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Berkeley Pit, Butte, MT

Photo: NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.

SightseeingQuirky FunHistory Buff

Berkeley Pit

Berkeley Pit is a sightseeing stop in Butte, MT, part of the Missoula and Anaconda guide. Cost: under $25. Viewing stand open May through October, weather permitting.

350 Shields Ave · Butte, MT

Why you should go…

The Berkeley Pit was opened by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company in 1955 and closed in 1982. It is about one mile long, half a mile wide and roughly 1,780 feet deep, and it has been filling with acidic, metal-laden water ever since. You see it from a viewing stand on the southwest rim at the east end of Park Street in Uptown Butte, next to a gift shop. The pit sits within a federal Superfund site, and a water treatment plant has operated there since 2019.

  • #mining history
  • #viewing stand
  • #open pit mine
  • #copper mine

What's around here?

The closest stops to Berkeley Pit, ordered by straight-line distance. A few more like it, plus some different kinds of fun so you can build a full day.

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