Butte Montana is famous. It was at one time the biggest city between Chicago and San Francisco. It’s in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, and sits at the headwaters of the mighty Columbia River, which flows all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Richest Hill Episode 01: Butte's Precarious Arrangement

If you don’t know Butte Montana, you might have heard it’s one of the biggest toxic messes in the country. But now the “Mining City” is on the verge of sealing a deal that could clean it up once and for all. So how did we get here? What comes after Superfund? And who gets to decide?