Distinctly Montana Magazine

38 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R 2 0 2 3 tors can still find information about Butte's historic district. And links to the app are prominently displayed on the home page of the Butte-Silver Bow local government website. We see these as signs that the community is finding Story of Butte useful and wants to share it." There are, at the time of this writing, 329 separate entries in the Story of Butte database, with more coming all the time. In addition to discrete entries, there are also many tours that orga- nize locations into a series of stops that tell a fuller story, such as the 11 locations featured in the Murder of Frank Little tour. That particular story, central to Butte's history, has proven to be particularly popular. Nancy Woodruff has an idea why: "It's an unsolved murder mystery, so it's a dramatic story, but it also has larger significance as part of the labor strife that was occurring in the country at the time. The author of that tour, Leif Fredrickson, is a historian and was part of a team that created the 'Death in the West' podcast series about Frank Little's mur- der, and he did a superb job of relating what happened in Butte to national and international events." Aubrey Jaap, director of the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives, is particularly excited about developing new tours so that more extraordinary slices of Butte's past can be featured. "I hope Story of Butte will connect Butte locals and visitors to our history and a better appreciation for the events that took place in our community," she told me. "To walk by a building and read about the events that occurred there over the last cen- tury connects us to the importance of these physical places, which I'm excited about." Her favorite so far is an upcoming tour. "Soon we will be featuring a tour about the Women's Protective Union and some of the characters instrumental in the WPU. These women worked in restaurants, hotels, and cafes, but were critical in giving women better wages and rights in the workforce," she told me. "There are so many wonderful nuggets of Butte history that are not promoted enough and the Story of Butte is the per- fect place to educate the public about our community." Nancy Woodruff summarizes "Story of Butte's" value very concisely: it will serve "as a central place to display the stories, photos, memorabilia, oral histories, and audio clips that provide a window into the various aspects of the town's history. There is a wealth of information that has been published about Butte's history, and the town has excellent historical resources such as the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives and the World Museum of OPEN APRIL OCTOBER rough (OPEN IN NOVEMBER WEATHER PERMITTING) OPEN 155 MUSEUM WAY BUTTE, MT 406-723-7211 PURCHASE TICKETS AT WWW.MININGMUSEUM.ORG TAKE AN UNDERGROUND TOUR IN THE ORPHAN GIRL MINE AND EXPLORE THE STREETS OF HELL ROARIN' GULCH VOTE FOR US WIN $ 500! FOR YOUR CHANCE TO B E S T O F M O N TA N A B M D I S TI N C T L Y M O N T A N A ' S 2023 Story of Butte is a website and free mobile app that puts Butte history at your fingertips. www.StoryofButte.org Anselmo mineyard

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