Copper built Butte into an industrial giant, and its headframes still stand watch over the uptown grid. For travelers chasing the northern Rockies, this is a destination worth slowing down for.

Butte's mines once supplied a large share of the nation's copper.

What sets it apart

Steel headframes, called gallows frames, still mark old shaft sites above the city. Small as it sounds, it is exactly the sort of thing that defines the experience on the ground.

The Berkeley Pit, a flooded open mine, is now a somber tourist overlook.

Why it matters

What ties it all together is a distinctly Montana balance between wildness and self-reliance. However you come to it, this is a place that stays with you long after the drive home.