History

Butte grew from an 1864 mining camp into the Richest Hill on Earth, and its history is still standing: thousands of mining-era buildings, mine yards, and headframes survive in one of the largest National Historic Landmark districts in the United States. The articles below tell that story, and every historic site listed was verified as open to visitors in Butte, Montana, in November 2026.

Last updated: Friday, November 13, 2026

Butte History Articles

• The Founding of Butte: From Placer Gold to a Silver Boom Town
• Marcus Daly and the Rise of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company
• The Richest Hill on Earth: How Butte Copper Electrified the World
• The Granite Mountain–Speculator Disaster of 1917
• The Berkeley Pit: From Open-Pit Mine to a Lake That Must Be Watched Forever
• The War of the Copper Kings
• The Gibraltar of Unionism: Butte's Labor Movement, the Dynamited Hall, and Frank Little
• Uptown Butte and the Butte-Anaconda Historic District: A Landmark City on the Hill
• Butte's Chinese Community, Its Historic Chinatown, and the Mai Wah Museum
• Evel Knievel of Butte: The Daredevil Who Carried His Hometown to Fame
• Our Lady of the Rockies: The 90-Foot Statue Above Butte
• The Columbia Gardens: Butte's Beloved Amusement Park, 1899–1973

Historic Sites to Visit

• Butte-Anaconda National Historic Landmark District — Uptown Butte: The Butte-Anaconda National Historic Landmark District is one of the largest historic landmark districts in the United States, and its Uptown Butte core preserves thousands of mining-era commercial buildings, homes, mine yards, and headframes.
• World Museum of Mining: The World Museum of Mining is an open-air and underground museum built on the actual Orphan Girl Mine yard in Butte, where visitors tour exhibit buildings, a recreated mining town, and the underground mine itself. The museum is seasonal, and tours should be booked ahead through its website. Location: 155 Museum Way, Butte, MT.
• Copper King Mansion (W. A. Clark Mansion): The Copper King Mansion is the 34-room Romanesque Revival home that copper king William A. Clark built in Butte between 1884 and 1888, and it now operates as a bed and breakfast that offers guided tours. Tour availability is seasonal, with regular summer tours and appointment tours in winter. Location: 219 W Granite St, Butte, MT.
• Clark Chateau — also known as the Arts Chateau: The Clark Chateau is the 26-room French chateau-style mansion that William A. Clark built for his son Charles in 1898, and it now serves Butte as a house museum, gallery, and arts and humanities center. It is open Thursday through Saturday from noon to 4:00 p.m. Location: 321 W Broadway St, Butte, MT.
• Mai Wah Museum: The Mai Wah Museum preserves the Wah Chong Tai Mercantile and the Mai Wah Noodle Parlor in Butte's former Chinatown and interprets the history of Chinese and other Asian residents in Butte and the Rocky Mountain West. Its regular season is summer, and off-season visits require advance notice. Location: 17 W Mercury St, Butte, MT.
• Dumas Brothel Museum: The Dumas Brothel is an 1890 Victorian brothel in Butte's former red-light district that operated from 1890 to 1982 and survives as a museum that offers guided tours of its largely intact rooms. The museum is usually open only every other Saturday for tours and closes for the season in November, so visitors should check the official site or call before visiting. Location: 45 E Mercury St, Butte, MT.
• Granite Mountain Speculator Mine Memorial: The Granite Mountain Memorial is an open-air memorial plaza above Butte that honors the 168 miners who died in the Granite Mountain and Speculator Mine fire of June 8, 1917 and the roughly 2,500 Butte miners who died in mining-related causes. The memorial is an outdoor site on the trail system and is free to visit. Location: Alexander Street, Butte, MT.
• Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives: The Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives is the official repository for Butte-Silver Bow government records and for photographs, manuscripts, and collections that document the history of Butte and Silver Bow County. It is a working research room that is open on weekdays, and it is the place to research ancestors, buildings, photographs, and mining history. Location: 17 W Quartz St, Butte, MT.
• Mineral Museum at Montana Tech: The Mineral Museum at Montana Tech is a free museum on the Montana Technological University campus that displays more than a thousand mineral specimens, with special strength in minerals from the Butte mining district. Location: 1300 W Park St, Butte, MT.
• Mother Lode Theatre: The Mother Lode Theatre is a restored 1,200-seat performing arts center in Uptown Butte that opened as the Masonic Temple Theatre in 1924 and now hosts the Butte Symphony and touring and community productions. Location: 316 W Park St, Butte, MT.
• Our Lady of the Rockies: Our Lady of the Rockies is a 90-foot statue of the Virgin Mary that stands at 8,510 feet on the Continental Divide above Butte and that visitors reach only on a guided bus tour from town. Tours leave from the gift shop at 1707 Continental Drive, and visitors may not drive or hike to the statue on their own.
• Old Butte Historical Adventures — Underground City Tours: Old Butte Historical Adventures offers guided walking tours from Uptown Butte that take visitors underground to a Prohibition-era speakeasy, a barber shop, and the old city jail. The tours involve numerous steps and have no handicapped accommodations. Location: 117 N Main St, Butte, MT.
• Berkeley Pit and Berkeley Pit Viewing Stand: The Berkeley Pit is Butte's former open-pit copper mine, which operated until 1982 and is now a mile-wide pit lake that visitors view from a public viewing stand on its southwest rim. The viewing stand season is weather-dependent, so visitors should check with the Butte Chamber of Commerce or PitWatch for the current schedule, and no one may enter the pit itself. Location: 350 Shields Ave, Butte, MT.
• Headframes (Gallows Frames) of Butte — Overview: The steel headframes that still stand over Butte's closed underground mine shafts are the city's defining skyline landmarks, and about seventeen of them survive from the hundreds of mines that once worked the Butte Hill. The headframes stand in mine yards that are generally fenced, so they are landmarks to view from streets, trails, and overlooks rather than sites to enter.
• Anselmo Mine Headframe: The Anselmo Mine headframe stands over the most intact mine yard in Butte, where the hoist houses, dry, carpenter shop, and other surface buildings survive beside the frame.
• Steward Mine Headframe: The Steward Mine headframe marks a prolific silver and copper mine that operated from the nineteenth century to 1973 and reached 4,400 feet deep.
• Original Mine Headframe: The Original Mine headframe stands at one of the sites of Butte's earliest mining, where a copper and silver mine worked from 1864 to 1940 and reached 3,900 feet deep.
• Travona Mine Headframe: The Travona Mine headframe marks the oldest mine on the Butte Hill, which began in 1864 as the gold mine named the Asteroid and later worked to 1,500 feet deep.
• St. Patrick's Cemetery: St. Patrick's Cemetery is Butte's historic Irish Catholic cemetery on South Montana Street, where thousands of burials, Celtic crosses, and a Spanish-American War veterans section record the city's Irish immigrant history. It is a historic cemetery to visit respectfully, and the neighboring Mount Moriah and B'nai Israel cemeteries record Butte's Masonic and Jewish communities. Location: 2725 S Montana St, Butte, MT.