You’ve probably heard of the "Richest Hill on Earth." It’s not just some catchy marketing slogan dreamed up by a tourism board in Butte. For decades, the Anaconda Copper Mine Montana was basically the engine room of the American Industrial Revolution. If you’re reading this on a device or sitting in a room with electrical wiring, there’s a statistically significant chance that some of the copper making that possible was hauled out of the ground in Southwest Montana over a century ago.
But it wasn't all just mountains of cash and progress.
The story of the Anaconda Copper Mine Montana is messy. It’s a tale of incredible engineering, cutthroat business tactics, and an environmental legacy that we’re still trying to clean up today. Honestly, it’s one of those rare historical sagas where the reality is actually more wild than the legends.
The Rise of the Copper Kings
In the late 1800s, Butte was the place to be if you didn't mind the smell of sulfur and the constant rattle of ore cars. It started with gold and silver, sure, but Marcus Daly—an Irish immigrant with a literal nose for ore—realized the real money was in the red metal. He bought the Anaconda silver mine in 1881 and quickly discovered a vein of copper that was 50 feet wide. This wasn't just a lucky strike; it was a geological anomaly.
Daly needed money to scale up, so he partnered with George Hearst (yes, the father of William Randolph Hearst). Together, they built a corporate behemoth that would eventually become the Anaconda Copper Mining Company.
By the turn of the century, this single entity controlled a massive chunk of the global copper market. They didn't just own the mines. They owned the smelters in the nearby town of Anaconda, the railroads, the timber for the mine shafts, and—as many locals at the time would tell you—most of the Montana state legislature. It was a monopoly in the truest, grittiest sense of the word. They called it "The Company." In Montana, you didn't need to specify which one. Everyone knew.
The War of the Copper Kings
Business back then was basically combat. Marcus Daly and William A. Clark, another mining tycoon, hated each other with a passion that defined Montana politics for twenty years. Clark wanted to be a U.S. Senator. Daly spent millions to make sure that didn't happen. Clark once famously said he never bought a man who wasn't for sale, and in the context of 1890s Montana, a lot of people were for sale.
This rivalry wasn't just about ego. It shaped how the mines were run and how the city of Butte grew into a cosmopolitan, gritty, multi-ethnic metropolis in the middle of the Rockies. While the bosses fought in the capital, the miners—thousands of them from Ireland, Cornwall, Serbia, and Italy—were descending thousands of feet into the hot, humid depths of the earth.
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The Shift to Open-Pit Mining: The Berkeley Pit
For a long time, the Anaconda Copper Mine Montana was an underground operation. Thousands of miles of tunnels crisscrossed beneath the streets of Butte. But by the 1950s, the high-grade veins were thinning out. The Company faced a choice: shut down or find a cheaper way to get the lower-grade ore.
They chose the Berkeley Pit.
Starting in 1955, they began moving away from underground mining in favor of open-pit extraction. This changed everything. It was efficient, but it was destructive. To grow the pit, they had to consume entire neighborhoods. Meaderville, East Butte, and McQueen—places where people had raised families for generations—were simply swallowed by the advancing edge of the pit.
Why the Pit Became a Problem
When the mine finally closed in 1982, the pumps that kept the underground water out were turned off. This is where things got dark. The water began to rise, flooding the old shafts and eventually filling the Berkeley Pit itself.
As the water rose, it reacted with the iron pyrite (fool's gold) and other minerals in the rock. This created sulfuric acid. The pit essentially turned into a giant vat of toxic, acidic "heavy metal soup" containing high concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, and zinc.
By the mid-80s, the site was designated as one of the largest Superfund sites in the United States. If you visit today, you’ll see the "Critical Water Level." This is the point where the water in the pit would theoretically start flowing back out into the local groundwater. To prevent this, a massive water treatment plant works 24/7 to clean the water and keep the levels stable. It’s a permanent, multi-generational maintenance project.
The Economic Ghost of the Anaconda Copper Mine Montana
It’s hard to overstate how much the closure of the mine gutted the region. In its heyday, the Anaconda Company employed tens of thousands. When the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), which had bought Anaconda in 1977, shut down operations in Butte and the smelter in Anaconda, the economic rug was pulled out from under the entire state.
