Wender·Vista
World Museum of Mining Butte historic gallows frames
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileMontana
on the Butte hill, at the head of the Orphan Girl shaft

World Museum of Mining Butte historic gallows frames

— — the iron skeleton the city kept standing.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“Fourteen black steel headframes still rise above Butte, the Richest Hill on Earth. The World Museum of Mining sits on the Orphan Girl shaft itself, the gallows frame intact above the collar. Walk the boardwalks of the recreated 1899 mining camp, look up, and the city's whole century of copper is written in those silhouettes against the sky.

from the studio
World Museum of Mining Butte historic gallows frames
— bring it home

World Museum of Mining Butte historic gallows frames, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about World Museum of Mining Butte historic gallows frames

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

The World Museum of Mining occupies the surface plant of the Orphan Girl Mine, on the west end of Butte's mining hill at the foot of Big Butte. The shaft, sunk in 1875, reached more than 3,000 feet before it closed in the 1950s. The museum, founded in 1965, preserves the original gallows frame and hoist house and surrounds them with Hell Roarin' Gulch, a reconstructed 1899 mining camp of roughly fifty buildings. The whole site sits inside the Butte-Anaconda National Historic Landmark District.

— the stone

The frame above the Orphan Girl is a riveted steel gallows, the kind that hoisted men and ore up the shaft, the cage running in guides between its legs. Fourteen of these frames still stand across Butte, the last working one shuttered in the early 1980s when the Berkeley Pit ate the underground works. Their silhouettes are the city's signature. The museum's frame is the only one a visitor can walk directly beneath, on the original collar timbers, looking up the legs to the sheave wheel.

— the visit

The museum is open seasonally, roughly April through October, with a single admission covering the outdoor yard and Hell Roarin' Gulch, and a guided underground tour ticketed separately. The underground walk descends about a hundred feet on foot into the Orphan Girl workings, with hard hats supplied. The site sits at the west end of Park Street in uptown Butte. Allow two hours for the surface yard, half a day if the underground tour is running and the weather holds.

— where
United States · Butte, Silver Bow County, Montana
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
3 km E
Berkeley Pit
open-pit copper mine
6 km E
Our Lady of the Rockies
mountaintop statue
1 km S
Mineral Museum at Montana Tech
mineral collection
40 km W
Anaconda Smelter Stack
smelter chimney
2 km NE
Granite Mountain Memorial
1917 mine disaster memorial
N
World Museum of Mining Butte historic gallows frames
Berkeley Pit
Our Lady of the Rockies
Mineral Museum at Montana Tech
Anaconda Smelter Stack
Granite Mountain Memorial
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about World Museum of Mining Butte historic gallows frames — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

A 22-acre open-air museum on the surface of the Orphan Girl Mine in Butte, Montana, preserving the headframe, hoist house, and a reconstructed nineteenth-century mining camp called Hell Roarin' Gulch.

Fourteen steel headframes remain across the Butte hill, the visible legacy of the copper boom. They are protected within the Butte-Anaconda National Historic Landmark District and lit at night.

The shaft was sunk in 1875 and produced silver, then zinc and lead, until it closed in the 1950s. It reached a depth of more than 3,000 feet before operations ended.

Yes. A guided underground tour descends roughly one hundred feet into the Orphan Girl workings. Hard hats are provided, and the underground walk is ticketed separately from surface admission.

A reconstructed 1899 mining town inside the museum grounds, made up of about fifty buildings, including an assay office, schoolhouse, church, and saloon. Many were moved in from elsewhere in Butte.

At its peak the hill produced more copper than any other district in the world, fueling American electrification. The phrase entered local use during the Anaconda Company years.

Generally early April through late October, with the underground tour running on a tighter seasonal window. Hours shift year to year, so check the museum directly before driving in.

— about the piece in your home

It has been a meaningful piece for customers whose grandfathers worked the Anaconda or the Orphan Girl. A Small or Medium with a handwritten note from the studio carries well.

The piece sits well in Mountain-modern, Industrial, and Western-modern rooms. The black steel silhouettes pair with reclaimed wood, leather, and unpolished stone; the stained-glass colour lifts a dark wall.

Yes. Headframe silhouettes have moved into both palettes. Industrial reads them as honest metalwork; Western-modern reads them as place. The tile carries the same weight as cast iron without the heft.

A single Large reads cleanly above a sixty-inch console. Above a standard sofa, the four-tile Mural holds the wall; over a long sectional, the nine-tile Mural is the right scale.

Yes. Order the Dura Satin or Matte finish for any wet or high-touch room. The colour is slowly infused into the ceramic surface beneath a thin protective finish, so humidity does not affect it.

A microfibre cloth and warm water. No abrasives, no ammonia, no scouring pads. The colour lives in the tile itself, so the surface cleans the way a good ceramic dish cleans.

Yes. Every piece in the WenderVista atlas is curated and finished in our Knoxville studio. We do not licence the work and the design exists nowhere else.

— if this one stayed with you

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