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Butte (/ b juː t / BEWT) is a consolidated city-county and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow.
Sep 2, 2024 · Butte, city, seat (1881) of Silver Bow county, southwestern Montana, U.S., on the western slope of the Continental Divide. Butte was laid out in 1886 and was named for Big Butte, a nearby conical peak locally called “the richest hill on earth.”
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Plan Your Trip. The Butte Hill and its huge copper deposits was once known as "the richest hill on earth." Today Butte's colorful history can be seen in its preserved Victorian uptown business district and stately mansions. The Butte Trolley tours historic sites in the summer.
- Explore The World Museum of Mining
- Be Dazzled at The Mineral Museum
- View The Berkeley Pit
- Visit Our Lady of The Rockies
- Learn About Butte’s Chinatown
- Eat Chop Suey
- Stay at The Copper King Mansion
- Pay Your Respects to Evel Knievel
- Attend A Festival
Whether you opt for a mine tour — through an actual mine shaft — or stay above ground with a docent-led tour with time to explore on your own, the World Museum of Miningis a must-see in Butte. It sets the stage for your entire visit to the city. Museum displays give you a feel for what a day in the life of a miner felt like. The massive headframe y...
Excuse the pun, but the Mineral Museumis a true gem. Located on the Montana Technical University (formerly the School of Mines) campus, this donation-only museum showcases a wide array of gems, minerals, and fossils. What began as a specimen collection to teach students has grown to contain more than 12,000 samples through generous donations of ent...
Three men who made their fortunes mining copper claimed Butte was built on the richest hill on earth. At the turn of the 19th century, these men, called the Copper Kings, pulled so much copper ore out of mines that Butte was the wealthiest city in America. Eventually, open-pit copper mining replaced mining in tunnels, as you learn at the Mining Mus...
Bob O’Bill, grateful for his wife’s recovery from cancer, built the statue with the help of volunteers as a tribute to Jesus’ mother, Mary, to whom he prayed. Over the course of 6 years, volunteers funded and built the 90-foot statue. It’s currently the 3rd tallest statue in the U.S. Our Lady of the Rockies stands atop the Continental Divide overlo...
Mai Wah Museumpays tribute to the Chinese immigrants who came to the area as miners, merchants, and workers in service industries. A minority were miners. Most of them fled China’s Taiping Rebellion beginning in 1840, seeking a better life in America. The museum is housed in the historic Wah Chong Tai Company and Mai Wah Noodle Parlor, side by side...
Pekin Noodle Parloris right around the corner from Mai Wah Museum. You’ll know you’ve arrived when you see the vintage Chop Suey sign. It happens to be the oldest, continuously operating Chinese restaurant in the U.S., entering its 110th year and surviving its second pandemic. The family-run restaurant is in its fifth generation. It is unlike any r...
Once a private home, Copper King Mansionis now a bed and breakfast and open for guided tours. William A. Clark had this Victorian mansion built in 1884. You’d never know by looking at it that Clark began his life in Montana as a gold miner and ended up being one of three Copper Kings, as they are called today. From miner to mine owner to entreprene...
Motorcycle stuntman and entertainer Robert — Evel — Knievel was born in Butte in 1938. The daredevil attempted 75 jumps. Some he made, some he didn’t. He broke dozens of bones. He died in 2007 and is buried in Butte’s Mountain View Cemetery. He lies beneath a tombstone made in 1974, just in case he died while jumping over Idaho’s Snake River Canyon...
Butte is Montana’s festival city, in large due to its history as a city of immigrants. Butte celebrates Chinese New Year, Serb Fest, and An Ri Ra — an Irish festival. Butte also hosts the Montana Folk Festival each summer. It draws musicians and fans for 3 days of free concerts in July. But given the large percentage of people of Irish descent in B...
- Experience the History of Butte. History is everywhere in Butte. Much of its heyday infrastructure still stands today, and historical buildings and plaques line every street.
- Explore the World Museum of Mining. The World Museum of Mining is a non-profit museum on the west side of town, near the Montana Tech campus. It dives deep into the mining history of Butte, spanning back to the late 1800s.
- Tour a Copper King Mansion. This unique tour allows visitors to see the opulence afforded by the Copper Kings of Butte. Specifically, this 90-minute narrated excursion walks through the Copper King Mansion, the house of William Andrews Clark, built in the 1880s.
- Visit the Mineral Museum. The Mineral Museum is open to the public with free admission on the Montana Tech Campus. It features a vast collection of rocks and minerals found in Montana and from across the world.
Take one or both tours around the famous Butte “Hill” in a street legal 6-seat Kawasaki “Mule”. Explore Butte’s “Neighborhoods and “Gallus Frames” or learn about the wild times when Butte’s “Red Light District and Cabbage Patch” were alive with inhabitants.
Nestled in the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains of Southwest Montana, between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, is Montana’s most unique city offering small-town charm with a big city feel.
