A myriad of rail-dependent businesses located in this area during the last decades of the nineteenth century, Hinds & Company, proprietors of the Rocky Mountain Bottling Works and agents for the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association, moved here in 1897. In 1900, the operation included a bottling plant at the front loading platform along the railroad siding to the south and an ice house with adjacent keg storage. The tin floor of the ice house is intact and the heavy beams supporting it are still visible. A stable at the rear accommodated the company’s teams; its bricked-in windows document the passing of horse-drawn delivery. Proprietors Browne and Finnigan commissioned Nelson and Pederson to rebuild the frame facility in 1911. The flat parapeted roofs and ornamental brickwork are characteristic of Butte’s Industrial buildings. On the eve of Prohibition in 1916, the front building was a soda bottling plant and beer was still stored in the two-story section. By 1920, the company was out of business. Bottles embossed with “Rocky Mountain Bottling Works – Butte” are today prized among antique collectors.
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