Our Impressions of Butte, Montana
Geographically Butte is in southwestern Montana. Butte is a town that has a lot of character. There is an “uptown” which has local restaurants and shops. The “downtown” area has the chain restaurants, grocery store, etc. It is really nice that there are two different locations.
We really didn’t know what to expect in Butte. It is nicknamed the “Richest Hill on Earth” for the large amount of copper mined in the city. Evidence of the mines was everywhere. At first glance it seemed like a city with more history than future. Were we wrong! After taking a trolley tour with Chris as our tour guide, we feel differently. There really is a proud, intriguing history to Butte. While the city hasn’t changed much in looks, especially in uptown, it seems like the locals like it that way. And those from far away, too. In the Taylor Sheridan TV show 1923, the town depicted as downtown Bozeman is really uptown Butte!!! As huge fans of the show, it was pretty fun to look at buildings and recognize them from the show. Of all of the five cities we visited in Montana, Butte had the most character and is the city we would most like to return to visit.
Attractions
The Auditor is the name given by miners to a “ghostly” feral dog-bigfoot hybrid. The Auditor was given his name because he would have a habit of showing up when and wherever he was least expected. Mine workers built him a doghouse and would leave him food. As he started to show his old age, workers began putting baby aspirin in the food they left for him. He lived from 1986 to 2003. An environmental engineer from Montana Tech obtained a sample of his fur and found elevated levels of arsenic and other toxic elements, lending to the mythology of Butte Tough: an old mining town that survives among its ghosts. Monuments to The Auditor are located around town.
Berkeley Pit Overlook is a pretty amazing place. It is a copper-mine viewing point that overlooks the huge open pit which is now flooded with water. The Berkeley Pit at one time was America’s largest truck-operated open pit copper mine. Now it’s a massive lake of drainage from the mines. It is as large as 484 football fields, 1,800 feet deep (deeper than any of the Great Lakes) and a mile across. The pit holds over 40 billion gallons of waste so deadly that in 1995 it killed over 300 snow geese that mistakenly landed on it. The snow geese slaughter happened again in late November 2016, when 10,000 of them landed on the liquid and thousands succumbed. Now when you are at the overlook you will hear loud sirens and other noise that keep birds from landing on the water.
Butte Trolley Tour is one of the best ways to learn about Butte and its history. It is reasonably priced and lasts about 2 hours. If you are lucky, you will have Chris as your tour guide. Wow, does this man know his Butte history! We HIGHLY recommend taking this trolley tour, especially if you have Chris!
The Copper King Mansion is also known as the W. A. Clark Mansion, a 34-room residence of Romanesque Revival Victorian architecture that was built from 1884 to 1888 as the residence of William Andrews Clark, one of Montana’s three famous Copper Kings.
Dumas Brothel Museum is a fascinating place! It is the only (non-operating!) brothel still standing. It was founded by French-Canadian brothers Joseph and Arthur Nadeau in 1890 and named after Joseph’s wife Delia.
The Granite Mountain Speculator Mine Memorial is a must see. In June 8, 1917, 168 miners were killed as the result of a fire in a copper mine. It was deadliest event in underground hard rock mining in United States history. Most men died of suffocation underground as the fire consumed their oxygen. Some of the deceased did not die immediately; they survived for a day or two in the tunnels. Some left notes written while they waited in hopes of rescue. At the mine memorial there are audio tapes you can listen to, including from one man who survived the fire and narrators reading the letters the men left for their family members.
Kenyon-Connell Warehouse Explosion of 1895 Memorial. The new memorial includes five figures who represent the animals, 45 civilians and 13 of the 15 firefighters in the fire department who were killed the evening of January 15, 1895. There was a fire and two subsequent explosions in a warehouse near Utah Street housing an illegal amount of dynamite for the copper mines. The first explosion killed the 13 firefighters and one of the 2 fire department horses. The second explosion killed the 45 civilians who rushed in to help the injured fire fighters.
Our Lady of the Rockies is a 90-foot statue built in the likeness of Mary, the mother of Jesus. It sits atop the Continental Divide overlooking Butte. Construction began in 1979 and was completed in 1985. It is the fourth-tallest statue in the United States after Birth of the New World, the Statue of Liberty, and the Pegasus and Dragon.
Socialist Hall was constructed in 1916 and was utilized for labor organizing, such as the Metal Mine Workers’ Industrial Union No. 800. However, concern began to grow in the US that the Russian worker revolution would be brought to American soil. This led to a crackdown on socialist organizations and the movement as a whole. The “Red Scare” as it came to be known would make the Socialist Party obsolete by the end of the 1920s. Today, the Socialist Hall is being renovated for low-income housing.
