Walkerville, MT

Walkerville is a Silver Bow County town and Butte enclave, with 639 residents in the 2020 census. It is the only other incorporated community in the county outside consolidated Butte-Silver Bow, and its streets climb the hill above Butte’s historic mining core. Butte Public Schools serves the town, while the Butte-Anaconda Historic District includes part of Walkerville and ties it to the region’s copper, labor, and railroad history. The town’s setting on the Continental Divide makes the old mining camp feel separate even though Butte is immediately below.

Walkerville grew around some of the district’s earliest mines, especially the Alice, owned by the Walker brothers of Salt Lake City, whose name the town carries. Investors and miners arrived in the late nineteenth century, and the town became part of the industrial and labor story of the Butte district. The first labor strike in the Butte area took place here in 1878 after mine workers resisted a pay cut. Today, early mining structures, steep streets, and historic homes remain inside the National Historic Landmark district. Walkerville is a Montana town where a single hill holds mining, union, and neighborhood history together.