Photos from the workshop
Click on each photo for a larger version.
The Paradise Valley, in southwestern Montana, is home to Chico Hot Springs Resort. The Gallatin Range is in the background (folded Paleozoic sedimentary rocks) and Yellowstone River terraces are in the foreground.
photo by Steve Peters
The main lodge at Chico Hot Springs Resort, built around 1900.
photo by Tibi Marin
Birdseye view of Chico, taken from a nearby hilltop. The pool is filled with geothermally heated water from a hot spring that flows out along a fault.
photo by Steve Peters
There are strict rules for unruly cowboys!
photo by Tibi Marin
The group of workshoppers
photo by Neil Johnson
Emigrant Peak with its head in the clouds. The peak is an Eocence volcanic remnant. Chico Hot Springs is at the foot of the mountain, and the Paradise Valley is in the foreground.
photo by Tibi Marin
On the way to Butte, we drive over Homestake Pass, with nice views of outcrops of the Boulder Batholith (quartz monzonite). Spheroidal weathering has produced fanciful shapes.
photo by Tibi Marin
Wecome to Butte! The city's mining origin is easily seen, as the vast areas of open pit mines, waste rock and tailings dominate the view. Metal production in Butte included (in order of quanity produced) copper, zinc, manganese, lead, silver, gold and molybdenum.
photo by Tibi Marin
Mining in Butte began with placer deposits, then got serious with underground mines, now entirely abandoned. The Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology now takes groundwater level measurements and collects water quality samples through the mine entrances.
photo by Steve Peters
Pedestrian entrance to the Berkeley Pit, with Bill Woessner showing the way, and Scott Bair looking excited to see the old mine.
photo by Steve Peters
The Berkeley Pit. This open pit mine ceased operations in 1982 and is now filling with groundwater. The pH of the water in the pit is approximately 2.5.
photo by Steve Peters
An overview of the mining area, with the Continental Pit in the right-center. The fresh, gray mine walls show that this mine is still operational. Various monitoring wells are in the foreground.
photo by Steve Peters
This photos shows the City of Butte (right side of photo) situated below the mines.
photo by Steve Peters
A view of the waste rock and tailings dam above the open pit mines. The tailings dam is the uppermost, flat-topped surface extending from the left of the photo toward the center of the photo. Tailings piles extend two miles upstream (out of view to the left) from the dam.
photo by Tibi Marin
Silver Bow Creek, which flows westward toward Anaconda and the headwaters of the Clark Fork River. A crust of mineral salts has formed on the banks of the creek. The mineral crust is from the high concentration of metals in the water and in the sediments along the creek.
photo by Steve Peters
Close up of the mineral salts on the stream bank. There is scant vegetation growing here.
photo by Tibi Marin
Copper mineral replacement in bones that are buried in the sediments along Silver Bow Creek
photo by Tibi Marin
Close up of mineralized bone
photo by Steve Peters
Mickey Gunter searches for bones.
photo by Steve Peters
Bill Woessner, from the University of Montana, shows the group a remediated reach of Silver Bow Creek. Soils from the creek bed and along the creek have been excavated and removed. New vegetation was planted last year.
photo by Tibi Marin
The smelter tower in Anaconda. Much of the smelting operations were moved from Butte to Anaconda because of air quaility issues in Butte. There are several contaminated 'hot spots' around the smelter, and arsenic has impacted the soils in a hundred mile radius around Anaconda.
photo by Steve Peters
Workshop guests enjoy some time for networking and a fine meal the last night of the workshop.
photo by Tibi Marin 
Catherine Skinner, one of the workshop conveners, has some fun posing with her husband Brian Skinner.
photo by Tibi Marin