Butte, Montana
Tour Guides

All guides are freelance tour operators, certified by the state as independent contractors. We work independently, and together; we do our own tours and we work with other companies and organizations to provide tours for them. Each guide brings a somewhat different background to your tour, but they all have one thing in common: in-depth expertise in Butte's history and culture—and love for a remarkable place that's sometimes hard to love. All guides are also subcontractors with Old Butte Historical Adventures. Denny and Dick are also guides for the Butte Chamber of Commerce trolley tour. Check out our Specialty Tours & Lectures
NICOLE VON GAZA moved to Butte in 1997 and again in 2006. She lived in Alaska for 17 years, where she graduated from the University of Alaska, Southeast. She worked as an archaeologist and Museum Tech in Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Skagway, Alaska. Nicole has over a decade of tour guide experience with The Skaguay Hack, The White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad, the Skagway Streetcar Company, and Old Butte Historical Adventures. A seamstress, Nicole worked a year in wardrobe for the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies and 7 years for Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas. She owns Uptown Butte Glass Works and is also a member of the Butte CPR and sings with the Butte Symphony Chorale. In 2007, Nicole completed an extensive cataloguing project for the hundreds of Butte Chinese artifacts found in an archaeological dig for the Mai Wah Museum .
PAT MOHAN is a Butte native, grandson of Tony Canonica, the Swiss immigrant who built Tony's Tin Shop, and his wife Myra who ran the brothel above it. His personal family stories are integral to tours of the Tin Shop, Myra Brothel, and Cabbage Patch (on the East Tour from Old Butte Historical Adventures). Pat has been involved in teaching for much of his career, including serving as a history teacher, special education teacher, and dean in the Butte Public Schools from 1973 to 2000. He holds a Master's degree in Education from the University of Montana and served as an officer and Public Affairs official for the Montana Army National Guard from 1975 to 1996. Pat has led tours with Old Butte Historical Adventures since 2005. News article on Tony's Tin Shop
DICK GIBSON is a geologist, historian, step-on tour guide and former Study Leader for Smithsonian Journeys. He was Education Director at the World Museum of Mining (2003-2005) and has led tours with Old Butte Historical Adventures since 2006. Educated at Indiana University (and Indiana's Geologic Field Station in the Tobacco Root Mountains east of Butte), he is author of two books, History of the Earth: A Perpetual Calendar, and What Things Are Made Of (in progress) and co-author of a Butte Citizens for Preservation and Revitalization book on historic stained glass in Butte. He complied the Butte-Anaconda Copperway Guidebook, and he works with a group of volunteers on "Virtual Historic Butte". He's a former member of the Butte-Silver Bow County Historic Preservation Commission and was the Tours & Guidebook Chairman for the Vernacular Architecture Forum in Butte in 2009. Dick is a member of the Mai Wah Museum Board and works with the Clark Fork Watershed Education Project and the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, as well as on oil exploration projects around the world as part of his consulting business. Dick is also a driver/guide for the Chamber of Commerce trolley.
Frank Little article • News article • News article • Restoring Butte


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Denny Dutton, our friend and mentor, passed away Dec. 31, 2012. We honor his memory in our tours. DENNY DUTTON is a retired US Army Artillery captain. He graduated from Battleground High School in Washington in 1971, and from Cameron University (Lawton, OK) in 1980. He is a historian, vintage car restorer and vintage stock car racer who immigrated to Butte in 1999. Denny is a Red Cross volunteer, and provides guide service on the Chamber of Commerce trolley. His work as one of the driver guides for the trolley was an introduction to Butte's history that led directly to Denny's co-founding in 2004 of Old Butte Historical Adventures, Butte's first walking tour company. Denny is now a freelance guide offering a wide diversity of tours and step-on services, as well as subcontracting with OBHA. He also served as Logistics Chair for the Vernacular Architecture Forum (Butte, 2009), and is a member of the Chamber of Commerce Convention & Visitors Bureau Board. He's the coordinator of more than 900 volunteers who make the National Folk Festival in Butte (2008-2010) a huge success. News article • News article
Richard I. Gibson, Gibson Consulting - 301 North Crystal St. - Butte, Montana 59701 - Phone/Fax: 406-723-9639 - E-mail