From almost the beginning of the territory, Montana workers tried to organize themselves into unions to secure safer working conditions and better wages and to redress grievances. Where union locals…
View Tour

Miners north of Missoula Gulch struck silver in 1872, and three years later Rollo Butcher located the Alice, one of the richest silver mines on the Hill. Butcher is credited with building the first…
View Tour

Tightly clustered wooden houses built into the steep slopes of the Butte Hill characterize Centerville. Mostly constructed before 1900, the small Queen Anne cottages, hipped-roof workers’ houses, and…
View Tour

A catastrophic fire consumed much of Main Street in 1879, removing traces of Butte’s mining camp past and ushering in a new era of masonry and stone construction. In the 1880s, single miners remained…
View Tour

This historically Catholic neighborhood appropriately takes its name from St. Mary’s parish, which included the Irish communities of Dublin Gulch (since leveled) and Corktown. Known as the “miner’s…
View Tour

John Noyes arrived from California in 1866 and purchased several mining claims just north of today’s Front Street. After he and his partners, including David Upton, “put in a ground sluice,” they…
View Tour

Discovery of rich silver deposits at the Travona, whose head frame still stands at the district’s west end, sparked Butte’s 1870s hard-rock mining boom. Most South Central buildings date from the…
View Tour

The East Side neighborhood is bordered on the east by the Berkeley Pit, on the south by the upper yards of the Northern Pacific Railroad, on the west by the east side of Arizona Street, and on the…
View Tour

The Northwest-Big Butte Neighborhood occupies the northwest corner of the National Historic Landmark District just below the 500-foot-tall Big Butte, the conical extinct volcanic plug from which the…
View Tour

Butte's West Side neighborhood was constructed on the side slopes of Missoula Gulch, which cleaves the heart of this hilly neighborhood. The neighborhood is bounded by Quartz and Copper Streets…
View Tour

Butte's Southwest Neighborhood is a large residential neighborhood spanning Missoula Gulch, and occupying the southwestern-most corner of the Butte-Anaconda Historic District. The oldest settled…
View Tour

Headframes are the iconic symbol of Butte and represent the contribution of the minerals and metals mined here to the industrial growth of this country. These steel towers lifted the ore that…
View Tour

The Enabling Act of 1889 laid the foundation for the Montana School of Mines, providing for the first federal land grants for the establishment of mining schools. This landmark provision thus…
View Tour

In 1917, Butte was the site of one of the most notorious unsolved murders in American history. The murder of union organizer Frank Little happened in the midst of what was then the biggest strike in…
View Tour

A few minutes before 10 p.m. on January 15, 1895, a signal came into the Butte fire department from call box 72 indicating a fire near Utah and Iron Streets. Firefighters rushed to the scene in…
View Tour

View Tour

The story of the Women's Protective Union (WPU) captures the essence of the Mining City’s spirit. While the unionization of Butte’s underground miners is well-known, the story of its women…
View Tour

Despite living in a rugged mining town, Butte residents of the early 1900s longed to create a sense of culture and beauty in their surroundings. The construction of five major churches and a synagogue…
View Tour

Everyone walking around Butte will notice the use of stone for building foundations, retaining walls, lintels, and sills (above and below windows), steps, and even some entire structures. Close…
View Tour