There is no better place to learn about the history of mining than at the World Mining Museum in Butte, Montana.

The museum is established in what was originally a Butte MT mining site. Exhibits in the museum include the Miners Memorial Garden, where lost lives due to mining activities and railroad accidents are commemorated on the garden’s wall.

There’s also the Orphan Girl Mine, in which the original structure remains standing, including its hundred-foot-tall head frame. The mine’s Hoist House displays original equipment used when it had been still operational. You can also climb into one of the cages that had been used by miners to go 2,700 feet below the ground.

Check out Hell Roarin’ Gulch as well, which is a painstaking recreation of a mining town in the 1890’s, featuring a mixture of intact historic sites and reconstructed buildings using old materials.