Entry No. 24 — the Butte file — filed under: outdoor-weird

Butte's Lit Headframes (Gallows Frames)

Roughly a dozen towering steel headframes, the skeletal pulley structures once used to lower miners thousands of feet underground, still stand bolted across Butte's hilltop skyline. Originally called gallows or gallus frames, around eight of them are now strung with red LED lights and glow against the night sky, visible from across the valley. You can drive or walk among them in the Uptown mine yards, where they loom over neighborhoods like rusted industrial monuments.

The move: After dark, do a slow self-guided drive through Uptown to find the red-glowing gallows frames, ending at the Granite Mountain Memorial overlook for the city-lights view.

📍 Before you go Best viewed at night when lit; frames sit in/around active and former mine yards, so observe posted signs and do not climb or trespass.

• 📍 Butte (Uptown)
• 💸 Free
• ⚡ Up for anything
• 🌗 Outdoors

Where: Visible throughout Uptown Butte; e.g. Original Mine Yard, Park St area

Hours: Added 2026-06-24 — confirm current hours before you go.

Plan a visit & invite your people →

Proof: source 1 · source 2 · source 3 · source 4

last checked: 2026-06-24