Our journey from Yellowstone to Butte took us on Route 2 that meandered through the pass along a rather narrow road. It was fun to watch as the road, the railroad and the river all cut the same path!

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We always try to go to the local markets when we can and this was no exception. It's always interesting to see what the local crafters are making and what the farmers from the area are growing. Since we were having stir-fry for dinner, we bought a kohlrabi - a veggie we had never tried before. The entertainer at the market played the guitar and used an old suitcase as a drum and three license plates with a spring in the middle as a cymbal!

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The Dumas is an historic American brothel built during the Victorian era in 1890. It had 42 rooms, each with a distinct layout and purpose. Rooms ranged from posh suites and grand parlors, to bare-bone "cribs" - tiny rooms with space only for a bed and scarce amenities. Clandestine tunnels connected the Red-Light district to Butte's business corridor allowing clients & working girls to escape the area in the event of a police raid.

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The Dumas is the last vestige of Butte's Red-Light district, closing in 1982, and its authenticity as a true 19th century brothel is unmatched anywhere in the US. The rooms on the top floor were for the madam and girls who brought in the most money. The underground and alley cribs were sealed off in 1943 and remained closed until the mid 1990's. This area was for those girls who were just starting out and were far from lavish. In the 1970's, the Dumas was listed on the National Register of Historic Places where it remains today as an active "bordello".

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Dotting the landscape of the Butte Hill are 14 tall, black, steel structures. Interchangeably called gallows frames, gallus frames or headframes, these mark the remnants of mines that once honey-combed the Butte hills. Cables from a hoist house passed over sheave wheels at the top of the frame, lowering miners to their work, transporting mules, equipment and supplies down shaft and bring up load after load of ore. They stand as monuments to a time at the turn of the 19th Century when a frontier mining camp grew into one of the most sophisticated cities of the west.

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Were we ever surprised this afternoon when a moose came running through our campsite! Blacktail Creek is on the perimeter of the campground but we're actually right in town. This was one of those times that we were in the right place at the right time.

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Our Lady of the Rockies, a 90-foot statue of the Virgin Mary is a nondenominational tribute to motherhood that sits atop the Continental Divide high above Butte. It took 6-years of work for volunteers to complete this huge project.

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Today's adventure found us aboard the Butte trolley for a guided tour of the city. One of our first stops was the Berkeley Pit. It is a 1,700 foot deep hole in the ground that is nearly 3-miles around. The pit was created over a 30-year period, beginning with work in some of the underground mines after World War II. By the mid-50's, the availability of huge trucks and loaders allowed ore to be mined from the surface. When the mines shut down in 1982, the underground pumps were shut off and the pit slowly filled with acidic water. Eventually, the water will be cleaned at a treatment plant.

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Montana Resources operates an open pit copper and molybdenum mine called the Continental Pit. The operation comprises the Continental mine, crushers and a concentrator facility where tons of raw ore are processed into high-quality metal concentrates.

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This "chateau" was built in 1898 by copper king William A. Clark and given to his eldest son Charles as a wedding present. It was modeled after a French Chateau that Charles had seen on his honeymoon. There are many beautiful mansions still standing in Butte that were built around this same time.

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Butte's historic district contains a large concentration of late 19th and early 20th-century residential and commercial buildings. Located on the edge of Butte's historic Chinatown, the Pekin Noodle Parlor has been in this same location and run by the Wong Family for over 100 years. Entering through a door between two stores, you climb the narrow, creaking stairs to the restaurant on the second floor.

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We were welcomed and escorted along the creaking wood floor to one of their many orange booths, each with a curtain. Once the entree was served, the curtain was closed as has been the tradition for over a century, because the restaurant maintains discretion about who your dining partner is.

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