Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • FA L L 2 0 1 7 66 F OLKS WHO HAVE BEEN TO MONTANA HAVE ALREADY EXPERIENCED ITS BIG SKIES STRETCHING FROM HO- RIZON TO HORIZON. ey are the state's best-known trait. But sometimes we have to consider what Montana might have to offer beneath the ground—or more specifically, beneath its streets. In a 1916 report from the Mail-Tribune the Law and Order League of Chicago visited 28 cities, apparently in order to assess their lawlessness in comparison to Chicago's. ey found Washing- ton and Oregon to have been pretty decent, but thought that Butte and Havre were the worst two cities they visited. Of the two, they though Butte might be able to redeem herself, but that Havre was pretty much beyond saving. e report described the Hi-line town of Havre, MT, as "e sum total of all that is vicious and depraved parading openly with- out restraint." In Havre's rough and rowdy past as a young railroad town, its streets were filled with smugglers, gangsters, opium deal- ers (followed at an eager distance by opium-takers), beleaguered church-men, and sinners of every description. But in the early summer of 1905, Havre had suffered the great fire that would destroy much of its Main Street. Some saw the reconstruction as a chance to spruce up the town. Expensive, large- scale construction projects aimed to fill the block leveled in the blaze. Yet others of an entrepreneurial bent decided to forgo the costs of constructing new buildings. Instead, they moved their busi- nesses under the city streets into a mixture of steam tunnels and passages made by Havre's famous gangster mayor Shorty Young to facilitate passage between his businesses. Much of the town's business, criminal or otherwise, was trans- acted in the dimly lit environs of an underground network of tun- nels constituting "what we, today, might call an underground mall," according to the Havre Chamber of Commerce. And like any good shopping mall, it contained a dentist's office, pharmacy, saloon, opium den, and brothel. But the tunnels also catered to those who were a bit more high-falutin', the cultured sort, with the Gourley Brothers Bakery and Tamale Jim's kitchen. Havre's underground flourished until around the 1920s and 30s, when the town endeavored to straighten out and go legitimate. e tunnels gradually fell out of use, filling with rubble and detritus until Frank DeR- osa and Lyle Watson had the tunnels excavated and restored. ey opened Havre Beneath the Streets, which offers tours of the tunnels complete with historical reconstructions of the opium den, saloon, and restaurant, and has been entertaining tourists and interested locals ever since. FOLKLORE AND MYSTERY Billings Speakeasy Missoula steamtunnel NIKKI MANNING PHOTO COURTESY OF OLD BUTTE HISTORICAL ADVENTURES by JOE SHELTON

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