(Taken from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality Abandoned Mines website)

The Silver Butte district, located on the western slopes of the Cabinet Mountain range, is known for both placer mining along the Vermillion River and lode mining in the mountains that divide the Vermillion River drainage from the western fork of the Fisher River system.

The King mine, encompassing 10 patented claims, 21 unpatented claims, and 2 mill sites, is located at the head of Silver Butte Creek in section 7, T25N, R30W. The deposit was discovered in 1887 and originally called the Silver Butte mine. Differences in names for the mine and mining company over the years confuse the historical record on this property, and the mine described by Crowley (1963) as the Silver Butte is actually the Vermillion (Johns 1970).

The mine was active in 1890, when most of the work was done on the Silver Bow claim. The Kentucky-Montana Mining Co. (referred to by Johns as the Kentucky Vermillion Co.) operated the mine in 1897 with nearly 60 men on the payroll. An 1800 foot tramway moved ore from the mine to the mill, and a 2.5 mile flume brought water to the Leffel water wheel to generate power. The 500-ton concentrator, which was operating at only half capacity, had two Cornish rolls, ten jigs, and two slime tables. Other buildings included a sawmill, boarding house, office, assay office, and company store. Sometime before 1905, the mine was closed temporarily and the mill burned (Swallow, Trevarthen, and Oliver 1891; Kalispell Inter Lake 1897; MacDonald 1909).

After sitting idle for several decades, the mine revived in 1943 under the ownership of the Silver Butte Zinc-Lead Mining Co. The new owners spent $100,000 by 1946 on both development work and construction of an 80-ton flotation mill. The company received $2300 for the first shipment of concentrates. By 1947, the zinc concentrates assayed 45 percent zinc and 7 ounces of silver per ton, while the lead concentrates assayed 59 percent lead and 42 ounces of silver per ton. The investment did not prove profitable, however, and the mine sold for back taxes in the 1950s. Development work in the mine includes 4 adits with a total of 4300 feet (Johns 1970).