I've driven by it a thousand times and never knew the story. Now I do.

Our Lady of the Rockies is a cast concrete statue of the Virgin Mary and stands 90 feet tall and is located atop the Continental Divide overlooking the city of Butte.

The statue was the brainchild of Bob O'Bill who promised the Virgin Mary he would build a statue if his wife recovered from the cancer from which she was suffering. His wife recovered and O'Bill, with the help of many in the city of Butte, began building Our Lady of the Rockies in 1979.

In 1985, the statue was airlifted to its present location by the Army National Guard. Bus tours to the base of Our Lady of the Rockies are available from Butte. A tram that would lift visitors the roughly 2,000 vertical feet from Butte to the statue, spread out more than 1 mile,

Our Lade of the Rockies is the second tallest statue in the United States, behind the Statue Of Liberty.

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