Chasing the Minerals

Chasing the Minerals. . , The Boulder Batholith , Butte is underlain by the granite rock of the Boulder Batholith. The batholith, which extends from the Highland Mountains south of Butte, north to Helena, was originally an underground molten mass that solidified about 70 million years ago. As the cooling rock fractured, hot solutions would seep into the resulting cracks, depositing minerals to form deep veins. The ore minerals are arranged in zones. The central zone is copper rich. The intermediate area has decreasing copper and increasing quantities of lead and zinc. In the outer zone, silver and manganese predominate. Within 20-30 million years, erosion had exposed the batholith, which was then covered by volcanic rocks. Montana Tech sits on remnants of this volcanism. Subsequent erosion and faulting exposed the mineralized veins and left Butte ripe for mining development. , The Mineral Museum , The Mineral Museum is a tribute to Butte's mineral wealth. It's located in the Art Deco style museum building on the campus of Montana Tech of the University of Montana. The museum opened in 1902 just six months after the first students were enrolled in the Montana School of Mines. From a teaching collection of 177 specimens, the mineral collection has grown to over 13,000 fine quality minerals collected from Butte and worldwide localities. , The museum is open year round and well worth the climb. , “This is what is called the School of Mines curve. You can see the work the WPA did just ahead of us here, in digging that bank out to make the road wide enough to move the track out so they could enlarge Leonard Field to a standard size field. Here to the left you can see the rockwork wall on Leonard Field , the Bean Bowl” , , Kevin Shannon, switchman B.A. and P. Ry., retired., “The ‘Bean Bowl’ got its name because the young people working laying the stone, and building the stairs were often paid in sacks of beans. See all these trees up above. The trees come out of Brown's Gulch; they were dug up near our ranch.” , , Kevin Shannon, switchman B.A. and P. Ry., retired., “And at one time there was a hockey rink here. Everybody used to skate here, they had two rinks, one that was surrounded with a fence that was a hockey rink and then they had another one.” , , Leno Bazzanella, engineer B.A. and P. Ry., retired.