Business View Civil and Municipal | Volume 2, Issue 12

132 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 2, ISSUE 11 between Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks. Thompson Park, a 3700-acre park is a destination in itself – co-managed by Butte-Silver Bow and the U.S. Forest Service, it’s the largest of many parks and recreational trails in the city. Attracting new industry became a priority for Butte in the late 1990s, in an attempt to diversify and reenergize the economy. Since then Montana Connections Industrial Park, located southwest of the city, has brought companies such as REC Silicon, a producer of advanced silicon materials for solar and electronics industries, into the community. Northwest Energy has located their state headquarters in Butte, and mining is still place to live; very community oriented with strong family values. Butte is a hard working, blue collar community, very welcoming, and has a very unique sense of pride. We have an urban setting, but within minutes, you can be as rural as you want to be.” Travel to and from the city is easy and convenient, thanks to a domestic airport, two railroads, and its location between interstates 15 and 90. Butte now has a population close to 35,000, although Gallagher suggests that number is probably higher due to a large number of people relocating to the city during COVID. Known as a gateway community, Butte is situated