Our Lady of the Rockies

The Mother Of The Rockies
By Swiz (with a little help from Wiki and a few other pages.)

OK, so it is actually called Our Lady Of The Rockies...Y'all know I never call things by the correct name.

Butte wasn't on our list of Ta-Do, but one question in the car led to a Google search and a U-Turn ( see earlier blog of the copper pit EC). While overlooking the beautifully serene yet toxic as-all-get-out mine pit with bird alarms wailing, we were told the story of Our Lady Of The Rockies (OLOTR). I have always been fascinated by Religious Symbolism-- and being raised Southern Baptist, who in my opinion, have the least amount of symbolism, I wanted to learn and share the story behind this statue.

The statue was the vision of Butte's own Mr. Bob O'Bill. Bob's wife was battling cancer and losing. In 1979, Bob prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary that if his wife could recover from her horrible illness, he would make a 5 foot statue of the Virgin Mary in his yard. Thanks be to God, Bob's wife continued to fight and won the battle with cancer, and according to the tour guide, she is still alive today. Bob and his friends and coworkers began the planning and after several iterations, the final plan went from 5 foot standing in the yard to 90 feet standing atop the Continental Divide overlooking all of Butte.

Work began (all volunteered time and money and equipment) on December 29, 1979. Summer evenings (no snow and more daylight) had volunteers blasting a road to the chosen site atop the Rockies, sometimes only moving 10 feet per day. The base of the statue was finally poured September 1985. The 400 tons of concrete needed was donated by a local concrete company. On December 17, 1985, a CH-54 Tarhe (a way cool military helicopter nicknamed "The Crane") from the 137th Aviation Company from the Army National Guard lowered the statue's four sections into place. The statue's design, which had to withstand the harsh weather and powerful shear winds of the ridge top, was from the work of engineer Eugene Riehl, who retired from the Anaconda Company (the mining company of the afore mentioned toxic as-all-get-out copper pit).

The 88.6 foot tall OLOTR (2nd tallest in the United States--Statue of Liberty is the tallest) stands some 8,510 feet above sea level and 3,500 feet above Butte. It was dedicated to all women of the world, especially mothers. It is lit every night and there is a local tour group that will take you to the top.

Of course there is a cache up at the statue, but time was getting away from us and we had to move on. So, with OLOTR watching over us three moms, we continued our westward trek.

~Swiz