Butte is a weird place. If you’ve ever driven through Southwest Montana, you’ve seen the steel skeletons—the gallows frames—looming over the city like giant, rusted sentinels. They aren't just relics. They are the bones of a city that once powered the entire world. Among these giants, the Mountain Con Mine stands out, not just because it’s tall, but because it was the deepest, hottest, and arguably the most legendary hole in the ground in the history of American mining.
People call Butte "The Richest Hill on Earth." That's not marketing fluff. In its heyday, this single hill produced massive percentages of the world's copper. And the Mountain Con—officially the Mountain Consolidated—was the undisputed king of depth here.
Walking up to the site today, you get this eerie sense of scale. The headframe is huge. It’s 129 feet of riveted steel. When you stand at the base and look up, you’re looking at a machine that used to drop men thousands of feet into the dark every single day. It wasn't just a job; it was a feat of engineering that pushed the limits of what humans could endure.
Going Deep: The Reality of the Mountain Con Mine Butte MT
The "Con" went deep. Really deep. We’re talking about a shaft that eventually reached 5,291 feet. To put that in perspective, if you stood at the bottom, you’d be nearly a mile underground. Think about the pressure. Think about the heat.
Geology is a brutal landlord. For every 100 feet you descend into the earth, the temperature rises. In the Mountain Con Mine Butte MT, the rock temperature at the lowest levels could hit 120 degrees Fahrenheit or more. Humidity was pegged at 100 percent. Miners used to work in nothing but boots and loincloths, literally soaking their clothes in ice water just to survive a shift. They called it "hot mining." It wasn't just uncomfortable; it was a lethal environment where your heart rate would spike just sitting still.
The Mechanics of the Deep
How do you get thousands of men and tons of rock in and out of a mile-deep hole? You need a massive hoist. The Mountain Con featured one of the most powerful hoist engines ever built. It could move the "cages" (the elevators for miners) at speeds that would make a modern skyscraper elevator feel like a crawl.
Old-timers will tell you stories about the "ride." It was a stomach-churning drop into total darkness, lit only by the flickering lamps on their helmets. If the hoist operator made a mistake, even a small one, it was over. There’s a specific kind of trust that develops between a miner and the man at the controls of the hoist. It’s a silent pact.
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The Copper King Era and the Anaconda Company
You can't talk about the Mountain Con without talking about the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. They owned the hill. They basically owned the state of Montana for a while. The Con was one of their "high-grade" producers. This wasn't just dirt; it was rich, veins of copper ore that fueled the electrification of America.
Every wire in Every house in Chicago or New York in the early 1900s probably had a bit of Butte in it.
- The mine opened in the 1870s, originally as a silver claim.
- By the late 1880s, copper became the real prize.
- It operated for nearly a century before the pumps were finally turned off in 1975.
When the pumps stopped, the mine died. Deep mining requires constant, aggressive water removal. The earth wants to reclaim its space, and in Butte, that meant the shafts filled with highly acidic water. This eventually led to the creation of the Berkeley Pit nearby, but the Mountain Con remains a "dry" monument above the waterline of the underground flood.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Headframe
A lot of tourists see the "Mountain Con" sign on the headframe and think that's the whole story. But that steel structure you see now isn't the original. The first headframes were made of wood. They burned. They rotted. They collapsed. The current steel frame was erected in the 1920s to handle the increased weight of the deeper pulls.
Also, it’s not just a tower. It’s a pulley system. The wheels at the top—the sheave wheels—are what actually guided the cables. If you look closely at the Mountain Con today, you can see the precision. Even after decades of Montana winters, that steel holds firm. It’s a testament to the laborers who riveted those beams while hanging hundreds of feet in the air.
The Human Cost of the Con
Honestly, it wasn't all glory and copper. Butte has a dark history. The Mountain Con saw its share of "widow-makers." Mining was, and is, dangerous. Between rock bursts—where the pressure of the earth causes the walls to literally explode—and accidents with the heavy machinery, many men never came back up the Con's shaft.
