ANACONDA STACK CELEBRATING 100 YEARS

PHOTO BY STEVEN CORDES, THE MONTANA STANDARD 2 | AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years THE MONTANA STANDARD

Join us in Anaconda, Montana! ANACONDA SMOKE STACK 100TH ANNIVERSARY August 8 – 12, 2018

Anaconda, Montana is a town teeming with history and surrounded by natural beauty. It is also home to the iconic Anaconda Smoke Stack, the largest free-standing masonry structure in the world—and that is something worth celebrating! Enjoy a week of family-friendly culture, food and drink, and history at the Anaconda Smoke Stack 100th Anniversary Celebration, a birthday bash a century in the making!

August 8 August 10 Wednesday Friday 3-5PM Music by Smokey, George Fiddler and Joe Strelnik STACK TOURS: Kennedy Common 9AM, 11:30AM, 2PM and 5:30PM 5:15PM Performance by the Anaconda Aislings Meet the bus at the Stack Park. Kennedy Common 5-7PM Alive After Five 3-8PM Children’s Games Kennedy Common August 11 6PM Parade – Line-up at Courthouse 5PM Saturday The Forest Service Mule team is leading the parade, along with an STACK TOURS: appearance from the Wells Fargo Stage Coach. After the parade, 9AM, 11:30AM, 2PM and 5:30PM there will be keynote speakers and music at the Kennedy Common. Meet the bus at the Stack Park. 8-10PM Ian Thomas & The Band of Drifters 9AM Fun Run – Registration at 8AM Kennedy Common Washoe Park Tennis Courts August 9 2-7PM Smeltermen’s BBQ and Brewfest Thursday Chamber Lawn 2p2p ppmm STACK TOURS: Free Music, 5 Breweries and AWAAWNWNWN 9AM, 11:30AM, 2PM and 5:30PM a BBQ Competition Meet the bus at the Stack Park. 5-7PM Art & Wine Walk August 12 Start at the Copper Village Sunday and follow the map. 6PM Shakespeare in the Park 7PM Adam Miller Folk Concert Washoe Park Pavilion – Free Kennedy Common Love’s Labour’s Lost

Bring your lawn chair and enjoy the music! Sponsored by the Friends of the Hearst Free Library

Movies at the Washoe Theater every night at 5PM

QUESTIONS OR INTERESTED VOLUNTEERS Please call the Chamber of Commerce (406) 563-2400 or (406) 560-3582.

Sponsored by the Anaconda Community Foundation, 100th Stack Anniversary Committee and Southwest Montana. KEN MILLER THE MONTANA STANDARD AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years | 3

LAW FIRM OF KNIGHT Celebrating & DAHOOD the thth 100100 Wade J. Dahood Jeff Dahood AnniversaryAnniversary Nancy Dahood, CLA OF THE ANACONDA Melissa Dahood, R.N. SMOKE STACK! Ann Wareham Stephanie Vankirk

113 East Third Street Anaconda, Montana 406-563-3424 In MT 1-800-823-3424 www.kdesdlaw.com 4 | AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years THE MONTANA STANDARD A look back at the Anaconda Smelter

Dangerous work that bors drinking beer on the hood of “There were jobs for everybody. standing masonry structure in the their cars together, homes with You could learn a trade.” world. (see related column). gave life to a town huge families, and a place where Also remaining is more than people knew who lived in every Ellen Tocher, who worked in the Anaconda Company’s 300 square miles of environmen- SUSAN DUNLAP house all the way down the block. general office in the late 1950s tal damage and 130 acres of the [email protected] A place where everybody looked waste byproduct, the mound of t was hot. It was dirty. It was out for one another. black slag lining Highway 1. dangerous. But it was a job for They remember an era when They also say that getting a job century. This year is the Anaconda I thousands. making $19.90 a day was good “on the hill” was just what you did Those who are still around re- Stack’s 100th birthday. And this Anaconda’s smelter was money and a $52 a month pension if you lived in Anaconda. Many count stories of bad accidents is the story of that stack and Ana- a lifeline to immigrants and the after 45 years of heavy labor was lament that the Anaconda Com- that took individual lives. They conda’s Washoe Smelter, gathered lifeblood of a town that depended nothing to complain about. They pany is no more. remember drinking — lots of from the memories of the people on the jobs it provided — even as could buy homes for $6,000, and They wanted to retire with the drinking — both on the job and off. who made it work, 24 hours a day, the toxins it produced shortened many did. company. They wanted to send After a little prodding, they seven days a week — the workers some workers’ lives. They reminisce about a day their kids to work there just as so summon back to mind the fun of the Anaconda Company. The smelter was shut down in when a man putting a silver dol- many of them worked alongside they had in the midst of heavy 1980, and the few smeltermen who lar in the hand of a kid meant so their fathers and uncles, cousins labor and personal danger. With In the beginning are still around to tell their stories much that one worker after an- and brothers, and in the footsteps no trouble at all, they remember There was the company. There remember a different time and a other recalled that particular of their grandfathers. the smell. was always the company. very different Anaconda. One af- aspect of Smelterman’s Day in They see the emptiness of a Now what remains is a histori- Although local lore says that ter another, the former workers of some detail, though it was more town that was built by mining cal footnote that reaches 585 feet Irish immigrant Marcus Daly the Anaconda Company sat down than half a century ago. The Mill king Marcus Daly for the sole pur- into the sky: The Anaconda Stack, moved operations west of Butte to with us on their front porches, and Smelterman’s Union gave the pose of serving a copper smelter. big enough to fit the Washington build his smelters closer to water on their lawns and in their living silver dollars and held the annual They lament how, having lost that Monument inside, nestled in a sources, Bozeman-based historian rooms and told stories of an idyllic event on Aug. 8. The company let smelter nearly four decades ago, mountain-shaded valley. Built in time — kids running freely, neigh- almost everybody off work. the town struggles still in the 21st 1918, the stack is the largest free- See ANACONDA, Page 6

