The World Museum of Mining in Butte, Montana

A Rich Vein of History

People who love history often dig their heads into books to piece together the sequence of events that lead to the present, following all the twists and turns and how each one affects the course of what happens next.

Then there are people who immerse themselves completely, like Michael Kopf. Michael is the director of grounds and guides at the World Museum of Mining in Butte, Montana.

He’s more than a historian; he’s a Butte and mining history fanboy.

Any good historian and guide can build the linear story of how things became the way they are. Michael adds color. Lots of color. And enthusiasm. Spend a day with Michael or any of the other guides at the museum — located on a real mine yard — and you’ll come away learning about a lot more than just mining.

Standing in the shadow of the 100-foot-tall steel headframe of the Orphan Girl Mine, Michael begins tours by explaining the question on everyone’s mind: How in the world did a mine get the name Orphan Girl? “We go back to our first claim in 1875,” Michael explains. “At this time, we sit in what we call the outer camps. So we’re kind of sitting by ourselves out there and they thought of us as an orphan being out there, so they called us the Orphan Girl.” Another aspect of the mine added to its “orphan,” outlier status: “We’re actually a silver mine. Silver didn't make Butte pop back in the day — it was actually copper.”

With that curiosity out of the way, Michael leads visitors on what becomes a walk through the early workings of Montana as a U.S. territory.

“The original claims of Montana go back to the 1860s. At this time, they’re doing what we call placer mining — gold panning. In Butte in the 1860s, we’re originally after gold, because in this time frame, that's what pays the bills.” It didn’t take long for that to, as they say, pan out, and by the mid-1860s, the money was gone and so were the prospectors. Butte went from a population of about 1,500 to 75 virtually overnight.

Prosperity followed the gold at that point. When gold was discovered in Bannack in 1862, the town became the first territorial capital of Montana. A few years later, Bannack panned out, gold was found in Virginia City and everyone followed. Lo and behold, Virginia City became the second territorial capital of Montana.

Meanwhile, in Butte, “we’re panning for gold and finding both silver and copper. Butte doesn't have a use for copper in this time frame yet. So, what did they do with it? They made pots, pans and Christmas ornaments,” Michael says. “That's it!”

“You get into the 1870s, that's where silver starts to pick up, drawing people back into the region,” he continues. “And then copper itself makes its turnaround in 1879 because of its use in a couple exciting new inventions — electricity and the telegraph.”

It was the moment Butte had been poised for and this time the boom was for real. As with any significant boom, it also brought with it some serious players. Enter the Copper Kings: Marcus Daly, William Clark and Augustus Heinze. Their battle for dominance and thirst for wealth shaped Butte every bit as much as the wind and water that sculpted the surrounding hills for thousands of years.

In fact, Butte became the first town west of the Mississippi to be fully electrified.

Empires were forged. Railroads built. The mining of copper grew and grew, reaching a crescendo with the onset of World War I, as copper is a vital element of munitions.

Unfortunately, the opportunity also came with a serious problem. All the young, able bodies were drafted for the war effort, leaving no one to work the mines. Realizing the situation, the government devised a solution — any soldier still in the country with mining experience was offered an honorable discharge and sent to Butte.

As Michael waxes on about the Copper Kings and their deep influence on not just Butte, but Montana as whole, it becomes clear that as much as the land seems to dominate the narrative,

it’s the people who are the story.

There are, of course, the larger-than-life Copper Kings who’ve etched their names in the history books, but there are so many more. In the early 1900s heyday of mining in Butte, “we spoke anywhere from 34 to 50 some-odd different languages here,” Michael says.

"We had people from literally all over the world coming to Butte to work."

When you hear people refer to it as “Butte, America,” it could easily be a reference to its reflection of the entire country’s melting pot reality. That diversity is what makes Butte one of the most interesting communities in all of Montana.

Naturally, it also came with a little friction at times. Just ask Michael about the rivalry between Daly, who was Irish, and Clark, an Englishman. “Think about how far back that feud has always gone,” he points out. The two competed for control of Butte copper and also backed different cities to be the capital as Montana gained statehood — Daly pushed for Anaconda while Clark lobbied for Helena. Michael adds,

"When you were underground, there was no fighting, but when you got up on the surface, it was a different story."

While Daly and Clark had their rivalry, the many people who came to Butte from all over the world to work in their mines banded together seeking better working conditions. Despite their different cultural backgrounds, they found solidarity in their cause. The Butte Miners’ Union, the first union in Butte, was formed in 1878, leading a surge of unionization that saw the community become one of the centers of the U.S. labor movement.

Today in Butte, mining is still alive and strong.

“They say there’s still more than 100 years left of copper mining underneath the Butte District,” Michael notes. Buttians still work hard and take great pride in what they do. And they continue to take care of each other — the camaraderie that stems from the shared experience of enduring tough conditions is a bond that carries through to today. And just like in the heyday, when every miner’s first round at the local watering hole after a day’s work was covered by the company, the streets are lively and people like to have fun.

The World Museum of Mining is thriving as well. Stop by and Michael Kopf will be happy to tell you so. Colorfully, of course.