Distinctly Montana Magazine

w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m 47 BY THE MID-19TH CENTURY, THE MINING INDUSTRY IN CORNWALL, ENGLAND, WAS IN DIRE STRAITS. The area, once rich in copper, was nearly mined out, and mining was the principal Cornish occupation. Then came the coup de grace: enormous loads of copper were discovered in the New World, in places like Michigan and New Mexico. Plac- es that, to a Cornish miner, must have seemed as strange and distant as Timbuktu. Then, in 1882, after semi-success- ful attempts at mining silver and gold, folks in Butte, Mon- tana discovered that they were sitting on "the richest hill on Earth." Within five years, Butte was producing more copper than anywhere else in the United States. The Cornish, rightly regarded as some of the finest hard-rock miners in the world, considered the prospects of seeking employment in Butte. Cornish miners were known as Cousin Jacks, some say because they were always asking their cousins where they could find a job, and Jack was both a popular name at the time as well as a nickname for any Englishman, not unlike "average Joe" in America. Cousin Jacks moved to Butte in droves—but not just the Cornish. They were accompanied, famously, by the Irish, who would leave their own mark on Butte's history that is more than evident today. But those first Cornish miners brought with them a delica- cy that many Montanans still treasure, a simple hand-pie that continues to nourish and fuel hardworking folks today. As William A. Burke, author of the classic Copper Camp: The Lusty Story of Butte, Montana, the Richest Hill on Earth, writes, "each nationality brought its favorite dish from the old country and through fraternization between nationali- ties, many of them were soon adopted by the entire com- munity. The best example is that epicurian masterpiece of pie crust, beef and vegetables which Butte, with pardonable pride, claims as its very own—the Cousin Jack pasty." He continues, with toothsome description, to say that "[t] he pasty, as prepared here, is beyond description in mere words... it is both a thing of beauty and nourishment to body and soul. No earthly mortal could delineate for a moment on its delights without waxing eloquent." The Cornish can't lay claim to having invented the pasty—indeed, the first mention of the savory hand-pie is in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and the treat, filled with venison, was a particular favorite in the court of Henry VIII. But the Cousin Jack variety, out of which evolved the modern Butte variant, is as Cornish as cream tea, figgy 'ob- bin, or whortleberry pie. The traditional pasty, still enjoyed in Cornwall to this day, would have contained diced beefsteak and rutabaga, called "swede" in England. Perhaps this is one of the innovations on the formula introduced by Butte's Irish population—over here, potatoes (Irish potatoes) are much preferred. Burke adds that there is one more ingredient: "a breathed prayer or two..." Pasty, A Brief and Tasty History of the the Miner's Favorite Meal by JOSEPH SHELTON

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