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Montana · Continental Divide · #517
Silver Bow County, Montana
Butte sits on the richest hill on earth - or once did - where copper mining made fortunes for Anaconda Company executives and Irish immigrants alike, and left behind a Superfund site that is still being cleaned up and a city that refuses to apologize for its past.
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What do you need to do?
Tell us your goal and we'll guide you step-by-step to the right office, forms, and official resources.
Dispatch: Butte-Silver Bow 911 Communications Center – a multi-agency PSAP serving Butte-Silver Bow and Walkerville, receiving roughly 50,000-60,000 calls annually and responding to about 30,500 calls for service; staffed 24/7 by twelve full-time Communications Officers plus a manager.
Sheriff/Law Enforcement: Butte-Silver Bow Law Enforcement Department – 225 Alaska St, Butte, MT 59701 | (406) 497-1120 | Fax: (406) 497-1181; Sheriff Ed Lester (a consolidated city-county law enforcement agency).
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: I-90 and I-15 meet at Butte, the county seat and Montana’s smallest county by land area (719 square miles).
Notes: Silver Bow County was established February 16, 1881 and is named for Silver Bow Creek. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated into the single entity Butte-Silver Bow (the town of Walkerville remains separately incorporated). Roughly 35,000-36,000 residents.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Butte-Silver Bow – confirm current phone via co.silverbow.mt.us.
Notes: Butte is genuinely one of the most historically significant mining cities in the American West, home to one of the nation’s largest National Historic Landmark Districts (over 4,000 structures). The Berkeley Pit, a former open-pit copper mine operated 1955-1982, is now one of the largest contaminated bodies of water in the world – over 40 billion gallons of acidic, metals-rich water managed by the EPA as a Superfund site, and Butte’s top tourist attraction via a public viewing stand. The Copper King Mansion, built in 1884 by copper baron William A. Clark, is a NRHP-listed Victorian mansion now operating as a bed & breakfast. “Our Lady of the Rockies,” a 90-foot statue on the Continental Divide at 8,510 feet, is visible from up to 40 miles away and lit at night. The World Museum of Mining recreates an 1890s mining town across 22 acres.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Butte-Silver Bow Veterans Service – confirm current contact via co.silverbow.mt.us.
Federal: VA Montana Health Care System (Fort Harrison/Helena, accessible north); a Butte VA clinic is also accessible.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Butte-Silver Bow Public Library – 226 W. Broadway, Butte, MT 59701 | (406) 792-1080 | Fax: (406) 782-1825 | Hours: Mon/Fri/Sat 9 AM-5 PM (some listings note 10 AM), Tue-Thu 9 AM-7 PM; located in historic Uptown Butte. Two additional branches: South Branch (Butte Plaza Mall) and a branch in the town of Melrose.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The Berkeley Pit Viewing Stand, World Museum of Mining, the Granite Mountain Speculator Mine Memorial, the Copper King Mansion, and Our Lady of the Rockies are the county’s premier attractions.
Notes: The genuine scale of the Berkeley Pit as a Superfund site and Butte’s massive National Historic Landmark District are among the most distinctive local facts covered anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Butte-Silver Bow – confirm current contact via co.silverbow.mt.us.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Chelsea Bailey Animal Shelter (Butte-Silver Bow Animal Services) – 699 Centennial Ave, Butte, MT 59701 | (406) 497-6525; municipal shelter and animal control, primarily open for adoptions, education, and animal control pickups; owner surrenders case-by-case; also operates a Working Cat Program for at-risk cats suited to barns, warehouses, and similar settings.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Butte-Silver Bow Department of Public Works – confirm current phone via co.silverbow.mt.us. The Berkeley Pit Superfund site is managed by the U.S. EPA; see PitWatch for ongoing status.
NOTES: Silver Bow County is the sixth county in the Montana v2 A+ sourced redo’s seventh batch. The genuine scale of the Berkeley Pit Superfund site and Butte’s massive National Historic Landmark District are among the most distinctive local facts in this project. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About Silver Bow County
Silver Bow County and the city of Butte consolidated their governments in 1977, creating a unified city-county that functions as a single jurisdiction. Butte’s identity is inseparable from copper: the Anaconda Copper Mining Company extracted more copper from the hill beneath Butte than from any other place on earth, fueling the electrical revolution of the late nineteenth century and making Butte for a time the largest city between Minneapolis and the Pacific Coast. The Irish immigration that followed the copper boom gave Butte one of the most Irish cities in America by percentage – St. Patrick’s Day is taken seriously here in a way that would satisfy Dublin – and the labor organizing tradition of the Western Federation of Miners and IWW gave Butte a socialist and labor political history unlike most Montana cities.