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Towns that were built on the "Company way" had to reinvent themselves. Anaconda, the town, still has the massive 585-foot smelter stack—the tallest free-standing brick structure in the world. It’s a landmark now, a monument to a vanished industry.
The transition wasn't pretty. People lost pensions, houses lost value, and the young people left. But Butte is stubborn. The city survived by leaning into its history and, ironically, by becoming a center for environmental engineering and reclamation research because of the mess left behind.
Realities of Modern Reclamation
There’s a lot of misinformation about what’s happening at the site now. Some people think it’s a dead zone. It’s not. But it’s also not "fixed."
- Water Management: The Horseshoe Bend Water Treatment Plant is the hero here. It processes millions of gallons a day.
- The Bird Issue: You might have heard about the snow geese. In 1995 and again in 2016, thousands of migrating geese landed on the pit water and died from the acidity. Now, there are elaborate systems—think loudspeakers, lasers, and drones—to keep birds from landing.
- The Copper Still Exists: Believe it or not, there is still active mining in Butte. Montana Resources operates the Continental Pit, just a stone's throw from the Berkeley Pit. They still pull copper and molybdenum out of the ground, though the scale and workforce are a fraction of what they used to be.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Site
One big misconception is that the Anaconda Copper Mine Montana was just a hole in the ground in Butte. In reality, it was a global empire. They owned mines in Chile (the famous Chuquicamata mine) that eventually became even more important to the company's bottom line than the Montana holdings.
Another mistake is thinking the environmental damage was purely accidental. The technology of the time focused on extraction at any cost. The long-term consequences were often ignored or simply not understood until it was too late.
Honestly, the "Richest Hill on Earth" is a bit of a tragic nickname. It brought wealth that built cities and won wars, but it left the people of Montana with a bill that will never be fully paid.
Actionable Insights for Visiting and Learning
If you’re interested in seeing the legacy of the Anaconda Copper Mine Montana firsthand, don't just look at the pit from a distance. You need to actually engage with the history to understand the scale.
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1. Visit the World Museum of Mining
This is located on an actual old mine yard (the Orphan Girl). You can go underground. It gives you a visceral sense of the cramped, dangerous conditions miners faced before the open-pit era.
2. Check out the Berkeley Pit Viewing Stand
It costs a few bucks, and yeah, it’s a bit macabre to pay to see a toxic lake. But standing on that platform and looking at the sheer scale of the excavation puts the industrial might of the 20th century into perspective.
3. Walk through the town of Anaconda
Drive 25 minutes west of Butte. Look at the Stack. Visit the Washoe Theater. You’ll see the architectural grandeur that copper money bought—and the stark contrast with the industrial landscape surrounding it.
4. Follow the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)
If you're a data nerd, the DEQ and the EPA publish regular updates on the cleanup progress. It’s a fascinating look at how modern science tries to undo a century of industrial impact.
The story of the Anaconda Copper Mine Montana isn't over. It’s just in a different phase. We’ve moved from extraction to mitigation, and the "Hill" continues to teach us about the true cost of the materials that power our world.
Key Resources for Further Research
- The Butte-Silver Bow Public Library: They have an incredible digital archive of mining photos and records.
- "Mile High, Mile Deep" by Richard K. O'Malley: A classic book that captures what life was really like in the mining camps.
- EPA Superfund Site Profiles: Search for "Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area" to get the technical breakdown of the ongoing cleanup efforts.
Understand that the legacy of this mine is baked into the soil and the culture of Montana. It’s a reminder that every industrial boom has a tail, and sometimes that tail is a lot longer than anyone expected.
To get the most out of a visit or a research project, focus on the tension between the economic survival the mine provided and the ecological debt it left behind. That's where the real story lives. Check local event calendars in Butte—often there are lectures or "history walks" led by former miners who can tell you what the textbooks leave out. Look for the "Butte Archives" specifically for personal letters and payroll records that humanize the massive corporate history.