Red Light District: Butte, Montana

By Marques Vickers

This edition is an intimate photo examination of the infamous Butte, Montana sex trade once nationally recognized during the late 19th and early 20th century. Over 135 current photographs document the remnants of the famed copper mining town’s prostitution core. The work details historical anecdotes, narratives on colorful personages and perspective on an era when prostitution was locally institutionalized.

The remaining Dumas Brothel is a profiled parlor house noteworthy for its operational longevity between 1890-1982. The Dumas is the longest tenured American house of prostitution. The property weathered numerous reform movements and attempts towards forced closure by governmental authorities. Owner tax evasion ultimately shuttered the property.

Across the road is the Blue Range Building, the last street-facing example of the lowest extremity of prostitution once employed within the district. The seven sets of ground floor doors and adjacent windows housed segregated cubicles called cribs. Diminutive cribs accommodated only a single bed and an occasional washbasin. Lower esteemed prostitutes serviced clients from these utilitarian spaces.

Butte’s prostitution industry reinforced a rigid hierarchy of distinguishing elite mistresses for the affluent and influential, from lowly street solicitors. The lifestyle of sex professionals was plagued by drug addiction, financial debt, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, abortion, violence and abuse by their patrons and jealousy-motivated clients. Suicide was common even amongst the highest regarded women within such a cannibalistic environment,

During the turn of the twentieth century, Butte was one of the largest Rocky Mountain population centers. Its licentious reputation mirrored contemporary Las Vegas. Unlike many western frontier settlements, cowboy culture made minimal intrusion. Butte’s red-light district is a haunting environment with a complex past.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marques Vickers
• Release date: Jul 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005387457

Marques Vickers

Visual Artist, Writer and Photographer Marques Vickers is a California native presently living in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle, Washington regions.He was born in 1957 and raised in Vallejo, California. He is a 1979 Business Administration graduate from Azusa Pacific University in the Los Angeles area. Following graduation, he became the Public Relations and ultimately Executive Director of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce between 1979-84. He subsequently became the Vice President of Sales for AsTRA Tours and Travel in Westwood between 1984-86.Following a one-year residence in Dijon, France where he studied at the University of Bourgogne, he began Marquis Enterprises in 1987. His company operations have included sports apparel exporting, travel and tour operations, wine brokering, publishing, rare book and collectibles reselling. He has established numerous e-commerce, barter exchange and art websites including MarquesV.com, ArtsInAmerica.com, InsiderSeriesBooks.com, DiscountVintages.com and WineScalper.com.Between 2005-2009, he relocated to the Languedoc region of southern France. He concentrated on his painting and sculptural work while restoring two 19th century stone village residences. His figurative painting, photography and sculptural works have been sold and exhibited internationally since 1986. He re-established his Pacific Coast residence in 2009 and has focused his creative productivity on writing and photography.His published works span a diverse variety of subjects including true crime, international travel, California wines, architecture, history, Southern France, Pacific Coast attractions, fiction, auctions, fine art marketing, poetry, fiction and photojournalism.He has two daughters, Charline and Caroline who presently reside in Europe.

Book preview

The Red-Light District of Butte Montana

The Decadence and Dissolution Of A Local Institution

Published by Marques Vickers at Smashwords

Copyright 2017-2023

Table of Contents

The Corrupting and Decadent Sex Trade Industry of Butte, Montana

Research Sources

The Dumas Brothel

Blue Range Building

Butte Daily Post Building

Butte Tin Shop Complex

Chinatown

Silver Dollar Saloon

The Royal Parlor House

Southwestern District: Saloon Corner

Pleasant (Venus) Alley

Lower South Main at East Mercury Street

The Surrounding Neighborhood Buildings

About the Author

The Corrupting and Decadent Sex Trade Industry of Butte, Montana

The subject of commemorating historical prostitution, much less acknowledging its existence, scarcely enters into American public dialog.

Sentimentality and nostalgia are notably missing. The sex industry sustains its rooting system amidst the barest strata of topsoil. Prostitution has historically represented the meanest and basest levels of human experience. The shadows from human collateral damage are immeasurable.

Ironic and somehow appropriate, Butte was once acknowledged globally as a magnet for this stark and severe commerce. The city seemed atypical from western lore. It was never identified with traditional cowboy culture. In an observation offered by hometown raised Evil Knievel, the community was a gritty environment, more recognizant of the Pennsylvania steel region than a frontier settlement.

Knieval, a trailblazing twentieth century promoter and motorcycle daredevil, summarized his hometown in an autobiography: The charm of Butte always was the fact that there was no charm.

Life in Butte was grueling and relentless. Residents were flinty tough and illusions obscured. A complete absence of pretense is endearing to those appreciating plainspoken candor. Butte was ideal for individuals rejecting conformity and society’s dictated morality. Existence within a mining community was harsh, rigorous and stripped of idealism. Survival or departure became the two alternatives. Transience in such an environment was commonplace and well suited towards drifters, alienated souls and individuals with meager prospects.

Copper mining dominated the Butte economy and controlled the politics of the community. Today, additional minerals are mined including zinc, manganese, lead, silver and gold. The extraction process has changed substantially since the days of treacherous underground shafts. Hillsides are methodically stripped in layers and sometimes with hydraulic pumping. Risk and danger have not been completely eradicated. The threatened base has broadened.

In 1982, the Berkeley Pit, an enormous open cavity copper mine was permanently closed. Groundwater from surrounding aquifers began to slowly accumulate and seep into the crater. These waters are highly acidic and laced with toxic heavy metals and chemicals. The concentration has been classified as an environmental hazard. The ongoing cleanup is currently a federal Superfund site. The poisonous brew threatens to become a more extensive disaster.

The seepage has been estimated to eventually intermingle into the region’s natural water table within potentially three years. These catastrophic consequences may include polluting the local groundwater sources and particularly the Silver Bow Creek. The creek feeds into the headwaters