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…
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In the late nineteenth century, Montana Territory was the last of the forty-eight contiguous states and territories that became states to be connected to the nationwide network of railroads. In 1880,…
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What would Butte be without its schools? From the beginning, the community supported education in hard times and good times. Over the years, nearly 50 unique schools offered elementary education in…
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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…
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After the Civil War, the American west signified opportunity for wealth and a new start. No one knew that better than the hundreds of African Americans who came to Butte for a better life as free men…
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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…
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Settlement in Butte began in 1864 with the discovery of gold, but the boom was short-lived. The discovery of silver in the 1870s and copper in the 1880s transformed Butte into the “Richest Hill on…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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 workers,…
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Humans in North America have been extracting minerals, chemicals, and metals from the Earth—including flint, pipestone, salt, and copper—for thousands of years. For most of that time, they used…
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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…
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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…
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Butte was a center of innovation in railway electrification in North America. For much of the twentieth century, Butte was a rare example in the West for railroads using the application of electricity…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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The environmental cleanup in Butte, often referred to as the “Superfund Project” is a story about the effects of heavy metals on soil and water, and the response effort ordered under a federal law.…
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Butte’s historical identity is as much linked to a single corporate entity, The Anaconda Company, as is the identity of any city in the United States. For a century, the company was by far the largest…
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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…
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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…
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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 on the…
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