Nestled in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, Anaconda delivers a unique blend of outdoor recreation, shops and restaurants, beautiful scenery, and the friendliest folks in Montana. Explore all that Anaconda and Montana have to offer while staying at the Marcus Daly Motel! Newly Remodeled • Spacious Rooms • Clean, Non-Smoking Facility • High-Speed Internet • Cable Television • Queen Sized Beds • Refrigerators Microwaves • Coffee Makers • Recliners • Ironing Boards • Hair Dryers • Grab & Go Snacks Sorry, No Pets THE MONTANA STANDARD AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years | 5

St. James Healthcare Proudly Serving Southwest Montana Since 1881

More Than a Century of Providing Quality Care:

For 137 years, St. James has provided care for the sick and served the poor. Today, that commitment is accompanied by our reputation as a technological leader in Montana's healthcare industry.

We offer specialized services in Cardiology, Oncology, Orthopedics, Neurosciences, and Women's & Children's services. This includes dedicated Family Practice, Pediatric, and Internal Medicine physicians and staff who provide high quality primary care.

St. James Healthcare and our more than 500 employees are all dedicated to the integration of tradition and technology.

From one pillar of the community to another, Happy Birthday Anaconda Smoke Stack!

St. James Healthcare 400 S. Clark Street, Butte, MT 59701 P: 406-723-2500 | www.stjameshealthcare.org 6 | AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years THE MONTANA STANDARD Anaconda Continued from Page 4

Timothy LeCain says Daly chose the valley 25 miles west of the Mining City to erect his smokestacks because the air pollution from smelter smoke in Butte was so severe that people were falling ill and dying. So the Anaconda Company headed west to a place with few inhabitants. Their first smelter, called Old Works, went up in the 1880s, along what is now called Warm Springs Creek. Then in 1902 the Anaconda Company moved south to build the original, ap- proximately 300-foot stack and smelter operations near Mill Creek for a reported $9.5 million. But that stack wasn’t tall enough. Farmers and ranchers in the Deer Lodge Valley sued the Anaconda Company shortly after the first load of copper ore was smelted that year. Within that first year, livestock were dying due to the 20 tons of arsenic coming out of the stack every day. It took 15 more years, but in 1917, the Anaconda Company responded to the PHOTO COURTESY OF COPPER VILLAGE MUSEUM AND ART CENTER problem by preparing ground to build the This 1918 shot shows the beginning of the base as it was in the process of being built. 585-foot stack. The idea was a taller stack would send the arsenic farther up into the

HOT SPRINGS LODGING DINING GENUINE. GOLF MONTANA. EXPERIENCE. SPA

Congratulations on the 100th Anniversary of the Smoke Stack!

