Butte Celebrates 150

In celebration of the Mining City’s 150th anniversary, the spotlight this week is on 1930 to 1939.

Life doesn’t always imitate art. Case in point — in 1930, the number one song in America was “Happy Days are Here Again.” In reality, for the vast majority of Americans those “happy days” abruptly packed up and left, leaving no forwarding address.

The next decade would test America’s endurance as we slipped into the Great Depression. Just like Murphy’s Law, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong -- from the Dust Bowls of the Midwest to the rising unemployment rates. In 1930, unemployment was at 8.7 percent, but by 1933, it was close to 25 percent.

In Europe, Germany had a new leader, Adolph Hitler, who took command in 1934. During his years of tyranny, the dictator would demonstrate, time and again, man’s inhumanity.

Not all was gloom and doom, though. Soon after his first term began, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt introduced an economic program, the New Deal, and the Civilian Conservation Corps was enacted to put young men to work.

On the humorous side, pilot Wrong Way Douglas Corrigan was headed to the West Coast July 18, 1938. Not sure if it was the luck of the Irish, but Corrigan somehow got sidetracked and landed instead in Dublin, Ireland.

Also in 1938, Orson Welles literally put the fear of God into thousands of Americans listening to the radio on Halloween Eve. Wells was broadcasting his War of the Worlds drama, which included fake news reels of an alien invasion. Listeners thought the attack was real and imminent.

By 1939, it was obvious war was coming. In September, Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand had declared war on Germany. The U.S., however, chose to remain neutral.

MORE>>>Billings Gazette