WORLD MUSEUM OF MINING INC
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Mission Statement
“The mission of the World Museum of Mining is to preserve the rich historical legacy of mining and the related culture of Butte, Montana, and the surrounding region and to promote the significant mining heritage by educating the public with a perspective toward total family interest.”
About This Cause
The museum is located on the site of the original Orphan Girl Mine yard on the northwestern edge of Butte. Visitors coming to the museum pass through the campus of Montana Tech of the University of Montana which serves as a portal dividing the past and the present. The Exchange Club felt it was important the community not lose or forget its past. The economy of Butte was changing, moving from deep underground mining to large-scale open pit mining. This shift meant neighborhoods and underground mines would be swallowed up by the open pit mining leaving no trace of the substantial cultural and historical aspects of the community. The Exchange Club identified the danger of losing resources that interpreted Butte’s and the region’s past. They convinced the Anaconda Mining Company (ACM), who was the holder of the vast mining properties spread throughout the area, to donate to the museum the Orphan Girl mining property for the purpose of establishing a place of preservation for cultural and historical artifacts. The museum was established by volunteers and continued to be supported solely by volunteers as the museum and its extensive artifact and photograph collection continued to build throughout the years. The first professional staff was hired in the early 1990’s. The museum still relies heavily on the support and help from its many volunteers (20+). Today the museum employs an Executive Director, a Collections Manager, an Education Director, two part- time maintenance staff and eight part time seasonal staff (April-October). The museum’s centerpiece is the Orphan Girl Mine yard marked by the 100 foot high head frame, and associated mining buildings and equipment. The museum allows our visitors to do more than just image what it might have been like to work in the veins below the city of Butte by actually experiencing it! Our visitors can climb approximately 75 feet high when they enter Butte’s first publically accessible headframe to learn what happened with the ore once it was hoisted from the ground and they can descend 65 feet below the surface into the 2700 foot deep Orphan Girl Mine on an underground mine tour. When taking the underground mine tour visitors are fitted with miner’s hard hats, cap lamps and battery belts and are guided underground hearing stories and seeing equipment work along the way. The museum is home to an extensive collection of mining equipment and objects which detail the history of hard rock mining. This collection holds many unique and one of a kind pieces. At the base of the Orphan Girl Mine sits Hell Roarin’ Gulch, a replicated turn of the century mining town containing some original structures from Butte neighborhoods which were slated for destruction as the open pit mining expanded in Butte. Contained within the buildings throughout Hell Roarin’ Gulch are historical and cultural artifacts representing the history of Butte and surrounding region. Each year the museum makes advances in efforts to improve the preservation and conservation of these buildings and the artifacts contained within them. The museum is home to an extensive photograph archives collection. The collection contains over 22,000 photographs, negatives, and glass plate negatives. These photographs display everything from interior shots of the underground mines and equipment to historic buildings and events in the area, as well as photographs of the famous and everyday people who lived and visited Butte. The Miners Memorial Wall and Remembering Garden is a granite memorial that pays tribute to over 2,500 men that lost their lives in mining, smelting, railroad and concentrator accidents in Butte-Silver Bow. The museum has two additional collections; the Samie Keith Dollhouse and Doll Exhibit and a large mineral collection which compliments that on display at the Mineral Museum located on the Montana Tech Campus. The filmmaking and publishing industries, researchers and scholars, and thousands of people wishing to know more about the history of Butte have discovered the wealth of resources available at the World Museum of Mining. In addition to the tourists who visit the museum, each year schools and children’s groups from throughout Montana visit the museum on their annual field trip. The museum has visitors from throughout Montana, the entire United States, and foreign countries as well. The museum continues to develop and improve its educational, cultural and historic programs.