FairmontMontana.com | 800.332.3272 THE MONTANA STANDARD AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years | 7 atmosphere and spread out the toxins. ore. There were big piles of dust that could The second Anaconda Stack would also burn skin, conveyor belts, slurry lines, 40- contain a pollution abatement process to inch pipes, cranes moving, and thousands capture the 75 tons of arsenic a day that of men wandering in the smoke, dust and was, by then, going up in smoke. The new gas in buildings that were anywhere from stack and environmental control system 40 to 90 feet tall, Ryan said. would cost the company $1.6 million. There were also underground tunnels. The system, which involved electrified Ryan called it “a real strange place.” chains that attracted the arsenic in the dust “Most of that smelter was built in the before it went out the chimney, was only 45 early 1900s. It was still the same,” he said percent effective in the early years. In later of his time at the smelter in the 1960s and years, it was somewhat improved. 1970s. Ryan speaks in a deep, guttural Workers alive today are familiar with voice. “Some of them buildings, they were Congratulatins that abatement system because the com- spooky but kind of neat, hardwood floors, pany continued to use it until the smelter brick walls, and they had arched windows. closed in 1980. It had an other-worldly feel to it.” ANACONDA LeCain writes in an article “The Lim- its of Eco-Efficiency” in a journal called What researchers learned 307 E. Park Ave. • Anaconda Environmental History in 2000, that the Workers described the smell as having company used the arsenic, a by-product of been, at times, “chemical” or sulfuric, the copper smelting process, to treat rail- like rotten eggs. But what Peggy Mangan 563-5203 road ties. remembers most is the 1880 Harrison Ave. • Butte Mike Skocilich, who “One thing I noise. Anaconda Smelter Stack is 71, remembers they Mangan, who is now 497-7000 remember, the noise 100th Anniversary still used arsenic to 65, worked as a smelt- 3701 Harrison Ave. • Butte treat railroad ties when erman during the sum- up there was incredibly A smoke stack so large, the he worked, first as a mers in the early 1970s Washington Monument could fit inside! smelterman, later as a intense. It didn’t seem to pay for college. 494-3900 foreman, on the hill, in to matter where you “One thing I remem- the 1960s and 1970s. were, you could be in ber, the noise up there Member “The ties would last was incredibly intense. www.glacierbank.com FDIC forever, but you didn’t the rod mills or the It didn’t seem to mat- want to get a sliver from ball mills. It was noisy. ter where you were, them. It was bad, it was you could be in the rod really bad,” he said while Even having lunch, it mills or the ball mills. sitting with two report- was always crazy noisy It was noisy. Even hav- ers on his front porch ing lunch, it was always last week, the hill within and dirty and dark.” crazy noisy and dirty Proud to Celebrate sight from his chair. Peggy Mangan, and dark,” she said over He pointed to places former smelter worker the phone from her At- on the slope as he lanta-based home last the History that thought back to the week. different departments But it wasn’t the noise and listed some of them: The zinc plant, that killed people. It was the arsenic in the the beryllium pilot plant, the phosphate dust the workers breathed. Built Anaconda’s plant, the brick plant. He got up from his In 1969 two researchers from the Na- chair and pointed to a particular spot and tional Cancer Institute in Bethesda, said, “That’s where the ferro mag plant Maryland, began researching Anaconda’s Community used to be.” smelter workers. The company cooper- Skocilich says the company processed ated, providing documents to scientists ferromanganese to harden steel. Joseph Fraumeni and Anna Lee. They Butch Ryan, a 74-year-old former pip- looked at the records of more than 8,000 efitter and smelterman, put the size of the employees. The researchers could connect place in broader terms. the dots linking environmental exposure “You go up there at night, it was a city, to mortality rates and disease because lights burning everywhere,” he said from they could determine, through company his living room in a house he’s owned in records, where the workers stood or sat Opportunity since the 1970s. for 40 hours a week, 50 or so weeks out Of Lisac’s Tire Anaconda All of the workers mentioned Roaster of the year. 1100 W Park 2, which had “big, huge ovens” where Fraumeni and Lee’s research took them Anaconda the ore dried out before being sent to the all the way back to worker exposure in the 563-6110 Open up a charge account, six months no interest! arsenic roaster, then the reverb, another 1930s. They found a clear link between American Car Care Lisac’s Tire Montana set of furnaces that preheated the ore and respiratory cancer deaths and arsenic Muffler turned it into a molten liquid, which then AND SUPPLY went to the converter, which smelted the See ANACONDA, Page 10 3600 Harrison • Butte 494-4450 2109 Yale • Butte 782-4294 441 S Montana St. • Butte 782-9108 8 | AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years THE MONTANA STANDARD CALENDAR OF EVENTS Longfellow Finnegan Riddle Funeral Home & Cremation Service Anaconda stack 100th

