BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Grounded in the dramatic personal stories of five generations of mining families and narrated by Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, this program tells the tale of Butte, Montana, once the world's largest producer of copper -- the "Richest Hill on Earth." Butte was the town that "plumbed and electrified America," the Pittsburgh of the West.

Butte forged a community whose toughness, vitality and solidarity speak to what's missing in America today, while raising profound questions about the costs and consequences of industrialization and use of natural resources.

"Butte, America" is an unsentimental and moving tribute to working class life and to the never-ending labor of achieving fairness in a world where powerful, destructive forces are always at play.

"Butte, America" is a co-production of Rattlesnake Productions and the Independent Television Service (ITVS), produced in association with KUSM-TV/MontanaPBS, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.