The 1980s were not an easy time for the Mining City.
Things started to turn around late in the decade. But for the better part of the 80s, Butte was mired in an economic depression. After the mines closed, so many people were left unemployed or had to flee their hometown to find work somewhere else.
My dad was one of the men who, when he was lucky, found work hundreds, if not thousands of miles from home. Other times, there was no work at all.
During that time, two things reassured me that Butte’s will could not be broken. The first was Coach Jim Street’s wrestling team, which a state championship every year of the 1980s.
The second was the Our Lady of the Rockies statue.
That statue started as a promise made by the late Bob O’Bill. He told the Blessed Mother Mary that if his wife, Joyce, survived her surgery for cancer that he would build a 5- or 6-foot statue of Mary on the East Ridge.
Joyce survived the surgery and Bob enlisted LeRoy Lee to build the statue that turned out to be one of the tallest statues in the United States at 90 feet tall.
LeRoy was a welder who never finished high school. He said he had no idea how to build a statue. But he prayed about it, and then built it.
“I didn’t build the statue,” he said. “Mary and Jesus built it.”
He started with a finger and then built the hand. The next thing he knew he was building a face. LeRoy said the Joe Roberts, another man who was instrumental in the project, told him that the nose looked like Porky Pig.
So, LeRoy prayed to Jesus, who told him to make her look pretty. Now, the nose is perfect.
The statue went up the mountain by helicopter section by section. Thanks to the work of so many, the head was put in place on Dec. 20, 1985.
That day, Butte was national news. And for more than 40 years, the Our Lady of the Rockies has been sitting atop the East Ridge. It means so much to so many. For many it is spiritual. For me it represents the time when Butte would not simply die and go away like so many thought it would.
For quite some time, I had been planning to get a hold of LeRoy, who is now 91, to talk to him about the construction of the statue and the impossible task of getting it on top of the mountain. I kept meaning to call him.
Then, out of the blue, LeRoy called me last week. He wanted me to share a story written about the Lady by Fr. Elias. I scanned that story in and it is available below. If you don’t know the story, you should read it. If you do know the story, you should also read it.
Yesterday, I sat down with LeRoy for the long-overdue talk about the Lady and the 45 years of his life he has dedicated to Her.
Listen in as he talks about that impossible task and the many near misses that almost derailed the project. Listen to the story of how the helicopter nearly crashed, but miraculously the statue survived with just a few bent fingers that LeRoy quickly fixed.
Listen to how his LeRoy wrote a book, titled “Our Lady Builds a Statue,” and how it was translated into “American English” by Pat, his wife of nearly 70 years.
This is episode just captures a small part of the amazing story. But it is one you do not want to miss.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Leskovar Honda, home of the non-commission sales staff that always has your back. This episode is also available on YouTube:
The ButteCast with Bill Foley 