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The toxic pit with a $3 admission fee

Tom Scott | October 29, 2025



The Berkeley Pit, in Butte, Montana, was once the richest hill on Earth: the Anaconda Copper Mine. Now: it’s not all that rich, and it’s not much of a hill. Instead, it’s a toxic pit filled with sulfuric acid.

Thanks to the Montana Resources team: https://www.montanaresources.com/

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:

“10,000 miles of tunnels”: https://mtstandard.com/news/local/new-map-plots-butte-underground/article_f1de51e2-948f-5634-9aa0-87ad730d9cfd.html
“35,000 people a year”: https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/toxic-montana-pit-tourist-attraction]

Protective Water Level, and the details of the underground water that I didn’t have time to go into: https://pitwatch.org/protective-water-level/

The first treated water being removed from the pit: https://www.mtpr.org/post/treated-water-begins-flowing-out-buttes-berkeley-pit

Edited by Tom Fuller

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Written by Tom Scott

Comments

This post currently has 46 comments.

  1. @TomScottGo

    October 29, 2025 at 8:50 am

    I couldn't find a way to mention this in the video but: next door to the pit, there's still an active copper mine! Of course, they're being a bit more careful with the environment there.

  3. @caitlynremsa3098

    October 29, 2025 at 8:50 am

    Guess they haven't thought that some sort of netting COVERING the pit would prevent any bird landings and migratory bird deaths?? If they want more of a caveman methodology: why not chuck rocks into the nasty water NEAR the birds??

  8. @BoltUpBearded

    October 29, 2025 at 8:50 am

    Personally they just don't want to tell people from PETA , they use the rifles for when there bored and want to take at Canadian geese that didn't pay the tariffs

  12. @BiggySmalls-o4r

    October 29, 2025 at 8:50 am

    So who is paying for this? I worry that a private company came in, profited from all the minerals, then left the government to manage the environmental disaster for centuries to come. Private companies are not interested in making sure they keep people safe because that costs money. Things like mineral mines or oil pumps need to be ran by the government and not the companies that have no incentive to protect the community. Anything that carries a risk of causing environmental disasters needs to be managed by an entity that has a responsibility to the people and not to profits. But sadly the ultra wealthy have managed to control the media and brainwash people to think somehow only private companies can do these tasks.

  16. @jkhtravelrn

    October 29, 2025 at 8:50 am

    Ah,yes. Butte Montana. My family calls it “Butt” Montana. When I was a child, we would drive to wisconsin every summer to see my grandpa and other family members. Crossing Montana wasn’t bad until we got to “Butt”. We loved the green, mountainous beauty of western Montana, but after Butt, the freeway turns maybe twice.. it’s brown snd boring. We spent a lot of time at a ski area called “silver horn”, which was formerly known as “jackass Butte” and is now “Silver Mountain” ski area. It is closer to the Idaho border with Montana. Near the appropriately named town of “Smelterville”.
    We went to the copper mine near Butte, but I cannot remember the name of it. That was probably 40 years ago or so. Id be curious to know if it is this mine. I know it was a big pit, and had a decent gift shop. It wasn’t full of water, though.

  21. @eds.9522

    October 29, 2025 at 8:50 am

    So are there laws that require the people/corporations that cause the toxic messes to clean them up or at least have funds set aside so that the taxer aren't footing the clean up bills? Thinking of all the green energy things that will be causing issues in the near future. 🙁

  25. @MrBentheretwo

    October 29, 2025 at 8:50 am

    Why don't they use shade balls to cover the lake it would keep birds off the water the only reason I can think of is that it keeps the water from evaporating as fast and tourists may not want to see a bunch of balls covering the water P.S. The balls are made of polyurethane which acid can't eat through so that's not the reason

  27. @jamesherron9969

    October 29, 2025 at 8:50 am

    The question is, is, why is the Montana tax pair paying for this APCO The owner of the mind is it multinational company with over $2 billion a year revenue you see the EPA In America does not concern itself with the well-being of Americans just protecting multinational companies while going after American companies

  34. @ZarbanDerek

    October 29, 2025 at 8:50 am

    It's just bizarre to me that for such a long time we, as a society, said, "Hey, it's cool. Do whatever you want." And lo and behold, companies extracted all the land's value and walk away, leaving horrible problems that become society's problems for generations.

  45. @Robinhoodsreviews

    October 29, 2025 at 8:50 am

    Plot twist. This happened all over the states and only Montana spoke up about it.
    And/Or…
    This town needs abandoned and this site needs filled in. And whatever happened here needs to never happen again anywhere.
    Lets hear it for humans…
    So what happens when a bird does land here and gets shot and harvested a county or 2 over! They ingest poison. I bet half the towns got cancer. This sucks.

Comments are closed.

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