The Boston and Montana Consolidated Copper and Silver Mining Company (the "Boston and Montana" or "B&M") was a mining, smelting, and refining company which operated primarily in the state of Montana in the United States. It was established in 1887 and merged with the Amalgamated Copper Company in 1901. The Amalgamated Copper Company changed its name to Anaconda Copper in 1910, and became one of America's largest corporations.[1] Historian Michael P. Malone has written, "Well financed and well managed, the Boston and Montana came to rank among the world's greatest copper companies."[2]
Adolph and Leonard Lewisohn were GermanJews whose father had established in 1858 an American subsidiary, Lewisohn Brothers, which bought and sold bristles, feathers, hair, metals, and wood.[3] In 1867, Adolph and Leonard emigrated to the United States and took over the company, focusing their attention on the trading of copper, lead, and zinc.[4] In 1879, the brothers were invited to purchase some mines in Arizona, Montana, and Tennessee.[4] With $75,000, they organized the Montana Copper Company, the Tennessee Copper and Chemical Company, and the Miami Copper Company (in Arizona).[4] In 1887, Adolph and Leonard bought Lewisohn Brothers from their father and turned it into an independent company.[4]
C. X. Larrabee, who co-founded the Boston and Montana smelting company in the 1890s.
The Boston and Montana was organized on July 22, 1887, by the merger of Lewisohn Brothers, the Montana Copper Company, and the mine holdings of C. X. Larrabee (owner of the highly productive and famous Larrabee and Mountain View mines).[5] It quickly became the second-largest company in Montana (only the Anaconda Copper Company in Butte was larger).[6] It owned mines in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, and Tennessee.[6] For many years, it was managed by "Captain" Thomas Couch, a Cornish immigrant and expert miner.[2]
In Montana, the B&M relied heavily on copper mined from the Leonard and the Colusa mines, near Butte.[2] The company owned a small smelter in Meaderville, a small town just east of Butte (now consumed by the Berkeley Pit mine).[2] Other productive mines (the Badger State, Comanche, Liquidator, Mountain View, Pennsylvania, Wandering Jew, and West Colusa) now added their ores to the stream needing smelting and refining.[7] The Meaderville smelter was too small, and any smelter would need cheap power and much water. Leonard Lewisohn considered both Helena and Great Falls for his new smelter.[7]
The balance was tipped in favor of Great Falls due to several factors. First was the existence of a railroad to Great Falls. James Jerome Hill, primary stockholder and president of the Great Northern Railway had established a subsidiary, the Montana Central Railway, on January 25, 1886.[8] Few railroads served Montana at that time. But Butte was a booming mining town that needed to get its metals to market, gold and silver had been discovered near Helena, and coal companies in Canada were eager to get their fuel to Montana's smelters.[8] Hill's close friend and business associate, Paris Gibson, had founded the town of Great Falls on the Great Falls of the Missouri River in 1883, and was promoting it as a site for the development of cheap hydroelectricity and heavy industry.[9] Hill was building the Great Northern across the northern tier of Montana, and it made sense to build a north-south railroad through central Montana to connect Great Falls with Helena and Butte.[8] Surveyors and engineers had begun grading a route between Helena and Great Falls in the winter of 1885–1886 (even before the company had been incorporated), and by the end of 1886 had surveyed a route from Helena to Butte.[8] Construction on the Great Northern's line westward began in late 1886, and on October 16, 1887, the link between Devils Lake, North Dakota; Fort Assinniboine (near the present-day city of Havre); and Great Falls was complete.[10] Service to Helena began in November 1887, and Butte followed on November 10, 1888.[11]
The second reason was Hill's own investment in the city of Great Falls. Hill organized the Great Falls Water Power & Townsite Company in 1887,[12][13] with the goal of developing the town of Great Falls; providing it with power, sewage, and water; and attracting commerce and industry to the city.[13][14] To attract industry to the new city, he offered low rates on the Montana Central Railway.[15] In case cheap power, plenty of water, and low shipping rates were not enough of an inducement, Hill also gave Leonard Lewisohn 1,500 shares in the Great Falls Water Power & Townsite Company.[7]
The Boston and Montana Smelter in Great Falls, Montana, circa 1907. Black Eagle Dam is to the left.
