Butte Map

Description: This map shows streets, roads, beaches, golf courses, lakes, rivers, buildings, hospitals, viewpoints, airport, railways, railway stations, and parks in Butte.

Description: This map shows streets, houses, buildings, cafes, bars, restaurants, hotels, museums, parking lots, shops, churches, points of interest, and parks in Downtown Butte.

Butte is a city in and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. The city and county have a consolidated government known as Butte-Silver Bow.

Butte was founded in 1864 as a mining camp in the northern Rocky Mountains, straddling the Continental Divide.

The city rose to prominence in the late 19th century due to the vast mineral wealth beneath it, particularly copper, which was in high demand following the electrification of America. By the early 20th century, Butte was one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the western United States, earning the nickname "the Richest Hill on Earth." At its peak around 1917, the city's population exceeded 90,000. The Anaconda Copper Mining Company, founded by Marcus Daly, became one of the most powerful corporations in the world and dominated the city's economy and politics for decades.

Butte attracted a diverse immigrant workforce, including large numbers of Irish, Cornish, Finnish, Italian, Serbian, Croatian, Chinese, and Lebanese workers. The city became a major center of labor activism in the United States and was home to one of the strongest chapters of the Western Federation of Miners and, later, the Industrial Workers of the World. Labor unrest culminated in events such as the 1917 Speculator Mine disaster, which killed 168 miners, and the lynching of labor organizer Frank Little the same year.

Underground mining declined after World War II, and in 1955 the Anaconda Company opened the Berkeley Pit, an open-pit copper mine on the city's east side. Mining operations at the pit ceased in 1982, after which groundwater began filling it, creating a highly acidic lake contaminated with heavy metals. The Berkeley Pit and surrounding areas form one of the largest Superfund sites in the United States.

The Butte-Anaconda Historic District, designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006, is among the largest such districts in the country and preserves much of the city's Victorian and early 20th-century architecture. Butte is also known for its annual Saint Patrick's Day celebrations and the Evel Knievel Days festival, honoring the daredevil who was born in the city in 1938.

Main sights in Butte

References