Our Lady of the Rockies is a 90-foot statue that sits atop
the Continental Divide overlooking Butte, Montana. Using
donated materials, volunteers built this statue to honor
women everywhere, especially mothers. The base is 8,510
feet above sea level and 3,500 feet above the town.
The statue is lighted and visible at night.
Local townsperson Bob O'Bill envisioned a statute overlooking his fair city. His dream soon became the mountain town's goal and the massive project began December 29, 1979. Volunteers spent many summer evenings blasting a road to the top of the Rockies, sometimes making only 10 feet of progress a day. The base of the statue was poured in September of 1985 with 400 tons of concrete. On December 17, 1985, a NCh-54 Sikorsky Sky Crane lifted the statue in four sections to the top of the Continental Divide. The team that executed the delicate and sometimes dangerous operation was from the Army National Guard's Army Aviation Support Facility, the 137th Aviation Co.
Supported by the Montana National Guard, the U.S. Army Reserve from Butte, and teams of civilian workers, the final head section was placed atop the statue at 4:07 PM Mountain Standard Time on December 20, 1985. Thousands of townspeople watched, honked their car horns, and rang church bells throughout the valley below as the years-long dream of Bob O'Bill and the town finally became a reality.
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