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Michael Hickey, an Irish miner and Union
Army veteran, read an editorial by Horace Greeley in the New York Tribune
stating that Grant’s army was “encircling Lee’s forces like a giant
anaconda.” Years later, at Copper Camp, Hickey recalled,
 “That
world struck me as a mighty good one. I always remembered it, and when I wanted
a name for my mine, I remembered Greeley’s editorial and called it the
‘Anaconda.’” Hickey’s famous property, discovered in 1882, led to one of
Butte’s richest copper veins, and later gave its name to the largest copper
mining, smelting and fabricating organization in the world: the Anaconda Copper
Mining Company. (from Cheney’s Names on the Face of Montana, Mountain Press
Publishing Company) The town of Anaconda received its name from the mine and
world-renowned mining company.
As telephone, telegraph and electrical wire was strewn about the country at the
end of the 19th century, these huge copper mines in the area around Anaconda
provided the necessary materials to light up the
United States
. In turn, the mines created some of the world’s wealthiest men including
Marcus Daly, founder of Anaconda. “Copper King” Marcus Daly chose the
site in 1882 because of the ample supply of water and limestone nearby.
In 1980, the Anaconda Company shut down
its smelter operation in Anaconda, putting an end to the town's historic
economic base. The idle smokestack, which can be seen from the interstate,
stands more than 585 feet high and measures 86 feet in diameter at the base. It
is the tallest freestanding masonry structure in the world. The stack was
declared a state monument by the 1985 Montana Legislature.
Today, Anaconda serves as the county seat
of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County. The Continental Divide passes within a few
miles of the city limits and Rocky Mountain peaks reach 10,379 feet.
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