The very Irish town of Butte, Mont.

The view looking down Montana Street in Butte, Mont.

The giant head frame from the old Steward Mine in Butte, Mont., is framed by a wooden cutout of a shamrock on Maureen Yelenich’s front porch.

The giant head frames from the historic mines in Butte, Mont., are reminders of the past.

Butte, Mont., is considered to be the most Irish town in America per capita.

St. Patrick’s Cemetery tells part of the history of the Irish heritage of Butte, Mont., through the names on the towering headstones and memorials.

St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Butte, Mont.

Giant wooden shamrocks decorate many of the light poles around Butte, Mont.

Maureen Yelenich’s father was a miner where Irish descendants of the early miners now make up nearly 25% of the 35,000 residents of Butte.

A flag whips around in the breeze at Duffy’s Antique store in Butte, Mont.

A group of window shoppers stop to look in the window of O’donna’s New and Used in Butte, Mont.

Miners with pickaxes are depicted in a fence that surrounds the memorial dedicated to the 168 men who lost their lives at the Granite Mountain-Speculator fire, June 8, 1917, in Butte, Mont.

Monica Cavanaugh, the proudly Irish owner of Cavanaugh’s County Celtic, sells everything Irish in her shop in Butte, Mont.

Frank Walsh, a third-generation Irish dscendant in Butte, Mont., walks through St. Patrick’s Cemetery. He and fellow members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians maintain the historic graveyard for the community.

The sign begins to glow on the Dublin as the sun sets on Montana Street in the heart of Butte, Mont.

Green neon shamrocks fill the window at Maloney’s Bar, one of the iconic Irish pubs in Butte, Mont.

Maloney’s Bar, an iconic Irish pub in Butte, Mont.

Rob Seccomb plays the pipes on Main Street in downtown Butte.

A statue shows Thomas Meagher (1823-1867), the fiery Irish nationalist and onetim acting governor of Montana, riding his horse in front of the Capitol building in Helena, Mont.

Rob Seccomb next to the head frame of “The Original,� Butte’s first copper mine, which operated from 1878-1976.

Diners at the lunch counter in the M&M Cigar Store in Butte, Mont.

An old neon sign for the New Tait Hotel in Butte, Mont., where many of the original buildings from the 19th century still stand.

A metallic sculpture of a miner decorates a wall in Butte, Mont.

The Grand Union Hotel opened in Fort Benton, Mont., in 1882.

A lone pedestrian walks across a rainy stretch of Main Street in downtown Butte, Mont.