‘Whore-friendly people’: heritage tourism, the media and the place of sex work in Butte, Montana

Abstract

In 1997, the International Sex Workers Foundation for Arts, Culture and Education (ISWFACE) began the process of purchasing a historic parlor house brothel (the Dumas) in Butte, Montana to create a cultural center and museum. This business transaction drew national and international attention while Butte citizens questioned the presence of ISWFACE in their community. Using media accounts of the Dumas, I examine the framing of sex work and its place in the heritage tourism landscape of the American West. The case of the Dumas captures the complicated relationship between history, a community, tourism and the media on local as well as national/international levels. Sex work is part of the historical landscape of the American West, but is fading from view as communities actively shape their public image, erasing this element from their landscapes.

En 1997, Trabajadores Sexuales para el Arte, la Cultura y la Educación Internacional (ISWFACE por sus siglas en inglés) comenzó el proceso de comprar un burdel histórico (las Dumas) en Butte, Montana, para crear un centro cultural y museo. Esta transacción comercial llamó la atención nacional e internacional, mientras que los ciudadanos de Butte cuestionaron la presencia de ISWFACE en su comunidad. Utilizando relatos de los medios, analizo cómo es contextualizado el trabajo sexual y el lugar que éste ocupa en el paisaje del turismo patrimonial del Oeste Americano. El caso de las Dumas capta la complicada relación entre la historia, una comunidad, el turismo y los medios, en los niveles tanto local como nacional/internacional. El trabajo sexual es parte del paisaje histórico del Oeste Americano, pero se está desvaneciendo con la configuración activa de su imagen pública por parte de las comunidades, borrando este elemento de sus paisajes.

Keywords:

• media
• prostitution
• sex work
• memory
• heritage tourism
• American West

Keywords:

• medios
• prostitución
• trabajo sexual
• memoria
• turismo patrimonial
• oeste americano

Acknowledgements

Thanks to my sister and my parents for humoring me when I suggested years ago that we go see the brothel-turned-antiques store in Butte. Thanks to Norma Jean Almodovar for providing copies of some of the news articles analyzed here. Thanks to the editors and anonymous readers for their excellent suggestions for improving this paper. Special thanks to: William and Caroline Dando; Lara Dando; Mona Domosh; Susan Maher and John Price of the English Department, University of Nebraska-Omaha; Ellen Baumler of the Montana Historical Society; and Zena Beth McGlashan of Butte for their thoughtful readings of this manuscript.

Notes

 1. This reference is a brochure produced by ISWFACE. All other materials used in this article are from published sources.

 2. ‘Tenderloin’ – a prostitution district. ‘Crib’ – a small, usually one-room apartment where prostitutes live and work, often built like one story row houses. ‘Parlor house’ – a high-end house of prostitution, associated with elegant furnishings and the most expensive prostitutes, often run by a madam (female owner or manager). For more terminology, see Jan MacKell's Brothels, Bordellos and Bad Girls (2004, 287–290).

 3. I have added a question to the conflict frame to explore the positions of the conflict participants.

 4. I have done my very best to gather as many articles on the Dumas as possible, even if it was just a mention. I am limited to some extent by the online LexisNexis database, which provides articles only from the Associated Press wire service for Montana and does not include any Montana newspapers. My sample was enhanced by a clippings packet provided by ISWFACE. I view the articles here as a reasonable sample of the media coverage on the Dumas.

 5. Prostitution can be defined as the exchange of some sexual act for money and is not limited by gender or race.

 6. Sign text provided by Ellen Baumler of the Montana Historical Society.

 7. Much work has been done on the history of prostitution in the American West, such as Marion Goldman's Gold Diggers and Silver Miners: Prostitution and Social Life on the Comstock Lode (1981); Anne Butler's Daughters of Joy, Sisters of Misery: Prostitutes in the American West, 1865–90 (1985). See also Murphy (1993) and Baumler (1998).

 8. When prostitutes are remembered, it is often only in terms of community contributions, helping during an epidemic or raising money for orphans.

 9. The status of the Old Homestead Museum has vacillated over the years, sometimes stable, sometimes in danger of being replaced with a casino (MacKell 2005, 227).

10. While some Butte citizens might welcome the loss of the Dumas, others are still working to save the structure. ‘Citizens for Preservation and Restoration’, composed of young Butte professionals, raised funds to ensure the Dumas' roof did not cave in during the winter of 2008 (personal correspondence with Zena Beth McGlashan, 12 March 2008).

11. Scholars in many disciplines, including geography, have explored concepts of landscape, memory and mythic history. See especially Mitchell (1992); Hoelscher and Alderman (2004); and Hodgins (2004).

12. The author's description of the Dumas is incorrect. From the balcony, you can only see down to the first floor, not to the basement. In the Dumas, cribs were only in the basement.

13. The censoring of Moylan's quote is by Time (Cloud 2000).

14. Silver Bow County 2007 crime statistics from the Northwest Area Foundation: http://www.indicators.nwaf.org/(accessed 3 December 2008).

15. I have found it difficult to locate current statistics on prostitution in Butte. Statistics on violent and property crime are generally available; prostitution is not categorized as either.

16. The Silver Bow Creek/Butte area is the largest Environmental Protection Agency Super Fund site in the country (Langewiesche 2001).

17. J. Douglas Porteous coined the term ‘topocide’ to describe ‘place annihilation’. See Porteous (1989, 230).