Submenu Heading
History – Timeline
The environmental quagmire that has engulfed Butte, Anaconda and the Clark Fork watershed all the way to Missoula is the result of more than 100 years of unrestrained mining. It began with the first gold strike along Silver Bow Creek in 1864.
Butte’s mining focus shifter to silver in the 1870s, and then went ballistic with a mother lode of copper ore that earned Butte its moniker: The Richest Hill on Earth.