th anniversary celebration In Celebration of the 100 Anaconda is celebrating the 100th birth- „ Parade starts at 6 p.m. day of the Anaconda stack at the Washoe Anniversary of the Anaconda Stack Smelter Wednesday through Saturday. Thursday The Washoe Theater, 305 Main St., will „ A wine walk of local busineses begins play two short films, one from the Ana- at 5 p.m. Pick up a map at Copper Village conda Company, plus a short Powerpoint and Art Museum. There will be historic presentation on the making of the stack photos of the stack along the wine walk. beginning at 5 p.m. each evening. „ Live music begins at 7 p.m. at Kennedy There will also be bus tours to the stack Common. The event is free. each day at the following times: 9 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2 p.m., and 5:30 p.m. Friday To take the bus to the stack, arrive 15 „ A street fair, with food and free music minutes early. Meet at Anaconda Smelter runs from 5 to 8 p.m. at Durston Park at the Stack State Park, 100 Smelter Road. Cost: corner of Park and Main Streets. $5 per ticket with a $1.22 ticket fee. Saturday Wednesday „ A 5k fun run begins at 9 a.m. at the „ Celebrating the 100th birthday of the Washoe Park Tennis Court in Washoe Park Kyle Zimmerman, Manager-Funeral Director Anaconda stack at the Washoe Smelter be- on Pennsylvania Street. Registration begins gins at 3 p.m. at Kennedy Common, Main at 8 a.m. Fee is by donation. PO Box 997 --- 107 Oak St. Anaconda, MT and Fourth Streets with kid’s activities, „ A brewfest and live music runs from 406-563-3371 food and live music. This is also the an- 2 to 7 p.m. at the Anaconda Chamber of Anaconda • Philipsburg • Drummond • Deer Lodge nual Smelterman’s Day. All events are free. Commerce, 306 E. Park Street.

WE ARE PROUDTO BE A PART OF ANACONDA’S THE RICH TH HISTORY&100 ANNIVERSARY OFTHE SMOKE STACK.

Jordan Contracting 50 MT-48,Anaconda, MT (406) 563-4409 THE MONTANA STANDARD AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years | 9

• Personal Injury • Insurance Disputes & • Workers’ Compensation Bad Faith • Car Accident & Motorcycle • Consumer Protection Accident Injuries • Wills, Trusts & Estates • Social Secutiry Disability • Wrongful Death

Bernard J. “Ben” J. Ben Everett Adam Cook Everett

217 E P EE • PO BO 969

EEP O E (406) 563-5005 • F (406) 563-0380 10 | AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years THE MONTANA STANDARD

“They gave you masks. Those masks were designed to get you through the gas and get out of there. They were not designed to work in. You couldn’t breathe. You were working hard. It was hot.” Butch Ryan, former pipefitter and smelterman Anaconda Continued from Page 7 exposure where arsenic was the heaviest in the facility. The original study was ground- breaking. The Anaconda smelter workers are now some of the most-stud- ied workers in the U.S. At least six additional studies have been conducted on that same group of roughly 8,000 workers since Fraumeni and Lee’s original work in 1969. The most recent, in 2015, by a University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill scientist, found that heavy arsenic exposure in the smelter was associated with an increased risk of death from heart disease for the workers. The company made efforts to decrease arsenic exposure to the workers over the years, according to both company spokespeople and researchers. Workers em- ployed in the first half of the 20th century suffered far more expo- sure than workers in the final two decades. Ryan says his grandfather, who worked at the smelter in the ear- lier era, walked in arsenic up to his knees. His grandfather died of lung cancer, according to Ryan. Ryan also says the company provided masks for the men to wear by the time he started with the company as a smelterman in 1966. But he said the workers didn’t always have them on. “They gave you masks. Those masks were designed to get you PHOTO COURTESY OF COPPER VILLAGE MUSEUM AND ART CENTER through the gas and get out of The stack at or near completion wound up towering over the original stack that was built at 300 feet in 1902. there. They were not designed to work in. You couldn’t breathe. Mangan family name. She con- 20-minute naps at the smelter ried its own particular danger. The ago, sitting on his patio while his You were working hard. It was tinued to go back every summer during his lunch hour on “asbes- men had to wear special clothes Scottish terrier occasionally took hot,” Ryan said. after that until she graduated tos pillows.” He rested his head on before entering. to barking in the yard. An Ameri- Mangan believes the emphy- with a teaching degree. potato sacks filled with chunks of The beryllium dust was so toxic can flag rolled back and forth in sema that killed her dad, a for- “There was no other way to pay asbestos. that no broom was allowed in that the breeze in front of his house. mer smelter employee, might have for college,” she said. Asbestos is highly toxic and particular facility. The beryllium The beryllium was used to cre- been from exposure to the arsenic causes mesothelioma, a cancer of plant had to be washed down with ate heat shields for rockets, Lakel and metals. What else was in the air? the lining of the lungs, and asbes- a hose, Lakel said. said. Nonetheless, the now-65- Arsenic wasn’t the only con- tosis, a deadly lung disease. “This was real deadly. I appre- “It was like powdered sugar and year-old went to work on the hill tamination that brought risk to Larry Lakel, a smelterman for ciated that, I really did when they it would get airborne really easy. shortly after he died. She wore the workers. approximately 15 years, worked told me you don’t want to breathe his hard hat, which still bore the Ryan remembers taking in the beryllium plant, which car- this stuff,” Lakel said two weeks See ANACONDA, Page 14 THE MONTANA STANDARD AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years | 11 PROUD TO BE IN ANACONDA & SW MONTANA SHOP MONTANA’S PREMIER CONVENIENCE STORES

