The New International Encyclopædia/Butte (Montana)

BUTTE. A city and county-seat of Silverbow County, Mont., on the western slope of a range of the Rocky Mountains, and on the Oregon Short Line, the Northern Pacific, the Great Northern, and the Montana Union (owned by the Northern Pacific) railroads (Map: Montana, C 2). It has a healthful location at an altitude of 5800 feet, is the seat of the State School of Mines, and contains a fine public fountain, a public library of about 30,000 volumes, a private academy, and, among the more notable buildings, the jail and court-house, the high school, completed at a cost of $125,000, city hall, and opera house. The famous Anaconda Copper and Silver Mine is located here, and within a radius of a few miles are many other productive gold, silver, and copper deposits, the industries of the city centring almost entirely in the mines. In copper, the production of Butte is placed at about one-half of the entire output of the United States, and the amount of gold and silver mined is also considerable, the value of the annual production of these three minerals being estimated at nearly $50,000,000. Besides the mines, there are immense mills and smelting-works. The government is vested in a mayor, biennially elected, and a city council. Butte spends annually in maintenance and operation over $500,000 (including amounts for the school district extending beyond the municipal limits); the principal items of expenditure being about $190,000 for schools, the district, as above stated, comprising more than the city limits, $60,000 for the fire department, $55,000 for the police department, $40,000 for street cleaning and sprinkling, and $20,000 for municipal lighting. Butte was settled in 1864, and laid out in 1866, but its prosperity dates from the successful operations in quartz mining in 1875. It was incorporated first in 1879 by an act of the Territorial Legislature, and in 1888 was reincorporated. In 1881, upon the creation of the county, Butte was chosen the county-seat. Population, in 1870, about 350; in 1880, 3363; in 1890, 10,723; in 1900, 30,470.