Inside Pilot Butte: Rare Tour Highlights Historic Mine’s Role in Local Present-Day Superfund Cleanup

The wooden headframe at the historic Pilot Butte Mine in Butte on Thursday. MEGAN NIELSEN, Montana Standard

Headframes towered overhead. Fragments from Butte’s once-booming mining industry looked like little more than abandoned campfires strewn across the wasteland of Berkeley Pit overburden. More than 100 people joined for the rare chance to journey down to the historic Pilot Butte Mine on Thursday evening. The tour, hosted by the Citizens Technical Environmental Committee, was the final of three field presentations this summer visiting Superfund-related sites in Butte.

The Pilot Butte Mine was owned by Copper King William Clark for a short time in 1906, according to CTEC. Its shaft reached a depth of 2,900 feet and connected to the Elm Orlu, Black Rock and Badger State mines. Lead, zinc, copper and silver were mined at the Pilot Butte before it became a part of the mine ventilation system. According to CTEC, it’s the last remaining example in Butte of an air plenum — a mode of ventilating a mine by forcing fresh air into it.

Attendees got to see the Pilot Butte Mine’s wooden headframe, its squirrel cage fan and other structures that were a part of the mine yard.

Part of CTEC’s mission is to empower members of the community to engage effectively in cleanup decisions by enhancing the public’s understanding of local Superfund issues. The Pilot Butte plays a role in managing the Butte Mine Flooding Operable Unit, one of seven operable units in the Silver Bow Creek — Butte Area Superfund Site. Water level elevation, measured monthly in the Pilot Butte Mine shaft, is the key point-of-compliance for water levels in the Berkeley Pit and 10,000 miles of flooded underground mine workings.

A legal agreement requires water levels be maintained below the protective water level of 5,410 feet above sea level. The water level in the Pilot Butte is 25 feet higher than the Berkeley Pit waterbody. The rugged one-mile walk offered views of the Diamond, Granite Mountain and Badger State headframes. The Granite Mountain-Speculator Mine disaster, which began at the Granite Mountain Mine, killed an estimated 166 miners on June 8, 1917 — the worst work-related tragedy in Butte’s history.

In the early 2000s, the Granite Mountain and Pilot Butte mines, along with the surrounding Berkeley Pit waste rock dumps, were transferred out of Montana Resources’ mine permit area and incorporated into the Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit boundary as a permanently preserved mining viewshed. As an important aspect of the Superfund program, the Environmental Protection Agency must consider preserving historic features when weighing cleanup options.

The site of the historic Badger State Mine is currently part of a mining exploration project by Silver Bow Mining.

Megan Nielsen is a photographer for the Montana Standard newspaper.

This article was originally photographed and written by Megan Neilsen and published in the Montana Standard on Sept 22, 2026 and was repurposed with permission on October 2, 2026. The original article can be found at the following link https://mtstandard.com/news/local/article_c7ff6dbe-05c8-48d3-b586-bb7a3486fc37.html. Megan is a photojournalist and staff photographer for the Montana Standard. Learn more about Megan and view her work at meganbeth.smugmug.com.