The Spirit of Columbia Gardens Carousel is a newer attraction featuring a carousel of 35 different horses. Each horse and buggy was handmade by a Butte local. This project took 20 years from start to finish, with the final unveiling in 2018. The idea for this project took place after the original carousel closed and then, unfortunately, burned down.
The World Museum of Mining is a museum, memorial and tour down the inactive Orphan Girl silver and zinc mine in Butte, Montana. All of the tour guides into the mine are people who actually worked in the mine. Wayne, our tour guide, worked in the mine during the summers of 1974 and 1975. His father and his uncles all were full time miners. The World Museum of Mining was chartered in 1964. There are 50 buildings on 22 acres of land. One of the best tours we have been on. We would highly recommend it!
Downtown Butte
Butte has both an “Uptown” and a “Downtown”. Uptown stores and restaurants are on the historic registry. Downtown is the more commercial shopping areas with a grocery store, box stores and chain restaurants. Uptown Butte is a wonderful place to walk around and look at the architecture of the buildings, stop for a bite to eat or do some shopping. No parking meters here! Be prepared to walk up and down some pretty major hills!
Food and Drink
Casagranda’s Steakhouse and Guido’s Bar opened in 1993 in its present location, the historic Bertoglio Warehouse. The building itself was constructed in 1900 and was in continuous operation until 1975 when it was moved. The building is part of the character of Casagranda’s. The food was excellent and the wait staff were attentive.
Headframe Spirits is named after the pit frame found at the top of mines. The mining history of Butte inspired John and Courtney McKee to create this distillery in Butte. The names of the spirits are derived from Butte’s mining history, like Orphan Girl and High Ore. At Headframe I had one of my top 5 alcoholic drinks ever, a strawberry-rhubarb gin-rita. Wow. That is all I can say about that.
The Pekin Noodle Parlor is the oldest continuously-operating Chinese restaurant in the United States!! It opened in 1909. You could miss this restaurant if you didn’t know what you were looking for. There is a small neon sign above a nondescript door announcing the Pekin Noodle Parlor. Then you go up a huge flight of stairs (this is not a handicapped accessible restaurant!). In the restaurant if you are lucky, you can sit in its individual orange cubicles with matching orange curtains. The food is rolled into the cubicles by hand trolleys. The food was good, but the ambiance and history are what makes this a must place to eat.
Home Base: The Campground
For us, a campground is not our destination. Our RV is self-contained. Except for water, electric and sewer rarely do we use campground services or amenities. We are explorers, not campground reviewers!
We stayed on site 545 at the KOA Journey in Butte. 30 and 50 amp service were available. The campground was clean and well maintained. The staff was friendly. Our full hook up (water-sewer-electric) site was on level gravel. Our pull through site was long enough to leave the Jeep hooked up and still have both vehicles off the road. There was good cell phone coverage (Verizon) and a good open southern sky for our satellite. Easy off and on I-90.
Would we stay here again? It is questionable. This is the most expensive campground we have ever stayed at. EVER. ANYWHERE. ANYTIME. We have stayed at some pretty expensive RV Resorts, for example, directly on the ocean at Key West, and it wasn’t as expensive as this KOA.
Fun Facts
1923, the Paramount TV series by Taylor Sheridan was filmed in downtown Butte. When 1923 talks about downtown Bozeman, it is really Butte!
Butte was the first major city in Montana. In the late 1800s, right around when Montana was becoming a state, Butte was created as a silver and gold mining camp. After the turn of the century, however, copper became the main output of the mines of Butte.
In the early 1900s, as Butte’s nickname “The Richest Hill on Earth” was taking hold thanks to the copper mines, the population was over 100,000 people. At that time, Butte was the largest city between Chicago and San Francisco.
In the 1890s, Butte supplied over 25% of the world’s copper and over 50% of the United States’ copper.
Uptown Butte’s historic district, which was expanded in 2006 to include parts of Anaconda, is now the largest National Historic Landmark District in the United States with nearly 6,000 contributing properties. Uptown Butte has more designated national historic homes than any other place in the country. Butte was #2 until hurricane Katrina destroyed many historic sites in New Orleans.
Population: 34,768
Founded: 1860
Elevation: 5,538
Average income for a single person: $25,781
Average price of housing: $330,000
Median age of the population: 40
Website: https://mainstreetbutte.org/
Summary
We were pleasantly surprised by Butte. For us, Butte had more character than other cities in Montana we visited. This is maybe because Chris’ love of Butte rubbed off on us. He is a great ambassador for Butte.
Since beginning our full-time journey to discover the country, we have found something to appreciate in every city and town we have passed through. We hope you enjoy reading about them as much as we have enjoyed discovering them!
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Kathryn, Dave and Lucky
RVing Nomads
It’s a lifestyle
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