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Butte's mining museum re-opens for tours

Posted at 7:03 PM, May 23, 2020
and last updated 2020-05-23 21:38:41-04

BUTTE — One of Buttes most popular tourist destinations is back up and running. World Museum, of mining executive director Jeanette Kopf and her staff have been implementing new safety measurements to meet the required guidelines on what they call a phased re-opening.

"Our tour capacity is greatly reduced," said Kopf. "We've reduced it to about one third of what we would do normally do for our tour capacity on those tours face masks will have to be worn by guests, or your guidelines will gave face shields so they can project their voice. It's pretty hard to talk in a face mask for an hour."

Normal operations for the staff will surely look a lot different from the years past. However the museum is happy to share a brand new tour for it's guests.

"We decided to offer this to the public this year. Again because we aren't opening up the whole museum, we wanted to share Butte's mining history," Kopf explained. "So it's really a walk through of the mine yard, you go into the original engine room of the orphan girl mine, walk under the head frame. Just to get a little bit of an idea of the operations of a mine yard."

Like many tourist driven businesses in the mining city, the museum is staying optimistic in hopes they can sustain operations during this tough time while prioritizing health and safety for all.

"We have bee on a steady incline of guests an we've had a record breaking year almost every year. We're not going to have that this year. I'm not even aiming to have that this year, My goal is to keep everyone healthy and safe this year, whatever those number may be," Kopf said.

The museum encourages guests to make reservations ahead of time to purchase your tickets online on their website.