Butte

Butte (pop. 33,336), city in southwestern Montana; seat of Silver Bow County, situated on Silver Bow Creek on a plateau in the Rocky Mountains. The fourth largest city in the state, Butte was founded in 1864. It was first a gold mining camp and then a silver center, and copper was discovered there in 1880. Butte is an important mining center for zinc, silver, gold, copper, arsenic, and lead.