Butte Country club founded 10 years after statehood
Pub Date: 12/1/2008
By Paul F. Vang
The history of Montana from the time of statehood is a relatively slim book covering just 119 years since the state was admitted to the Union in 1889.
It s not often that the Montana Tavern Times gets to look at a center of hospitality that has been in continuous operation since before the turn of the 20th Century, just 10 years after statehood.
The Butte Country Club, site of the 2006 MTA convention golf tournament and 19th Hole Party, is Montana s first and oldest country club, and site of Montana s first golf course as well as Montana s first golf course with grass greens.
Besides being a course with a lot of history, it s also a bar, restaurant, and varied recreation facility, with racquetball and handball courts, swimming pool and tennis courts, according to the club s manager and controller, Loren Hanni.
Hanni has been manager of the Country Club since 2000 and prior to the implosion of the Montana Power Company was an accountant for the Oil and Gas Division of the former utility.
The Butte Country Club began in 1899, back when William McKinley was president of the United States and Queen Victoria still reigned in Great Britain. At its founding, the Country Club s location was on south Montana Street, on the lower west side of Butte.
It probably had no golf course at that time, Hanni speculates, but more likely was a place to play polo.
The club moved to the east side of Butte in 1905, on the shores of Lake Avoca, an artificial lake that for many years was a center of boating and water recreation.
At its new location, the club built an 18-hole golf course with sand greens, Montana s first golf course, on club property directly east of the current Country Club facilities. While much of that area has been developed for residential purposes, the club s driving range is a tangible remnant of that original Victorian-era golf course.
The club built a palatial clubhouse, a facility that lasted until it burned down in the 1940s, was rebuilt, and then replaced yet again, with a new clubhouse in the 1960s.
In the late 1930s, Lake Avoca was drained and the Country Club acquired much of the old lake bed and in 1939 constructed a new 18-hole links with grass greens another Montana first. The course opened in 1940 and over the years has been the site of many championship golf tournaments as well as a center of recreational golf.
Many of the famous names in golf, such as Arnold Palmer, Byron Nelson and Patti Berg, have strolled the fairways of the Butte Country Club s golf course. The course was also a hangout for Butte s famous daredevil, Evel Knievel, and a clubhouse photo shows Knievel in a foursome that included the late boxing champion Joe Louis in the club s 1976 Labor Day golf tournament.
In short, there s a lot of history in the Butte Country Club, as evidenced by the many photos of club events over the years, cases full of battered, tarnished, antique trophies and plaques, and in the club s board room, rosters of the club s Boards of Directors from the 1930s indicate many direct connections to the boardrooms of the old Anaconda Company and Montana Power Company. One can only speculate how many corporate decisions that affected all of Montana were hashed out on the golf course or at the 19th hole of the Butte Country Club.
The Country Club golf course has hosted many state championship golf tournaments and many Butte golfers have been state champions in various golfing events. In 2009, the course will again host the Montana State Amateur tournament. Many other tournaments are held on the course every summer, including a popular Cat-Griz tournament, as well as a tournament to benefit local high school golf teams.
The course is the home course for both the Butte High School and Butte Central High School golf teams, and money raised at the tournament helps support high school golf programs, an otherwise under-funded school activity.
Recognizing the need to invest in the future, the club s golf pro conducts junior golf programs through the summer.
While country club activities not unexpectedly revolve around golf and other recreations, the country club is also a full-fledged bar and restaurant that s open daily from spring to fall. It can serve sit-down dinners for over 200 people or receptions and parties for up to 400 people.
It s not just the country club set'; the club is open to the public and takes bookings from a wide variety of individuals and organizations for parties, receptions, fundraisers, class reunions and Christmas parties. Hanni sums it up, Anybody can book a party here.
The clubhouse hosts other indoor activities as well. An aerobics class meets regularly on the club s dance floor. Several women s bridge clubs meet in the dining room every week and in a card room on the lower level, there s a group of pinochle fanatics that play daily. There s also a group of mostly retired men, including this reporter, a relatively recent recruit, who, since the 1970s, have been coming to the club weekly to play bridge.
While the club s main bar is in the clubhouse s lower level, a second full bar is on the main floor, and if necessary, they re prepared to set up additional portable bars for special events.
Operating a country club has its own rhythm, based on the seasons. The heart of the golf season, April through October, is the busy time and the staff swells to 60-65 employees, including varied specialties such as grounds and greens keepers, housekeepers, janitors, lifeguards, bar and restaurant workers, including a full time professional chef.
In the off season, with shortened hours, the employment roster shrinks to around 16 employees, along with a list of people who are called to work parties and other functions.
Comparing managing a country club to his previous career with Montana Power, Loren Hanni says with a laugh, I like it here other than I have 420 bosses, referring to the club membership of 420 people.
He adds, We re pretty independent, actually. We know what has to be done. Pointing to a computer system server in his office, he says, That s our lifeblood. The club s entire business operation, including the bar, dining room, pro shop, and special events, is all tracked through club s computer system.
While the Butte Country Club has a long and rich history, the club s managers and directors are not resting on their laurels. Hanni points to a 2006 master plan for continual upgrades on the golf course, with new tee boxes, new tree planting and other improvements.
Some of those trees on the course are dying of old age and need to be replaced, Hanni notes. Also, while many members probably think of the clubhouse as the "new" clubhouse, it s a 40-year-old facility and keeping it up to date is a constant job which includes a number of recent projects undertaken to keep the facility modern.
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, December, 2008, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.