We toured Butte today. Very interesting town. Lots of old houses in the central historic district. We visited 3 things on our list. We missed the Brothel Museum. Closed on Saturday I guess.
The Copper King Mansion was great. We had a guided tour of the 38 room mansion by knowledgeable and enthusastic guides. William A Clark (Clark County Nevada where Las Vegas is located is named after him) rose from being a humble teacher in a one room school in Missouri to being the richest or one of the richest men in the world during his time. The mansion in Butte was just one of his houses. I couldn'tbegin to tell you about all the interesting things in the house. The web address is
www.thecopperkingmansion.com. (not
www.copperkingmansion.com as shown on their brochure). Definitely a must see. $7 admission
We also toured a
World Museum of Mining. Lots of old mining equipment and a 'town' with buildings filled with antiques. One of the most interesting was sauerkraut factory. A German immigrant and his wife made tremendous quantities of kraut and shipped it all over in 400 lb barrels. His diary was there and was really interesting to read. We got to pan for gold - found some - in big stock tank. We taught some nice people from Missouri and South Carolina how to pan. Can be missed. $8 admission.
We visited Montana Tech too (school team name: the Diggers) and went through the mineral museum. Lots of great mineral specimens, even Smithsonite. I looked for a ball cap with the Diggers name on it without success. MT is a mining school. Free.
Finally we stopped at a memorial to miners killed in a mine fire. 37 miners were killed and over 160 were missing. All due to a careless accident. It devastated the town of Butte at the time. Some of the miners wrote their last words knowing they were going to die on scraps of paper that were later found. Horrible. Free. Should be seen.
We had lunch at Gamers, a local restaurant. Karen had a chicken, ham and swiss cheese sandwich and I had a
Cornish Pasty with gravy. Good stuff. They only make 2o of them a day and they are usually sold out early. Our waitress looked like she could have been a linebacker for the Diggers but she was a peach of a person and a great waitress with a great sense of humor. Great place to eat. Downtown historic district.
Finally we stopped at a memorial to miners killed in a mine fire. 37 miners were killed and over 160 were missing. All due to a careless accident. It devastated the town of Butte at the time. Some of the miners wrote their last words knowing they were going to die on scraps of paper that were later found. Horrible. Free. Should be seen.
We had lunch at Gamers, a local restaurant. Karen had a chicken, ham and swiss cheese sandwich and I had a Cornish Pasty with gravy. Good stuff. They only make 2o of them a day and they are usually sold out early. Our waitress looked like she could have been a linebacker for the Diggers but she was a peach of a person and a great waitress with a great sense of humor. Great place to eat. Downtown historic district.
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