On September 12, 1889, the Boston and Montana signed an agreement with Great Falls Water Power & Townsite Company in which the power company agreed to build a dam that would supply the mining firm with at least 1,000 horsepower (or 0.75 MW) of power by September 1, 1890, and 5,000 horsepower (or 3.73 MW) of power by January 1, 1891.[16][17] In exchange, Boston and Montana agreed to build a $300,000 copper smelter near the dam.[12][16]Black Eagle Dam began generating electricity in December 1890.[18] Water was permitted to flow over the crest of the dam on January 6, 1891, and the dam was considered complete on March 15, 1891.[19]
Ground was broken on the smelter in the spring of 1890.[20] It was located on a bluff overlooking Black Eagle Dam next to the hamlet of Black Eagle, Montana. The concentrator[21] opened in March 1891; Brückner cylinders[22] and reverberatory furnaces in April 1892; converters in August 1892; refining furnaces[23] in January 1893; an electrolytic refinery in February 1893; and blast furnaces in April 1893.[20][24] The cost of the original plant was $2 million,[25] and by 1892 more than 1,000 workers were employed at the smelter.[26]
Along with Anaconda Copper, the Butte and Boston Consolidated Mining Company,[27] and the Montana Ore Purchasing Company, the Boston and Montana was the most powerful mining and refining concern in Montana in the early 1890s.[28] In 1890, 50 percent of all copper mined in the U.S. came from Montana.[29] In 1897, Anaconda Copper supplied 341,500,000 pounds (154,900,000kg) of copper; Calumet and Hecla (in Michigan) supplied 88,400,000 pounds (40,100,000kg) of copper; and the Boston and Montana 60,000,000 pounds (27,000,000kg).[29]
In 1899, Henry Huttleston Rogers, a business associate of John D. Rockefeller, proposed the creation of a giant copper company through the consolidation of smaller firms.[28][30]F. Augustus Heinze, owner of Montana Ore, opposed these efforts. After losing several battles in Montana state courts, Rogers and his business associates incorporated in the state of New York and attempted to obtain control of several Montana copper mining and smelting companies.[28] Their goal was to establish diversity of jurisdiction so that any future lawsuits would be heard by federal courts (which Rogers believed would be less considerate of Heinze's interests).[28] Heinze's associates bought stock in the New York company, and then initiated a lawsuit (financed by Heinze) in which they claimed that the reincorporation had been done without shareholder consent.[28] Rogers lost the suit, and was forced to re-reincorporate (a process which took several years).[28] Rogers purchased Anaconda Copper in 1899, then established a new holding company (the Amalgamated Copper Company) to control Anaconda and the other firms Rogers coveted.[31] By November 1900, Amalgamated had purchased the Colorado Smelter and Mining Company and the Washoe Copper Company, and had a controlling interest in the stock of the Parrott Silver and Copper Mining Company.[31] The following year, Rogers obtained a majority stockholder position in the Boston and Montana and the Butte and Montana companies.[31]
Post-consolidation
In 1903, the Amalgamated shut down its smelting operations in an attempt to force Heinze to shut down his mines. This would turn Heinze's miners, who idolized their young chief executive officer, against him.[31] Unfortunately, Heinze kept his mining operations open. In 1904, he disobeyed a federal injunction and began mining an underground area whose ownership was in dispute.[31] Heinze was fined $20,000, and held in contempt of court.[1]John D. Ryan, president of the Daly Bank and Trust Co. in Butte and former president of the Anaconda Company,[32] convinced Heinze to sell out to Amalgamated.[1] Heinze did so in 1906, accepting $10.5 million in compensation and agreeing to end more than 110 lawsuits which had tied up $70 to $100 million worth of Amalgamated property.[1][6]
The B&M's site in Great Falls later became known for a record-setting smokestack. On April 7, 1908, construction began on the "Big Stack," a chimney for dispersal of fumes 506 feet (154m) high, with an interior measurement of 78.5 feet (23.9m) in diameter at the base and 50 feet (15m) in diameter at the top.[33] Built by the Alphonse Custodis Construction Co. of New York, it was completed on October 23, 1908,[33] and was the tallest chimney in the world when finished.[34]
The former Boston and Montana smelter in Great Falls closed in 1980.[35]
In 2011, the old B&M smelter was listed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a Superfund hazardous and toxic waste site.[36] The EPA also said it would begin sampling for the riverbed above and below Black Eagle Dam, as well as residential areas in the town of Black Eagle, for heavy metals contamination.[36] Historic records show that plant wastes were routinely dumped into the Missouri River below Black Eagle dam.[36][37][38] The Montana Department of Environmental Quality estimated in 2002 that between 27,500,000 cubic yards (21,000,000m3) and 31,000,000 cubic yards (24,000,000m3) of waste were dumped into the river between 1892 and 1915.[38] EPA samples indicated that the contamination could extend as far downstream as Fort Benton, 34 miles (55km) away.[36] Toxins present in the water and riverbed, according to the EPA, include antimony, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, silver, sodium, and zinc.[37]
↑ This company had been formed by the Lewisohn brothers and Albert S. Bigelow, a wealthy copper mine owner from Boston, Massachusetts. It was created in February 1897, and had an interlocking board of directors with the Boston and Montana. See: Malone, p. 48; McNeils, p. 211.
