World Museum of Mining, Butte, MT

If you ever find yourself in Butte, MT on a cold Saturday in August, we highly recommend spending 3 or 4 hours at the World Museum of Mining. 

The funniest thing about the museum (at least to me) is that it really has very little to do with the actual process of mining, but focuses more on the culture of the lives of the miners and their families at the time Butte, MT was booming, when it was the richest hill on earth. 

There's an entire town, three streets worth, of stores, businesses, houses, church, school....you can walk up and down the streets peering into the windows like 21st century peeping toms. 

When you weary of that, there's a tour UNDER ground through mine shafts and everything.

(I can't tell you anything about that, because I'm desperately claustrophobic, but Angus and the Farmer went and had a thrilling two hour tour.)

Meanwhile, Maggie and I started to panic when they hadn't arrived at the surface when they were supposed to and we'd been reading about mining disasters in which 167 men died, say. It wasn't the best choice of historical lore to choose at that particular moment. When they finally DID emerge, 30 minutes late, Maggie hugged her brother in front of everyone. With no embarrassment or anything.

Here are some random pictures that don't represent the museum very well, but they're kind of the interesting things to my eye.

Angus wanted to bring the armored car home with us. It even had a bullet hole in the window and everything! We're assuming it was from some desperate, greasy criminals trying to hold up the bank, but it might have been from kids target practicing before the car was given to the museum.

In the chapel of the church....

This was NOT in the chapel of the church...

And this was just sort of creepy.

I would not want to be at the museum as a night watchman. 

*shivers*

I loved that this tool had the information "engraved" on it. 

Truly, since it was a cold morning, we had the place mostly to ourselves which lent to the ghost town effect. 

Itty bitty little train station set up for the kids! 

Oh, LOOK! Rocks!  At last!

There was a dark, musty room for the phosphorescent rocks that the kids loved, but I couldn't photograph. 

So, basically, Butte is set up on a honeycomb of tunnels and shafts.  There's really not a lot of actual land holding the town up; it's mostly timbers and air and prayers from what I can tell.  This was immensely interesting to the other members of my family, but I had a hard time thinking about that.
Also, most of the water running through the honeycomb of shafts and tunnels is poisonous from all the things like arsenic and lead leaching into it.  It's a cool place to visit, but don't spend too much time thinking about the whole mess.

There's a good museum at the college of technology right across the road, I hear, and I believe it probably has more information about the actual minerals and process of mining. 

We ended up skipping that, saving it for next time. 

One last thing...

If you're in Butte, MT and find yourself perishing of hunger, our family insists you try this little Greek shack of a restaurant:

It goes by the corny name of "It's Greek to Me" but it has the very best gyros I've tasted in my life. For $8, you can get a massive gyro, a generous pile of crispy fries, and a large drink. 

Atmosphere included. 

Honestly, you'll feel about as local as can be, and you won't need to worry about whether or not the kids are using their best manners. (Although they will, because they'll be knee-deep in their fries, too happy to misbehave.)

There are about 10 tables, one overworked waitress/cook/student, 6 menu choices, and cheesy posters from the 1980s.

We love dives, and this one is our current favorite.

Try it!