ATM • BEER • POP • GAS • GROCERIES • AUTOMOTIVE • LOTTO • DELI 14 Location in SW Montana Anaconda, Helena, Butte Three Forks, Manhattan, Bozeman, Four Corners 2 Location in Anaconda

KICK OFF SMELTERMEN’S WEEK WITH FREE MUSIC SMOKESTACK and THE FOOTHILL FURY 3:00 PM IAN THOMAS and THE BAND of DRIFTERS 8:00 PM

August 8, 2018 Kennedy Common, Anaconda

Sponsored by    Thank you to the Anaconda Centennial Committee for Organizing a Great Week of Community Events 12 | AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years THE MONTANA STANDARD About the behemoth ...

Some interesting facts about 33,060 tons. the Anaconda Stack: „ First brick was laid on May „ The Anaconda Smelter Stack 23, 1918. Final brick laid on Nov. is the tallest free-standing ma- 30, 1918. sonry structure in the world at 585 „ The first smoke passed feet, 1½ inch tall. The Washing- through the stack on May 5, 1919. ton Monument is just over 555 feet „ The Anaconda Smelter was tall. It could actually fit snugly in- closed in 1980. side the Anaconda Stack. „ In 1983, Atlantic Richfield „ Approximately 10,000 trees declared its intention to remove were used just to construct the the smelter works and demolish wood scaffolding used in the the stack. Anacondans protested stack’s construction. the planned demolition and man- „ The inside diameter at the aged to stop it. The stack is now bottom of the stack is 75 feet 4 managed as a state park although inches, and at the top it is 60 feet. no access to the stack is allowed „ The walls range from 5 feet because of the ongoing cleanup. 4 inches thick at the base to 22 — Source: Anaconda Cham- PHOTO COURTESY OF COPPER VILLAGE MUSEUM AND ART CENTER inches thick at the top. ber of Commerce, Montana A group of workers gathered in 1918 once the base of the 585-foot Anaconda stack was complete and the next „ Total weight of the stack is State Parks phase of the work — the masonry — was ready to begin.

Celebrating THE ICONIC ANACONDA 201 East Park,Anaconda, SMOKE STACK100th100th Anniversary!Anniversary! 406-563-8441 Hours: Monday-Friday - 8 AM - 6 PM Gift shop only on Saturday 10 - 3. THE MONTANA STANDARD AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years | 13 14 | AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years THE MONTANA STANDARD

To the Anaconda Community On Your Celebration of the Anaconda Smoke Stack’s 100th Anniversary.

May the Memories of the Past be Honored by Your Celebration and Shared for Generation to Come!

FROM

AAND ALL OF US ATT CENTURY 21 Shea Realty NOW PROUDLY SERVING THE ANACONDA AREA FROM OUR NEW OFFICE AT WALTER HINICK FILE PHOTO 208 1/2 W.PARK STREET IN Stack inspector Omar Schultz scales the 585-foot stack in 1984. Schultz declared the stack sound but in need of repairs. Schultz advised removing the top eight or so feet that had been ANACONDA - OPENING SOON damaged by corrosive smoke that poured from the stack.

Anaconda in the late 1960s brought up the story of a man who died a particularly gruesome Continued from Page 10 death involving a giant auger. Other stories included men losing a limb We had respirators, a special nylon suit. on a conveyor belt, or getting crushed or You’d go in there, you’d have a face mask burned to death. There were also deaths with a filter on the back. When you left, caused by runaway trucks or rail cars that there was a fog room with a fine mist to moved unexpectedly. Sometimes the fires wet you down. You’d take off your clothes, in the furnaces got out of control and the shower and the last thing you’d take off is company kept its own fire department on the mask. The clothes were in a bag and site because of that. they washed them special,” Lakel said. Lakel experienced a few near misses. There were also bad accidents. All the workers employed at the smelter See ANACONDA, Page 18 THE MONTANA STANDARD AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years | 15 Just how big is that stack?

