Evel Knievel of Butte: The Daredevil Who Carried His Hometown to Fame
Robert Craig Knievel was born on October 17, 1938, in Butte, Montana, the first of two children of Robert E. Knievel and Ann Marie Keough Knievel. His parents divorced when he was young, and both parents left Butte, so Robert and his younger brother, Nicolas, were raised in the city by their paternal grandparents, Ignatius and Emma Knievel. The Butte of his childhood was a hard-working copper mining city, famous as the Richest Hill on Earth, and it prized toughness, nerve, and showmanship.