BUTTE - In honor of the Butte Elks, the Butte Archives built this huge elk:
But it’s nothing compared to the one the Butte Elks Club built more than a century ago that was a big as a building and as impressive as that club’s history.
WATCH - Celebrating the Elks in Butte
“A trolley car could fit underneath it, cars could drive underneath it. It’s one of those things that is almost too big to be true, but, of course, that would happen here in Butte,” said Butte Archive Director Aubrey Jaap.
It happened in July of 1916, when the Elks Club constructed a 62-foot-tall Elk that straddled the intersection of Broadway and Main Street. It was built for the Elks National Convention, which drew more than 30,000 people to Butte.
The Butte Archives has an exhibit on display all summer celebrating the history of Butte’s Elks Lodge #240, which was established in 1892. The crew even built a much smaller elk, which actually took longer to construct than the original.
“It took us more than five days. As we were building this, I kept saying, ‘You know, it took them five days to build this thing,’ which is incredibly impressive,” said Jaap.
After the convention, Butte didn’t know what to do with the massive statue.
“They tried to save it, so they thought it could go on top of Big Butte, it could go to the Columbia Gardens, but they realized it just wasn’t feasible to move it. To move it would have cost a lot of money,” she said.
It was dismantled and, since the plaster was mixed with copper ore, the pieces were sent to the smelter. An appropriate end for an elk made in Butte.
“And I also think this is a really neat way to honor our Elks currently. And I think the Butte Elks are really trying to live up to the standard that they always have, and they’re still very active to this day,” said Jaap.
