|
ABOUT BUTTE
Butte got its beginning
in
the late 1800s as a mining town in the valley near Silver Bow Creek. Butte sits high in
the Rocky Mountains near the Continental Divide.
Gold and silver were mined at first, but with the invention of
electricity, copper soon came in demand.
The Butte hills were rich in copper making Butte known as “the
Richest Hill on Earth.”
The
population soared to over a hundred thousand people at one time.
Workers came from many countries including but not limited to Ireland, England, Wales,
Scotland, Finland, Austria, Serbia, Italy, China, Croatia, Montenegro,
Mexico, and Canada, as well as areas all over the United States.
Butte is so rich in its history that people come here just to see
where their ancestors lived so long ago.
Prior to 1881, Butte was part of
Deer Lodge County. For that reason, some Butte records before that time are
housed in the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Courthouse, Anaconda,
Montana. At one time I was told that there may be some
Butte records stored in the Powell County Courthouse or in the W.K.
Kohrs Memorial Library in Deer Lodge, Montana; however, I haven't
been able to verify if this is fact or not.
In 1977, the city of Butte and Silver Bow County combined governments to
form Butte-Silver Bow. In 1980, under the guidance of the Butte
Historical Society, Butte-Silver Bow established the Butte-Silver
Bow Public Archives. All existing records of both bodies have been
gathered and are preserved in the Archives. They are now available for
research.
Also see:
Butte
History and "Lost Butte"
|
If you have a resource for Butte-Silver Bow County
and 
