{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1833", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 1833, "subject": "Posthistoric Travel Advisory", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "1999-10-10T17:20:43+00:00", "last": "1999-10-10T23:48:44+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Ori Kowarsky", "address": "orik at sprint.ca" }, "date": "1999-10-10T17:20:43+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Posthistoric Travel Advisory", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "For those of you who wish to study first-hand the posthistoric world and to\nvisit and photograph the era's few extant buildings, but lack the time or\nthe resources to travel up and down the seven continents or to tinker with\nclumsy mechanisms, this writer whole-heartedly recommends that you pay a\ncall to Bute, Montana.\n\nBute, Montana -- whose civic forefathers considered, in its heyday, changing\nits name to the wonderful \"Copperopolis\" -- was once the most densely\npopulated urban centre between the two coasts. For about a century Bute sat\non top of a deposit of cupric wealth such as would give Dr. Talos pause.\nThe combination of massive, short-term wealth, extreme environmental\ndegredation, mechanisation of tasks once performed by humans and the mass\nexodous of the subject population in a condensed space of time has had the\neffect of creating a small pocket of space where the aesthetic and\nenvironmental conditions of the Commonwealth apply, down to the chilly\nweather and gorgeous sunsets. The Bute airport, a small landing strip, is\nconsidered an \"international\" airport because it is a destination,\nappositely enough, for Argentinian and Chilean flyers carrying South\nAmerican mining executives eager to see the future awaiting their part of\nthe globe.\n\nThe centrepiece of the posthistoric experience at Bute is the Anaconda\nCopper Mine. One guides one's vehicle up the empty asphalt into the\ndeserted hills. In the lonely disance, one can see what appear to be\ndump-trucks of such enormous size that a single tire's diameter exceeds the\nheight of an average man widing up and down a single hill in a monotonous\ncaravan.\n\nOne parks one's car in an empty lot, and enters a circular tunnel which was\nbored through about ten feet of concrete. On the other side is an\nobservation deck made of rotting wood, with rusted chickenwire and razor\nwire fencing cordoning you off from the pit below. This is the Anaconda.\nThe pit, one hundred years ago, was a mountain. In the course of a century\nit has been literally inverted into a circular depression a mile deep and a\nmile across. Twenty years ago the bottom of the pit was accessible and had\nanother mile of mining shafts dug underneath it, with pumps siphoning off\nthe ground water. Then the mine closed, and the pumps were shut off. The\npit is now filled with a reddish-ochre water which is so concentrated with\narsenic and mercury that any bird which alights on its surface dies within\nminutes. At twilight, the water turns black. It is currently rising at a\nrate of a foot per year. There is a prominently displayed iron box with a\nfat black button on it. If you press the button, a recorded audio history\nof the pit will crackle out of the hanging speakers in an unidentifiable\nlanguage.\n\nPresiding over the pit is a top an adjacent mountain is a fifty-foot tall\naluminum and copper statue of the Virgin Mary done in the art deco style.\nIt did not turn to follow me with its gaze as I walked around. Despite the\nenormous value it would have had in resolving certain thorny issues being\ndiscussed on this newsgroup from time to time, I did not ask the locals\nwhether they knew the identity or religious provinance of the structure.\n\nAs the name \"Bute\" implies the town is situated in the mountains of Montana.\nAt its birth the town was a klepocracy; at its zeinith it was an oligarchy.\nAs a result, the town planning is an anarchic mess, bordering on the\norganic. I shall discuss the poorer quarters first: the homes of mining\nlabourers past and present are ramshackle, single storied, built of brick\nand concrete, repaired with plaster and plastic. The workers' neighborhoods\nstretch up the northeastern face of a mountain. They are currently 60%\ndeserted.\n\nThe houses of the wealthy are closer to the Main Street core. They were\nbuilt by men with enormous but transient fortunes, unimpeded by any urban\nplanning or concessions to taste. They are architecturally grandiose, made\nof brick, shod in copper, borrowing from many styles, bizarre. Some are\nmuseums; some are still privately owned; one is a caravansary.\n\nThe latter, where one may stay for the night, is the colorfully named\n\"Copper King Mansion\". Everything from its glory days that hasn't been\nbolted down has been carted off, and been replaced by three generations'\nworth of bric-a-brac. The house contains secret passageways, a servant's\nhouse inside the walls of the master house, and hidden doorways. A 10 foot\nby 17 foot gilded mirror troubles the depths of a corridor on the ground\nfloor; travellers who have a tight schedule for their return back home are\nadvised not to stand too close to it.\n\nOri Kowarsky" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Jim Henley", "address": "jlhenley at erols.com" }, "date": "1999-10-10T23:48:44+00:00", "subject": "RE: (urth) Posthistoric Travel Advisory", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "-----Original Message-----\nFrom: urth-errors at lists.best.com [mailto:urth-errors at lists.best.com]On\nBehalf Of Ori Kowarsky\n\nFor those of you who wish to study first-hand the posthistoric\nworld and to\nvisit and photograph the era's few extant buildings, but lack the time or\nthe resources to travel up and down the seven continents or to\ntinker with\nclumsy mechanisms, this writer whole-heartedly recommends that you pay a\ncall to Bute, Montana." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Oh, you mean Poisonville! Excuse me, _Personville_!\n\nVery nice travelogue, Ori. Thanks muchly.\n\nBest,\n\n\nJim\n ******************************************\n\"There will always be Costello/\n a little larceny Bacharach,\n in everyone\" \"My Thief\"" } ] } ] }