Tallest free-standing German brickmaker Alphons event. The stack was completed the stack’s resistance to hori- contained 111 miles of chains, Custodis. Radial bricks are not in November 1918 after 142 zontal stresses. which were electrifi ed so they masonry structure in rectangular but have varying working days employing an av- The top of the stack contained would attract particulates trav- dimensions specifi cally in- erage of 12 bricklayers per eight- 20 lightning rods spaced around eling up the chimney with the the world tended for chimney and stack hour shift (just one shift a day). the 60-foot-diameter top. The gas at a rated capacity of more construction and are larger than 305,000 board feet of lumber 1-inch points were tipped with than 3.5 million cubic feet of he Washoe Smelter stack regular bricks. The 2,464,672 went into the scaff olding inside platinum. gas per minute. The fi rst smoke in Anaconda is the tall- radial bricks in the smelter stack the growing chimney; that’s To celebrate the completion, came up the stack in late April Test free-standing masonry equate to more than 6.6 million about 10,000 trees. an open-air platform was erected and early May 1919. Anaconda- structure in the world. Yes, it is. common bricks. The Alphons Brick mortar took 77 50-ton within the stack’s mouth. Eleva- ARCO announced the closure of Carrie Johnson Custodis company designed train cars of sand combined with tors — one supposes they must the smelter in September 1980, laid to rest any and built the stack using bricks 37 cars of fi re clay, not count- have been more or less miners and today nothing but the stack technicalities and made in Anaconda, but the exact ing the 50 cars of sand and 118 cages — took celebrants 585 feet remains. competition with source of clay is unknown. The cars of crushed rock used for the above the ground. Ellen Crain’s Editor’s note: This column by the Washington company is still in business as 9,000-ton concrete base. grandmother fondly recalled the Richard Gibson fi rst ran in the Monument a few Hamon Custodis Inc. Resistance to wind pressure dancing she did there when she August 28, 2017 edition of The years ago. The foundation was fi nished was a signifi cant concern in the was 16 years old. Montana Standard. RICHARD I. What’s the stack in May 1918, and the fi rst brick stack’s construction. The larger One of the goals of the new GIBSON made of? was laid May 23, 1918, by smelter radial bricks make for fewer stack was to try to abate some of Local geologist and historian Dick There’s a manager Frederick Laist. Even joints and greater strength, the arsenic and sulfur emissions Gibson has lived in Butte since 30-foot-high oc- though he was with manage- enough to resist a wind pressure that had come from the older 2003 and has worked as a tour tagonal concrete base topped by ment, Laist was made an honor- of 33 pounds per square foot. 300-foot stack nearby, deci- guide for various organizations and 23,810 tons of bricks. They are ary life member of the Bricklay- There are also 24 steel bands mating the Deer Lodge Valley. museums. He can be reached at special radial bricks invented by ers and Masons Union for the within the brickwork to add to They certainly tried — the stack [email protected]. Celebrating 100 years of the Anaconda Smoke Stack! We are PROUD to live and work in this wonderful community! 16 | AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years THE MONTANA STANDARD Proud to be a part of Anaconda’s History and the 100th anniversary of the Anaconda MOKE STACK.

Copper Village Museum & Art LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 401 E. Commercial, Anaconda, MT 406-563-2422 Smeltermen leave work at the end of their shift in this 1942 Library of Congress photo. Celebrating the Proud to Celebrate foundation of ANACONDA’S HERITAGE Southwest Montana. Certified Olathe Colorado Montana Resources is proud to Angus Bone In be part of the mining story. Rib Eye Steak Bi-color Corn SHOP US $ 99 4/$ 00 for lb. 1 All Your 6 Favorites! Grocery – Charking Instant Light Charking Deli – Charcoal Charcoal Fresh Briquettes Briquettes Fruits & Vegetables 6.2 lb. bag 15.4 lb. $ 49 $ 29 1each 4 each

Learn about Butte’s mine at www.montanaresources.com THE MONTANA STANDARD AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years | 17

Congratulations on 100 YEARS! Locally owned since 1950 our family has served yours for generations. We are dedicated to continuing to provide first class service to Anaconda. Anaconda Montana • 406-563-5111

Looking Now Offering Good Trigger Point For Dry Needling 100! Copper City Physical Therapy now offers Gunn-IMS (intramuscular smulaon), a method of trigger point dry needling. It uses very fine needles to treat ght bands in various muscles Jacquie McAdam, MPT & Owner throughout the body. Julie Watson, PTA Michele Shea, Office Manager 3718 East Lake Street / Bue, MT 59701 406-299-2450 / www.coppercitypt.com 18 | AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years THE MONTANA STANDARD

