]

You will meet some of the friendliest people in Butte. It does grow on and you will learn to love it. i miss it,and hope someday to move back or someplacecloser. You will have to try the m and m bar for breakfast and the acoma there is great. Hope you like it.

[Junior]

This is some great information. I found out that Qwest has DSL there for $36 without the phone service. A VOIP company, whom I'm currently using is only $20/mo there, so phone and DSL together is only $56. Dish Network is pretty cheap as well.

I've found some information about cell phone service. We currently have T-Mobile and they do not have service there, so I'm guessing we're going to have to pay some outrageous cancellation fee. I'm thinking about buying these 18mile Motorola 2-way radios instead, since we only talk to each other anyway.

As far as the spoon-fed comment. You are giving me the information I'm looking for without me having to spend hours looking for it, so, why not? :P

BTW, just from the people who have responded, I can already tell MT is a lot more friendly than it is here. We're currently in Vancouver, WA, which is right across the river from Portland, OR. People here are real *******s and like to voice their opinions way too much.