Butte

History The camp in the Silver Bow Creek valley was established in 1864, and the Asteroid (later Travona) mine of 1874 brought a silver boom. Copper took over in the 1880s, when electric power created huge demand. Marcus Daly bought the small Anaconda mine in 1881, and the "Copper Kings" Daly, William A. Clark, James Murray and F. Augustus Heinze fought for control of the hill. Butte was a union stronghold, known as "the Gibraltar of Unionism", and the Western Federation of Miners was founded here in 1893. On 8 June 1917 a fire in the Granite Mountain and Speculator mines killed 168 men, the worst hard-rock mining disaster on record. Open-pit mining began at the Berkeley Pit in 1955, swallowing whole neighbourhoods including Meaderville, and the pit closed in 1982. The upper Clark Fork River, which starts at Butte, is now the largest Superfund site in the United States.

What to See Start Uptown, on the steep streets of the National Historic Landmark district, where at least 14 headframes still stand, among them the Anselmo, the Kelly, the Mountain Con and the Granite Mountain; the Granite Mountain Memorial commemorates the 168 men killed in 1917. The Berkeley Pit viewing stand looks over a pit about a mile long and half a mile wide; it is open seasonally, roughly May to October, so call ahead. The World Museum of Mining, at the Orphan Girl mine, includes Hell Roarin' Gulch, a reconstructed mining-camp street. The Mai Wah Museum tells the story of Butte's Chinese community. The 34-room Copper King Mansion, built from 1884 for William A. Clark, runs as a museum and bed-and-breakfast, and the Arts Chateau, built for his son Charles, houses the Butte-Silver Bow Arts Foundation. The MBMG Mineral Museum is on the Montana Tech campus.

Outdoors Our Lady of the Rockies, a 90-foot statue of the Virgin Mary at about 8,510 feet on the Continental Divide, was airlifted onto the ridge in December 1985 and is lit at night. The access road crosses private land, so the only way up is a bus tour, which runs about two and a half hours return and leaves from Butte Plaza Mall, generally June to October. Every road out of Butte except westbound Interstate 90 crosses the Divide, via Homestake, Pipestone, Elk Park or Deer Lodge passes. The U.S. High Altitude Speed Skating Center has an outdoor rink used in winter.

Getting There Bert Mooney Airport (BTM) is about 5 miles from Uptown. Butte sits at the junction of Interstates 15 and 90: Helena is about 68 miles north, Bozeman about 85 miles east, Missoula about 120 miles north-west and Anaconda about 24 miles west.

When to Go July and August are the busiest months: the Montana Folk Festival, a free music festival, takes over Uptown on the second weekend of July, and Evel Knievel Days, for the stunt rider born in Butte, falls on the last weekend of July. Butte's St. Patrick's Day parade, held since 1882, draws about 30,000 people each March. The pit viewing stand and statue tours are seasonal, so May to October suits sightseeing; winters at nearly 5,800 feet are cold.