you doing? Trying to get fired? Don’t get Anaconda caught.’ I says, ‘You caught me.’ He says Continued from Page 14 ‘Don’t let anybody else catch you.’ He says, ‘I got a job for you. Get a shovel and a Joseph Balkovatz, at 92, was the oldest pick, there’s a hole. You go down there and worker who spoke to The Montana Stan- clean that around there because you got to dard. His father lost a foot to a rail car at change that valve.’ I go down the ladder. He the plant. pulls the ladder out. I says, ‘What’re you doing?’ He says, ‘Nobody else will catch How did they you and I’ll be back at 20 to 4.’” get through it? Skocilich said that even when he was a foreman, he never told upper management. With the price of a draft beer at 10 cents, “You took care of people. You knew al- drink might be one answer. most everybody,” he said. Nearly all the former workers told the story of bartenders lining up 30 or 40 A place for immigrants shots as the streetcar or the company bus and the disenfranchised stopped at the bars both before work and after. Anaconda was once filled with immi- Virtually everyone we spoke with retold grants — mostly Irish, Italians, Serbs and • Golf Montana’s #1 Public Course the stories of the drinking that went on dur- Croats. ing the job and after the workers clocked out. They lived in separate neighborhoods The numbers vary, and had their own • 18 Hole, Par 72 depending on which “A lot of guys couldn’t stores. Margie Smith, former smelter one of the organiz- Proud to Be Part of Anaconda’s Community worker is talking, but read. They’d ask me ers of Smelterman’s they remember any- quietly — when you can’t Days, said immi- where from 20 to 56 read, you don’t want other grants sometimes bars during the 1960s came through Ellis Go Online at www.oldworks.org in the Smelter City. people to know — so I’d go Island with stick- or call 406-563-2211 Skocilich said that out in back with them and ers attached to their even though men clothes that said brought whiskey in go around and I’d read it “Anaconda Com- lunch buckets or kept (a company document) to pany” and “Mon- a flask of vodka at tana.” the ready, and some them and say, ‘Well, do John Forkan, re- were already drunk you want to take this deal tired head of the by 9 a.m., everybody plumbers and pipe- stayed mum. or not?’” fitters union in Butte, “We had a couple Larry Lakel, former smelterman said he remembers of guys … You’d put from his Anaconda them down in the childhood when rope house, the old barns for the horses, there was still a generation of Anacondans AnacondaMONTANA and they’d stay there until they sobered who spoke their native language and could up. Sometimes they never sobered up all not speak English. He said immigrants who day and nobody turned anybody in,” Sko- already had experience working on smelters cilich said. in their home countries were often the ones Many we talked to recalled showing up at shipped out to the Smelter City when they Proudly Supporting the work hung over. One of the most popular sought a new life in the New World. bars was the Owl, were three shots and a The smelter also was a place for those Community of Anaconda beer could be had for $1 50 years ago. without much education to work. “We’d rebuild the smelter, over and Lakel, who finished high school and and it’s Rich History! over,” Ryan joked. “The Owl Bar was great entered the Air Force before returning to for that. There was more work done in that Anaconda in 1965, said quitting school bar then there ever was in that smelter. ‘I and going to work on the smelter was not built this today, we put this up and that unusual. up.’ ‘Yea, I know you did.’ When, really, you “A lot of guys couldn’t read. They’d ask were wishing your hangover would go away me quietly — when you can’t read, you so you could go and have a beer.” don’t want other people to know — so I’d Lakel told a story about himself drinking go out in back with them and go around and while working. He said a supervisor was I’d read it (a company document) to them sending the men to different assignments. and say, ‘Well, do you want to take this deal Part of the Anaconda Business Community for Over 11 Years “I’m the last guy. I had a half-pint in my or not?’” Lakel recalled. back pocket. The boss comes over to me, 1081 W. Park -Anaconda - 563-7735 - www.anacondamotors.com he hits my back pocket, he says ‘What are See ANACONDA, Page 22 THE MONTANA STANDARD AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years | 19 Proud to be from a Community so Rich In History! Congratulations on the th Anniversary100 of the Anaconda Smelter Stack

Assisting those who have been injured with prompt, high quality legal services throughout the state of Montana. 1-800-257-1482 www.kortumlawoffice.com 20 | AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years THE MONTANA STANDARD Celebrating a 100 Years of Our Mining History Come See Why, We Were Voted Best for 6 Years in a Row! W PROUDLY CELEBRATING 20 YEARS! omen worked “Montana Owned and Operated” Big Sky Senior Living on Waterford Way