The Berkeley Pit – a former open-pit copper mine now filled with acidic, heavy-metal-laden water – is one of the most significant Superfund sites in the United States and a genuinely otherworldly landmark that Butte has turned, improbably, into a tourist attraction. The cleanup continues and will continue for decades. Montana Tech, part of the Montana university system with particular strength in engineering and mining sciences, anchors the educational economy. Butte’s extensive Victorian and early twentieth-century architecture, its labor history museum, and its genuine working-class character have made it a destination for visitors interested in authentic American industrial heritage.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Montana assesses residential property at approximately 1.35% of market value for the statewide mill levy. Property owners may appeal to the State Tax Appeal Board. Montana has no estate or inheritance tax.
Courts & Legal
Courts & Legal
SENIOR SERVICES
Southwest Montana Area Agency on Aging
126 West Broadway, Butte, MT 59701
Phone: (406) 782-5302
Senior transportation, Meals on Wheels, caregiver support, and long-term care counseling for Silver Bow County residents.
Senior Services
Southwest Montana Area Agency on Aging
126 West Broadway, Butte, MT 59701
Phone: (406) 782-5302
Senior transportation, Meals on Wheels, caregiver support, and long-term care counseling for Silver Bow County residents.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK AND RECORDER
155 W. Granite St., Butte, MT 59701
(406) 497-6230
COUNTY CLERK (Elections)
155 W. Granite St., Butte, MT 59701
(406) 497-6230
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Silver Bow County (Butte-Silver Bow) Clerk of District Court (probate case files – see Probate section above).
Butte’s mining-era history is extensively documented; the World Museum of Mining and other local archives supplement county records.
Local societies
No dedicated Silver Bow County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Silver Bow County (Butte-Silver Bow) Clerk of District Court, Probate Division 155 West Granite Street, Room 313, Butte, MT 59701 (406) 497-6357
Silver Bow County, a consolidated city-county government known as Butte-Silver Bow, is in southwestern Montana, seated in Butte, a historic copper-mining city.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Montana adopted the Uniform Probate Code (UPC), codified at Title 72 of the Montana Code Annotated (MCA). Probate is handled by the District Court in the county where the decedent resided.
Collection of Personal Property by Affidavit (MCA § 72-3-1101) – available when the value of the probate estate, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000. At least 30 days must have passed since the death, and no application or petition for appointment of a personal representative may be pending or granted anywhere. The affiant presents the sworn, notarized affidavit (with a certified death certificate) directly to whoever holds the property to collect it – skipping probate court entirely. Must be used within 3 years of death.
Summary Administration – a streamlined court process for estates valued at $100,000 or less; unlike the affidavit procedure, this still goes through the court, just with reduced formality.
Informal Probate – the most common path for uncontested estates. An application can be made to the clerk of district court no sooner than 120 hours (5 days) after death, with minimal court involvement.
Formal Probate – required when there’s no will, when a will’s validity is contested, or when there’s disagreement over the personal representative or distribution. Handled by a district court judge.
Supervised Administration – formal probate with ongoing court oversight of the personal representative.
Step 2: filing for formal or informal probate
File an application (informal) or petition (formal) with the Clerk of District Court in the county where the decedent resided, no sooner than 120 hours after death.
The court or clerk appoints the personal representative and issues Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
The personal representative publishes notice to creditors and gives direct notice to known creditors. Creditors generally have 4 months from the date of first publication to file claims.
The personal representative inventories and appraises the estate’s assets.
After debts, taxes, and expenses are paid and the creditor claim period expires, the personal representative distributes the remaining assets and closes the estate.
What it costs
Montana does not set statutory percentage-based fees; personal representative and attorney fees are generally “reasonable compensation” based on time and complexity.
Montana has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax. Only the federal estate tax could apply, and only to very large estates.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
155 W. Granite St., Butte, MT 59701
(406) 497-6400
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Elections)
155 W. Granite St., Butte, MT 59701
(406) 497-6230
ELECTIONS
155 W. Granite St., Butte, MT 59701
(406) 497-6230
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
MT DPHHS — Silver Bow
(406) 497-5000
St. James Healthcare
stjameshealthcare.org (Butte — quality regional hospital; major southwest Montana anchor)
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Butte-Silver Bow Health Department – confirm current phone via co.silverbow.mt.us.
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Editorial Trust
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Butte (consolidated city-county)
Population: 34,000
Area: 718 sq mi
Established: 1881
Tier: 4
Inmate Services
Care Packages
Send care packages to inmates in Silver Bow County facilities via Amazon.
