No. 325: LeRoy Lee

The ButteCast with Bill Foley · Feb 18, 2026 · 1h 7m

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…