Uploaded October 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The Anaconda Copper Mining Company forbade African Americans in its mines, and histories of Butte and Montana include almost no mention of Black miners. However, high above Homestake Pass, six miles southeast of Butte, a small, intrepid community of African Americans staked claims and worked to extract wealth from the earth from the 1880s to the 1940s. The story of the Flagg and Brown families (among others) at what came to be known as Camp Caroline revises conventional interpretations of African Americans’ westward migrations, of Butte’s mining history, and of the Mining City’s famed ethnic diversity. Though little remains of Camp Caroline today, archaeologists from the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest are investigating the site while teaching archaeological methods to college students. Janet Ore, director of the Ivan Doig Center for the Study of the Lands and Peoples of the North American West at Montana State University, moderates a panel discussion with key players in the effort to illuminate the lives of Black Americans in this high-altitude mining community.
The Anaconda Copper Mining Company forbade African Americans in its mines, and histories of Butte and Montana include almost no mention of Black miners. However, high above Homestake Pass, six miles southeast of Butte, a small, intrepid community of African Americans staked claims and worked to extract wealth from the earth from the 1880s to the 1940s. The story of the Flagg and Brown families (among others) at what came to be known as Camp Caroline revises conventional interpretations of African Americans’ westward migrations, of Butte’s mining history, and of the Mining City’s famed ethnic diversity. Though little remains of Camp Caroline today, archaeologists from the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest are investigating the site while teaching archaeological methods to college students. Janet Ore, director of the Ivan Doig Center for the Study of the Lands and Peoples of the North American West at Montana State University, moderates a panel discussion with key players in the effort to illuminate the lives of Black Americans in this high-altitude mining community.
