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Butte, Montana: Our Lady of the Rockies

 

About the Statue of Our Lady of the Rockies:

Overlooking the city of Butte, Montana is a 90-foot tall statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This not strictly a Catholic site, as it is non-denominational, but of course few religions revere Mary to the extent that Catholics do. For this reason we include this in our list of Catholic sites in the U.S.A.

It was conceived….but not in its present form….by a man named Bob O’Bill, whose wife had cancer. He made a vow, that if she recovered, he would build a 9-foot tall statue to the Blessed Virgin Mary in his back yard. Well, she did recover, but as you can see the project grew well beyond the limits of his back yard.

Land was donated and a road had to be built in order to reach the spot where the statue would be placed. Volunteers provided the materials and engineering expertise was given through another person and the statue became a reality. Then the statue was assembled except for the top portion, which had to be placed by helicopter provided by the National Guard upon completion in 1958. It is called a tribute to motherhood…we suppose to make it politically correct…but there is no doubt who it really represents.

Bus tours from Butte take place twice a day during the summer season (June through October), and visitors can actually go inside the statue. There is no room for a gift shop at the top, but there is a gift shop located in the Butte Plaza Mall.

There is a chapel built at the base with a memorial wall to women that has thousands of plaques.

Please note that although the chapel is available for weddings, etc, it is not Catholic, and therefore Catholic weddings cannot be held here.

 

Traveling to Our Lady of the Rockies:

Address: 3100 Harrison Ave, Butte, Mt 59701

GPS coordinates: 45° 58′ 46.9452” N, 112° 30′ 21.5856” W

Tel: +1 (406) 782-1221

e-mail: shop@ourladyoftherockies.org

Click here for the official website of Our Lady of the Rockies in Butte, Montana.

Photo credits: Our Lady of the Rockies

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