As a native Montanan, I have visited Butte many times, for many different reasons. However, until I had kids I had never went there on vacation. So we made the short trek from Bozeman, over the hill to Butte.
Butte may not seem like a popular vacation destination, but believe me when I say, there are lots to do in Butte, especially with kids. If you are looking for fun, there is plenty to do. If you are looking for an history lesson, there is a lot to learn. Butte is rich in history and it’s very interesting to learn about it. Even my 6 year old left saying he was interested in history now.
If you want a brief history of Butte, I will cover that a little later in the post, but I want to start with the fun stuff (not that a history lesson is not fun).
Since we were only going for the weekend, we wanted to cram as much in as we possibly could. So right when we got to town, before checking in to our hotel, we headed up toward the college, where the World Museum of Mining is located. It’s fun to drive up the hill on Park St. towards Montana Tech. It’s a street filled with old buildings and houses, some that are still inhabited, some that are now new businesses, and sadly many that are vacant. If all else fails, drive around Butte. Awesome architecture! There will be a beautiful Victorian style mansion next to some quaint little house.
After spending the afternoon at the museum, we checked into the hotel, then went and had some dinner. When it started to get dark, we took a short drive out of town to the drive-in. Yes, you read that right! Where can you find a drive-in anymore? Butte! (I believe Billings has one too though). The next day, we spent the day at the water park and visited the Mineral Museum at the college. Then the day we were heading out of town, we visited the Berkley Pit and the Granite Mountain-Speculator Mine Memorial. I will give a little background on both of those at the end of the post.
World Museum of Mining
This is a 22 acre re-creation of an 1890’s mining town. It has 35 buildings, 66 major exhibits complete with a 100 foot tall mining headframe and hoist house. The museum is mostly outside and mostly self toured. They do offer guided tours of the underground mines. We did not go on those tours, so I can not elaborate on those, but heard they were very cool! Since it is mostly outdoors, it is closed for the winter season (this is Montana after all).
You will feel like you were transported back into the 1890’s with the detail on these buildings, many of which you are able to see the inside of. If you are not interested in history, you will be after this! Fascinating. My kids loved it! They couldn’t get over the differences on how we live now compared to the accommodations they had “back in the day”.
For more information on hours, pricing, tour info and general info their website is: miningmuseum.org.
Silver Bow Twin Drive-In
Need I say more? It’s a Drive-In! Soooo fun! We went to the drive-in in Bozeman when I was little and I have fond memories of my mom making a big bed in the back of our suburban and us kids hanging out waiting for the movie to start, then falling asleep half way through. I want the same awesome memories for my kids. So we did just that. I brought all their blankets and pillows from home and made them a comfy bed in the back of our car. I also brought some lawn chairs for us to sit in. The movie options when we went were Hotel Transylvania on one side and Rampage on the other. So, of course we chose the kid movie. We had fun and…..the kids stayed awake for the whole thing!
Once again, they are not open in the winter months. For their info: silverbowdrivein.com
Ridge Waters Water Park
So the next day (which had happened to be my birthday-whoop whoop), we took the kids to the water park. They had a blast. Ok, we all had a blast. There was a small park within the park for the little ones. That’s where Ellis spent most of her time. Liam, of course wanted to venture up the big slides, and while I am an overprotective parent at times, my husband is an overly overprotective parent. So, at first we decided Liam was still a little small and not a strong enough of a swimmer for that. (We had let him go down the waterslide in Billings over Spring Break, but I was on the tube with him). After watching a few kids that were much littler than him come down with no problem, we decide to let him. I walked up the tall set of stairs with him and raced down to make sure that if I need to jump in and heroically save him our 4 1/2 foot son from the 3 1/2 foot pool, I was able to. He came down screaming. He loved it! He plopped into the water and went under (as I am precariously perched on the edge of the pool ready to jump in), he popped back out with a huge grin on his face. He went down both tubes about 7 times each after that.
Soon we all found the lazy river and that was totally my jam. I mean “lazy” and “river”? Yes please!!! The kids loved it too. They used tubes for awhile, then just kinda floated down in just life jackets after that. A day of fun!!