1 2 3 4 Puckett, Karl. "EPA Adds Black Eagle Site to Superfund List." Great Falls Tribune. March 9, 2011.
1 2 Environmental Protection Agency. "EPA Adds Anaconda Copper Mining Co. Smelter and Refinery in Cascade County to Superfund Site List." Press release. March 8, 2011.
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Great Falls is the third most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Cascade County. The population was 60,442 according to the 2020 census. The city covers an area of 22.9 square miles (59 km2) and is the principal city of the Great Falls, Montana, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cascade County. The Great Falls MSA’s population stood at 84,414 in the 2020 census.
Marcus Daly was an Irish-born American businessman known as one of the three "Copper Kings" of Butte, Montana, United States.
Butte is a consolidated city-county and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. The city covers 718 square miles (1,860 km2), and, according to the 2020 census, has a population of 34,494, making it Montana's fifth largest city. It is served by Bert Mooney Airport with airport code BTM.
The Anaconda Copper Mine was a large copper mine in Butte, Montana that closed operations in 1947 and was eventually consumed by the Berkeley Pit, a vast open-pit mine. Originally a silver mine, it was bought for $30,000 in 1881 by an Irish immigrant named Marcus Daly from Michael Hickey, a Civil War veteran, and co-owner Charles X. Larabie. From this beginning Daly, along with partners George Hearst, James Ben Ali Haggin and Lloyd Tevis, created the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, which ultimately became a global mining enterprise that would go on to mine 18 billion pounds of copper over 100 years. At the height of The Anaconda Copper Mining Company, it consisted of the Anaconda and other Butte mines, a smelter at Anaconda, Montana, processing plants in Great Falls, Montana, the American Brass Company, and many other properties spanning multiple countries.
This is a broad outline history of the state of Montana in the United States.
The Copper Kings were the three industrialists Marcus Daly, William A. Clark, and F. Augustus Heinze. They were known for the epic battles fought in Butte, Montana, and the surrounding region, during the Gilded Age, over control of the local copper mining industry, the fight that had ramifications for not only Montana, but the United States as a whole.
Frederick "Fritz" Augustus Heinze was an American businessman, known as one of the three Copper Kings of Butte, Montana, along with William Andrews Clark and Marcus Daly. He was an intelligent, charismatic and devious character, but was also seen as a hero especially by many of the citizens of Montana.
The Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway is a short line railroad in the U.S. state of Montana. The BA&P was founded in 1891 and operated as such until sale in 1985, when it was renamed the Rarus Railway. The railway was again sold in May 2007 to the Patriot Rail Corporation, and the name returned to the Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway in July 2007. The railway was the main conduit for ore transport between Butte and Anaconda, and was used for filming of portions of the 1985 Golden Globe nominated movie Runaway Train.
The Anaconda Copper Mining Company, known as the Amalgamated Copper Company between 1899 and 1915, was an American mining company headquartered in Butte, Montana. It was one of the largest trusts of the early 20th century and one of the largest mining companies in the world for much of the 20th century.
Samuel Thomas Hauser was an American industrialist and banker who was active in the development of Montana Territory. He made his first fortune in silver mines and railroads, but he lost everything in the Panic of 1893. He restored his fortune by building hydroelectric dams, only to lose it all again after his Hauser Dam burst. In addition to his many business interests, he was appointed the 7th Governor of the Montana Territory, serving from 1885 to 1887.
John Dennis Ryan was an American industrialist and copper mining magnate. He served as President of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company and was a founder of the Montana Power Company.
Aldridge is a ghost town in Park County, Montana, United States. According to the book Ghost Towns of the Montana Prairie, the town was incorporated as Aldridge in 1906 but was earlier named Horr, and later Electric. Aldridge is a mining town that supplied coke and coal to the smelters for the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Aldridge is located two miles north of the northern entrance to Yellowstone National Park.
