Butte–Anaconda Historic District

	Butte–Anaconda Historic District
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	U.S. National Historic Landmark District
Location	Walkerville, Butte and Anaconda, Montana
Area	15.2 square miles (39 km²)
Built	1864
NRHP reference No.	66000438
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966 (original); 2006 (expansion)
Designated NHLD	July 4, 1961

The Butte–Anaconda Historic District is a National Historic Landmark (NHL) that spans parts of Walkerville, Butte and Anaconda, Montana, United States. It has the most resources of any U.S. National Historic Landmark District.

It was declared an NHL in 1961, when it focused only on Butte.^[2]

In 2006, the district was expanded significantly to include parts of Walkerville and Anaconda, as well as the bed of the Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railroad. The expanded district covers 9,774 acres (39 km²) with nearly 6,000 contributing properties of historic significance.^[3]^[4]

New York's Adirondack Park and Alaska's Cape Krusenstern Archeological District are much larger by area, but may contain fewer contributing elements.^[3]

Significance

The district's national significance relates to its long history of copper production as well as to its role in the development of the labor union movement in the United States. As the source of nearly one-third of all the world's copper in the early 1900s,^[5] Butte's mines provided one of the metals that were critical to American industrialization.

Walkerville represents some of the earliest mines in the district and preserves the early mining camp flavor present in the 1890s to 1910s. Butte itself is an urban metropolis where industrial relics such as mine yards and head frames are juxtaposed with a wide variety of residential and business structures. Anaconda was created as a company town that contained the smelters for Butte's ore. The Butte Anaconda and Pacific Railroad, connecting Butte and Anaconda, is a designated part of the expanded National Historic Landmark District.^[2]

Known as the "Gibraltar of Unionism", Butte saw the early development of a mine worker's union in 1878. The Butte union's members were at the forefront of creating the Western Federation of Miners as well as the Industrial Workers of the World and later the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). Labor strife in Butte from 1914 to 1920 served as a model for corporate and union activities across the nation.^[6] Important factors in this labor history include the murder of Frank Little and the Anaconda Road Massacre. Events in Butte shaped the attitudes of politicians, including Burton K. Wheeler, long-time U.S. senator from Montana.

References

^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Butte-Anaconda Historic District". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on March 28, 2009. Retrieved October 13, 2007.
^ ^a ^b Roberta Forsell Stauffer (April 27, 2007). "Interior secretary approves district expansion". Newspaper article on expansion of National Historic Landmark Butte-Anaconda Historic District. The Montana Standard (newspaper). Retrieved November 1, 2007.
^ Derek Strahn; Chere Jiusto; Ellen Grain (January 2006). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Butte-Anaconda Historic District (revised documentation)". National Park Service. Retrieved April 25, 2018. With accompanying 112 photos from 2003-05
^ Walter H. Weed, 1908, The Copper Mines of the World, Hill Publishing Co., p. 321
^ Jerry W. Calvert, 1988, The Gibraltar: Socialism and Labor in Butte, Montana, 1895-1920, Montana Historical Society Press

Photo of the General view of Butte, 2003

46°00′N 112°36′W / 46.000°N 112.600°W / 46.000; -112.600

External links

Media related to Butte–Anaconda Historic District at Wikimedia Commons
Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. MT-35, "Butte Historic District, Bounded by Copper, Arizona, Mercury & Continental Streets, Butte, Silver Bow County, MT", 80 photos, 6 color transparencies, 7 data pages, 9 photo caption pages

[nris-1] "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.

[nhlsum-2] "Butte-Anaconda Historic District". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on March 28, 2009. Retrieved October 13, 2007.

[expansion-3] Roberta Forsell Stauffer (April 27, 2007). "Interior secretary approves district expansion". Newspaper article on expansion of National Historic Landmark Butte-Anaconda Historic District. The Montana Standard (newspaper). Retrieved November 1, 2007.

[nrhpdoc-Butte-4] Derek Strahn; Chere Jiusto; Ellen Grain (January 2006). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Butte-Anaconda Historic District (revised documentation)". National Park Service. Retrieved April 25, 2018. With accompanying 112 photos from 2003-05

[5] Walter H. Weed, 1908, The Copper Mines of the World, Hill Publishing Co., p. 321

[6] Jerry W. Calvert, 1988, The Gibraltar: Socialism and Labor in Butte, Montana, 1895-1920, Montana Historical Society Press

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

v t e U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Topics	Architectural style categories Contributing property Historic district History of the National Register of Historic Places Keeper of the Register National Park Service Property types
Lists by state	List of U.S. National Historic Landmarks by state: Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
Lists by insular areas	American Samoa Guam Minor Outlying Islands Northern Mariana Islands Puerto Rico Virgin Islands
Lists by associated state	Federated States of Micronesia Marshall Islands Palau
Other areas	District of Columbia American Legation, Morocco
Related	National Historic Preservation Act Historic Preservation Fund List of jails and prisons on the National Register of Historic Places University and college buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places portal Category

Significance

See also

References

External links