Montana Tech

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 recognized the significance of mining industries to the newly admitted western states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Washington. A commission appointed by Governor J. E. Rickards to investigate establishing such a school in Montana determined that the heart of Montana’s mining industry — Butte — would be the ideal location.


At the foot of Big Butte, with its sweeping view of the surrounding area rich in mineral ores, the cornerstone of Main Hall was laid in the fall of 1896. Designed by Montana’s premier architect John C. Paulsen, the splendid Renaissance Revival style building was completed in 1897, but it presided over Butte unoccupied for lack of additional funds. Thanks to the generosity of local benefactors, the school finally opened in 1900 to 39 students, 36 men and three women. Two degrees were offered, electrical engineering and mining engineering.


During the next decades, architects George Carsley, C. S. Haire, Floyd Hamill, and Walter Arnold left their marks on the campus following Paulsen’s lead. Federal assistance during the 1930s allowed expansion and extensive landscaping, which greatly enhanced the campus.


The Montana School of Mines earned its excellent academic reputation partly because Butte offered unsurpassed opportunities in practical observation and firsthand mine experience, a facet of training not emphasized by other mining schools. Today, the school is named Montana Technological University but is known as Montana Tech. It serves about 2,500 students.

Francis A. Thomson was the first school president to enjoy this fine residence, completed during his tenure in 1936. Thomson had declared upon his arrival in 1928 that, because of its barren grounds, the school had the “ugliest campus of any educational institution” in any of the continents.…
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This site was first home to barracks for the Student Army Training Corps during World War I. When the war ended, the barracks were converted into what was described as a freshman drawing room and a physics laboratory and office. However, in the winter of 1920 McKinley Elementary caught fire,…
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The Montana State School of Mines attempted to build an activity field in 1920 but was unsuccessful due to lack of funding. In 1931, the Silver Bow County Emergency Relief Association took on the task of creating the field, with the assistance of unemployed miners. It was the beginning of the Great…
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The Montana State Bureau of Mines and Metallurgy was created in 1919 under the direction of Dr. C.H. Clapp, then president of the Montana State School of Mines. Clapp was director of the Bureau from 1919 to 1921. After his departure, the Bureau floundered a bit until Francis Thomson became…
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