110 
to be sent out by the same slow, expensive way. 
GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
The city is now 
served by five railways, three of which are transcontinental lines.’ 
After leaving Butte the railway follows down Silver Bow Creek, 
which received its name from a party of prospectors who, in 1864, 
reached the valley in the vicinity of Butte. 
They had an extended 
discussion regarding the best name for the stream, and while they 
were talking the clouds broke away and the sunshine falling on the 
creek as it circled around the mountain suggested the name Silver 
Bow. At that time the creek may have looked like a silver bow, 
but now there is little similarity. 
The composition of the veins shows a 
progressive change in metal and mineral 
composition from a central area outward. 
The central area contains mainly copper 
one. These grade outward sau ores con- 
, lead, 
and silver, together with abundant man- 
ganese minerals, and showing a decrease 
in copper, until in the outer zone the 
ores are valuable chiefly for their silver, 
, and zine content. 
The veins at the surface have all been 
highly oxidized, and from some the cop- 
per has been leached to depths of several 
f a 
veins have been followed to a depth of 
3,000 feet and show little change in min- 
eral ee after the first few hun- 
dred fee n fact, in many -veins the 
change in Gai is less striking than in 
an equal distance horizontally. 
In the early days of copper mining in 
the district the ores extracted were of 
high grade and were smelted direct. 
Later large bodies of low-grade ores were 
mined and concentrated at the plants at 
Anaconda and Great Falls, and the result- 
the concentrating plant to 
recover the copper lost in the operation. 
A plant has also been placed in operation 
at East Butte, by the Butte & Duluth 
Co., to leach the copper from oxidized 
A portion 
of copper in solution, the metal being 
recovered = precipitation on old iron. 
| from “ae to G 
‘ The railroads were naturally anxious 
to get the trade of such places as Butte 
and made every effort to reach them at 
This road gave direct connec- 
tion with the Union Pacific. Although 
the Northern Pacific had through trains 
running by way of Helena in 1883, not 
At the same time the 
Montana Central Railroad Co. was or- 
ganized, and both it and the Northern 
acific began to build parallel lines from 
ea 
line from Helena to Butte was opened for 
traffic on July 12, 1888 
The Northern Pacific, however, did 
not give up the project of reaching Butte 
and a few Eg later built a line from 
the camp a direct outlet 
to the east, Bae still there was no main line 
by Union Pacific interests 
arrison, thus giving a 
direct outlet to the west. This line was 
used jointly by both the Union Pacific 
ane the N Northern Pacific for a low yen, 
£ 
the titer ied he oes one se; the main 
lines of the system. 