Adult Day Program • Memory Care • Assisted Living • Short Term Respite Care at smelter, too Retirement Cottages • Retirement Apartments SUSAN DUNLAP “It gave you a real incentive Never A Move In Fee • No Deposit Required [email protected] Women got jobs, even as smeltermen, at to get an education.” BUTTE & the Anaconda Smelter. SERVING According to the women who worked at Carol Davidson, who worked as a the smelter in the 1950s, there were rules smelterman during summers in the early SOUTHWEST MONTANA around women’s employment at the Ana- 1970s to help pay for college conda Company. But by the 1970s, those FOR rules had changed and women were work- down and have their pop and sit outside 20 YEARS! ing, in some instances, right alongside the during time off, and they used to watch the men in the dirtiest and most difficult jobs. girls,” she said. CONTACT US TODAY FOR YOUR TOUR! Carol Davison and Peggy Mangan got jobs Not all the women who worked at the as smeltermen in the summers in the early smelter had office jobs. 1970s to pay for college. Local historian Bob Vine wrote a mono- 406-494-4900 “It gave you a real incentive to get an ed- graph on the women who worked at the 3701 Elizabeth Warren ucation,” Davison said by phone from her Anaconda Smelter during World War II to Anaconda home last week. fill in at the plant when the men went off to Butte, Montana Davison, who is now 66, jokes that her serve at war. But as was true in most Ameri- www.bigskyseniorliving.com husband, Jim, had it easy at the smelter. can factories at the time, those women lost Jim Davison was an environmental engi- their jobs when it was time for the men to neer at the Anaconda Smelter in the 1970s. come back. They knew each other but were not married By the late 1950s, when Tocher and Te- at the time. resa Fullerton got on as key punch operators, Proud to be a part of the “Jim had the wimpy job,” Carol Davison the company hired women for the general said. office work, but the women workers faced Carol and Jim Davison did not start dating restrictions. while they were working there, but romance Women wore dresses or skirts, not pants. did spring up for one couple. Gary and Te- And the company only hired single women, A resa Fullerton met in the 1950s while work- Tocher said. ing at the smelter. Teresa Fullerton’s job was “If you got engaged and were getting keypunch in the general office. Gary Fuller- married, you were through with your job,” of the Smoke Stack. ton started out in the late 1950s working as a Tocher said. smelterman in the summers to pay for col- Tocher and Teresa Fullerton both remem- lege. After college, he went back to work at ber the company, and the times, beginning the Anaconda Smelter as a draftsman. to change while they still worked at the of- “I worked on the third floor, she worked fice. The company adjusted its rules around on the first floor of the general office build- 1960 and allowed the single women who got ing. I’d pass by her, take a break, get pop at married to stay on, at least until they got the pop machine on the first floor, go down pregnant. to get it, and first thing, she’d be there when I But they had to quit once they were three go down, and one thing led to another,” Gary months along, said Teresa Fullerton. Fullerton said by phone from his Phoenix When Mangan began work around 1970 home two weeks ago. as a smelterman, she said she worked right Now Gary and Teresa Fullerton have been alongside the men. She said that once she married for 59 years. proved she wanted to work, the men re- Ellen Tocher, who also worked alongside spected her. Teresa Fullerton as a key punch operator in But she does remember one moment 1200 E Commercial Ave, Anaconda, MT 59711 the late 1950s, remembers a little flirting when they gave her a hard time. that went on between some of the men and “The guys were laughing at me not be- (406) 563-5225 the women in the office. ing able to pick balls out of the copper,” she “The men upstairs, they would come said. www.deemotors.com THE MONTANA STANDARD AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years | 21

PHOTO COURTESY OF COPPER VILLAGE MUSEUM AND ART CENTER Mules began preparing the ground for the 585-foot Washoe Smelter in 1917. Behind them is the 300-foot smelter which the Anaconda Company built at the site in 1902. 22 | AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years THE MONTANA STANDARD

BRENDA FREEMAN AGENT 406-799-0866 [email protected] www.brendafreeman.org Come see me for all of your real estate needs. Your dream is my mission!

All offices are independently owned and operated. PROUD TO CELEBRATE 100 YEARS

WALTER HINICK FILE PHOTO OF THE ANACONDA SMOKE STACK! A Sikorsky H-34 hovers in the Anaconda stack plume in this 1976 file photo. The Environmental Protection Agency collected and studied samples from the plume.

came part of the United Steelworkers Union Anaconda of America in the 1950s, said Forkan. ANACONDA COUNTRY CLUB Continued from Page 18 There was always a job for anybody who was willing to work. Ellen Tocher, who at Whether it came from the union or 83 remembers working in the general of- HARDWARE HANK whether it came from the work, there was fice in the late 1950s, said neither a resume a sense of unity that brought the workers nor qualifications were needed. All a person STATE FARM/MIKE KING together. had to do was put in an application. “I loved the people,” Ryan said. “We were “There were jobs for everybody. You all cousins or related; we all knew each could learn a trade,” she said, surround- SUBWAY OF ANACONDA other. That made it real bearable.” ing by copper plates in her home in East Both the skilled and the unskilled belonged Anaconda. to unions. The smeltermen, who basically For many, working for the company was THE MONTANA STANDARD worked all over the smelter complex and took a point of intense pride. any job the boss gave them, belonged to the Myers said he didn’t work for the smelter. Mill and Smeltermen’s Union. That later be- “I worked for the Anaconda Company.” THE MONTANA STANDARD AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years | 23

Proud to be part The of the Anaconda Community since 1889! Anaconda Smoke Stack

An Unforgeable Structure 100th Year Anniversary 24 | AUGUST 2018 | Anaconda Smoke Stack, 100 years THE MONTANA STANDARD

Proudly serving the Anaconda community since 1889