Butte Store

The bronze and the register cannot both be right. The plaque says an Italian stone mason built this in 1857; the state's register has Xavier Benoist running a store and bakery in the building as early as 1854. Whichever is true, it is the only thing left of Butte City, a prosperous mining town of the 1850s now reduced to one building beside the highway. The bronze also stutters, casting the word later twice across a line break.

What the plaque says

BUTTE STORE CONSTRUCTED BY ITALIAN STONE MASON IN 1857. SERVED PIONEER SETTLERS AND MINERS AS POST OFFICE AND GENERAL STORE LATER LATER KNOWN AS GINOCCHIO'S. DEDICATED BY GRAND PARLOR NATIVE SONS OF THE GOLDEN WEST MARCH 9, 1985 WILLIAM BUNDESEN, GRAND PRESIDENT IN MEMORY OF JAMES D. PHELAN, U.S. SENATOR

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Columbia State Historic Park — 26 mi
  The Gem of the Southern Mines, still open for business on a car-free Gold Rush main street.

More markers nearby

• Big Bar — 1.3 mi
• Middle Bar — 2.0 mi
• Mokelumne Hill — 2.3 mi
• I.O.O.F. Hall, Mokelumne Hill — 2.3 mi