Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana
Anselmo Mine Yard map
Anselmo Mine Yard map

The Butte-Anaconda National Historic Landmark is a historic district that spans parts of Walkerville, Butte and Anaconda, Montana. It has the most resources of any U.S. National Historic Landmark District.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961, when it focused only on Butte.

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 kmĀ²) with nearly 6,000 contributing resources of historic significance.


On July 31, 1997 I visited the Anselmo Mine Yard where the mine and surface structures are now owned by Butte-Silver Bow County, which is working toward making the mine part of a Regional Heritage Park.

It is open to the public complete with a free guided tour.

The Anselmo Mine operated from 1887 to 1959, and is 4,301 feet deep.

The mineyard is the most intact of any in Butte, and includes the main hoist engine room, an auxiliary (chippy) hoist building (with a lamp room in the lower level), carpenter shop, timekeeper's offices, hose house, the dry, and a warehouse in addition to the headframe with its tipple and two idler towers.

The compressed air tank also survives. Inside, tools and other artifacts are found in place, just as they were when the mine was operating.

The Anselmo was an important lead-zinc mine. It also produced silver and copper.

The present Anselmo headframe came from the Black Rock Mine, and was moved to the Anselmo in 1936.

The Anselmo yard also held a timber yard that supplied lumber for underground timbers to many mines. The Anselmo was where timbers were treated with arsenic to prevent rotting; the main timber mill was west of Butte, at Rocker.

A lengthy strike that shut down most of Butte's mines in 1959 spelled the end of the Anselmo, which did not reopen after that strike.

See also this collection of 1980 HABS/HAER photos of the Anselmo.

My tour group consisted of three related ladies and a man plus myself.

The man had worked in this mine for about two years around 1950 shortly before it closed. He added some interesting information to the tour.

The mine works themselves at all the old mines have been sealed but this mine is the only one with all the head frame and related surface facilities still in place.

There was also some old railroad stuff here including an electric self propelled passenger vehicle that the guide said someone had told her was the only one like it remaining in the world.


Headframe Anselmo Mine, Butte, Montana
Headframe Anselmo Mine, Butte, Montana
Headframe Anselmo Mine, Butte, Montana
Headframe Anselmo Mine, Butte, Montana

Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana
Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana
Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana
Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana

Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana
Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana

Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana
Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana
Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana
Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana
Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana
Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana
Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana
Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana
Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana
Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana
Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana
Anselmo Mine - Butte, Montana