Black Eagle Dam is a hydroelectric gravity weir dam located on the Missouri River in the city of Great Falls, Montana. The first dam on the site, built and opened in 1890, was a timber-and-rock crib dam. This structure was the first hydroelectric dam built in Montana and the first built on the Missouri River. The dam helped give the city of Great Falls the nickname "The Electric City." A second dam, built of concrete in 1926 and opened in 1927, replaced the first dam, which was not removed and lies submerged in the reservoir. Almost unchanged since 1926, the dam is 782 feet (238 m) long and 34.5 feet (10.5 m) high, and its powerhouse contains three turbines capable of generating seven megawatts (MW) of power each. The maximum power output of the dam is 18 MW. Montana Power Company built the second dam, PPL Corporation purchased it in 1997 and sold it to NorthWestern Corporation in 2014. The reservoir behind the dam has no official name, but was called the Long Pool for many years. The reservoir is about 2 miles (3.2 km) long, and has a storage capacity of 1,710 acre-feet (2,110,000 m3) to 1,820 acre-feet (2,240,000 m3) of water.
The Montana Central Railway was a railway company which operated in the American state of Montana from 1886 to 1907. It was constructed by James Jerome Hill's St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway, and became part of the Great Northern Railway in 1889.
Montana silver mining was a major industry in the 1800s following discovery of numerous silver deposits. Between 1883 and 1891 Montana was second every year to Colorado in silver production, except for 1887 when Montana was number one, producing approximately $15.5 million worth of silver. Major mining districts in Montana included Butte, which was home to many important mines such as the Lexington, Alice, and Moulton mines, and Philipsburg, which housed the Granite Mountain and Bimetallic mines. Other influential, but significantly smaller mines, operated at Helena and the Castle Mountains. The rapid raise and fall of these mines were due to largely geological and economic factors that created favorable conditions for a silver mining boom and subsequent bust. Montana continued to produce considerable silver through most of the 1900s, as a byproduct of copper production at Butte.
Silver Bow Creek is a 26-mile-long (42 km) headwater stream of the Clark Fork (river) originating within the city limits of Butte, Montana, from the confluence of Little Basin and Blacktail Creeks. A former northern tributary, Yankee Doodle Creek, no longer flows directly into Silver Bow Creek as it is now captured by the Berkeley Pit. Silver Bow Creek flows northwest and north through a high mountain valley, passing east of Anaconda, Montana, where it becomes the Clark Fork at the confluence with Warm Springs Creek.
The Butte, Montana labor riots of 1914 were a series of violent clashes between copper miners at Butte, Montana. The opposing factions were the miners dissatisfied with the Western Federation of Miners local at Butte, on the one hand, and those loyal to the union local on the other. The dissident miners formed a new union, and demanded that all miners must join the new union, or be subject to beatings or forced expulsion from the area. Sources disagree whether the dissidents were a majority of the miners, or a militant minority. The leadership of the new union contained many who were members of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.), or agreed with the I.W.W.'s methods and objectives. The result of the dispute between rival unions was that the copper mines of Butte, which had long been a union stronghold for the WFM, became open shop employers, and recognized no union from 1914 until 1934.
Butte is a city in southwestern Montana established as a mining camp in the 1860s in the northern Rocky Mountains straddling the Continental Divide. Butte became a hotbed for silver and gold mining in its early stages, and grew exponentially upon the advent of electricity in the late-nineteenth century due to the land's large natural stores of copper. In 1888 alone, mining operations in Butte had generated an output of $23 million. The arrival of several magnates in the area around this time, later known as the "Copper Kings," marked the beginning of Butte's establishment as a boomtown.
The International Smelting and Refining Company was a subsidiary of Anaconda Copper that operated primarily out of the International Smelter near Tooele, Utah. The International Smelter began operation in 1910 as a copper producer handling ores from Bingham Canyon and was expanded into a lead smelting operation in 1912. Copper smelting finished at International in 1946, and the lead smelter shut down in January 1972. The closure of the smelter would lead to the associated Tooele Valley Railway to be shut down ten years later in 1982. The company also handled several other Anaconda owned interests. After the shut down of several of the International Smelting sites, environmental reclamation has been performed by Anaconda Copper's successor company ARCO and the EPA Superfund program.
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