Of course it’s not open in the winter months! Their info: co.silverbow.mt
we all started out in the kiddie pool 
lots of fun for the littler ones 
not quite deep enough for Liam 
Ellis spent most of her time in this pool 
Liam LOVED the slides 
found our happy spot- the lazy river
Berkeley Pit
This is a former open pit copper mine. Originally opened in 1955 to mine copper, it is about one mile long and half a mile wide. It closed in 1982 and begin filling up with ground water. The pit water is heavily acidic due to heavy metals and dangerous chemicals. Don’t worry, you can’t get near the water. The viewing deck is high above the impressive hole. It really is cool to look at! They have info you can read on the viewing deck as well as tour guides that answer questions and tell you cool facts about the pit and surrounding mines. There is an alarm that goes off periodically so that wildlife will stay away from the deadly water. There is a gift shop on site that is full of local tourist treasures.
long tunnel to the pit 
pit picture 
pit selfie 
pit viewing area
The Granite Mountain-Speculator Fire Memorial
This memorial is dedicated to the 168 miners that lost their lives in Butte’s biggest mining disaster. In June of 1917, 410 men began their night time shift in the Granit Mountain Shaft.. Another crew of workers had been working on a sprinkler system set in place to protect from fire. A cable slipped and fell below coiling into a pile on the ground. The lead covering was torn away from the cable, exposing oiled paraffin paper. Later, as more men went down to check the damage, one of them accidently touched the paper with a lamp. A fire broke out and 168 men were killed. There is much more to this disaster than I am telling here. There is story of loss, rescue heroism, and more heartbreaking stories. This monument not only names the lives lost, but tells stories of their lives and loves ones they left behind. You can read their stories and listened to their tales at this monument. We actually spent quiet a bit of time here. It is breathtaking and heartbreaking all at the same time. If you are in Butte, I highly recommend visiting this monument. We almost didn’t, so glad we did. Also you get another view of the Berkeley Pit. For more info, and were I got a lot of these facts visit minememorial.org
International flags from all the miners home lands 
viewing Berkeley Pit
So I have covered a little history of Butte, but here’s a little more. Butte, located in southwestern Montana, started out in the early 1860’s as a series of mining camps, mostly mining silver and gold. Soon it was discovered that copper was also in abundance. Once copper was discovered, the town of Butte was changed forever. People from all over the world flocked to Butte to get a piece of the action. At one point in time, it was the largest city between Chicago and San Francisco. Immigrants came from Eastern Europe, Ireland, Wales, Germany, China, and many more. This also brought in new businesses to town. There were now brothels, breweries, laundry mats, ethnic restaurants and many more new ventures popping up that gave this town the reputation that anything was possible -good and bad. The boom continued, which sparked a lot of action in this once tiny and quiet town.
The demand for copper caught the attention of three men that wanted to capitalized on the opportunity. The three Copper Kings, William Clark, Marcus Daly and Fritz Augustus Heinze fought for control over the mining business. One of them, Clark constructed the Copper King Mansion, which still today is an extremely impressive mansion. He also constructed Columbia Gardens, a once flourishing amusement park complete with a roller coaster.
Side note–My mom, who lived in Butte in her childhood has often told me stories about how she and her siblings would spend days at the amusement park. Sadly,it no longer exists.
In 1900, Butte opened its first higher learning institution. It was called the Montana School of Mines, which is now Montana Tech. In, the late 1940s, Butte began its open mining pit era. Butte, has gone through many transitions through out the years and while it is not the booming mining town it once was, it still have that fantastic history and culture brought from the immigrants that once inhabited this cool town. You can see that it in the architecture, the food, and the people who live here. Butte is still an active mining town, but is now on the path of preservation.
I can not recommend visiting this town enough. We only scratched the surface of this lovely little town. Before you visit, research it’s history so you know what to expect and what you want to visit while you are there. Visit the Our Lady of the Rockies! It is a 90 foot statue of a woman constructed high above the town. You can see it from town and is lit up at night. We did not go see it and wished we would have!! Next time!
For more info buttechambersite.org and co.silverbow.mt for all the details and sites to visit. This were I got most of my information.