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There is a specific pride in Butte families who have "Con" miners in their lineage. It’s a badge of toughness. You weren't just a miner; you were a deep-level miner. You handled the heat. You handled the depth.
Life on the Surface
The neighborhood around the mine was once a bustling, noisy, smoky place. Mining wasn't a 9-to-5; it was a 24/7 operation. The whistles from the Mountain Con dictated the rhythm of the town. When the whistle blew at an odd hour, the whole city went silent, wondering if there had been an accident.
Today, that neighborhood is much quieter. The city has done a decent job of turning the area around the Con into a park. You can actually walk the "Foremen's Trail" and see the foundations of the old buildings. It's a weird contrast—green grass and jogging paths right next to a shaft that leads to a mile of dark, flooded history.
Why You Should Visit the Mountain Con Today
If you're into industrial history, the Mountain Con Mine Butte MT is a bucket-list spot. It’s managed by the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives and the local parks department. Unlike some historical sites that are fenced off and sanitized, the Con feels raw.
You can stand right under the headframe. The wind whistles through the steel beams, and if you're quiet, you can almost hear the ghost of the hoist engine.
- The Views: Since it's located high on the hill, the Mountain Con offers the best panoramic view of Butte. You can see the Highlands to the south and the massive sprawl of the Berkeley Pit to the east.
- The Interpretive Signs: They actually explain the geology. You'll learn about the "Butte Quartz Monzonite" and how the veins formed millions of years ago.
- The Scale: You don't realize how big a mile is until you see the machine required to reach it.
Practical Tips for the Trip
The site is free. That's the best part. You can just drive up. But be warned—the weather in Butte changes in a heartbeat. You’re at a high elevation. Even in July, a cold wind can whip off the Continental Divide and make you wish you had a jacket.
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Also, don't just look at the Con. Follow the Granite Mountain Memorial road just a bit further up. It commemorates the 1917 fire, which was the worst hard-rock mining disaster in U.S. history. It puts the danger of the Mountain Con into a very sobering perspective.
The Future of the Richest Hill
There's always talk about mining returning to Butte in a bigger way. Currently, Montana Resources operates an open-pit mine nearby, but the days of deep-shaft mining at the Con are likely over. The cost of pumping out the water and the sheer danger of the old, unstable tunnels make it a logistical nightmare.
Instead, the Mountain Con has found a new life as a symbol of resilience. It’s a landmark. Pilots use it for navigation. Locals use it as a meeting spot. It’s basically the Eiffel Tower of Montana, if the Eiffel Tower was built to haul rocks and sweat out of the earth.
Butte is currently undergoing a massive Superfund cleanup, and places like the Mountain Con are being preserved as "islands of history" amidst the environmental restoration. It's a tricky balance. How do you honor a history that was both economically vital and environmentally devastating? The Con is the centerpiece of that conversation.
Actionable Steps for Exploring Butte Mining History
If you want to actually understand what happened at the Mountain Con, don't just read the plaque. Start at the World Museum of Mining, which is just a few minutes away. They have an actual underground tour (though not in the Con itself) that gives you a taste of the cramped, dark reality of the job.
Next, head to the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives. They have the actual payroll records and maps from the Anaconda Company. You can look up specific miners. If you had family in Butte, there’s a good chance their name is in a ledger somewhere in that building.
Finally, walk the Copperway Trail. It’s a system of paths that connects the various headframes across the hill. Walking from the Anselmo to the Mountain Con gives you a physical sense of the distance and the sheer density of the mining operations. It wasn't just one mine; it was a subterranean city.
You’ve got to respect a place like the Mountain Con. It’s not pretty in a traditional sense. It’s scarred, rusty, and silent. But it’s real. It represents a time when men went into the earth to build the modern world, and that’s worth the climb up the hill.