Butte-Anaconda Historic District NHL

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DescriptionLooming black steel headframes in Butte and the towering smokestack of the Anaconda Company’s Washoe Reduction Works in Anaconda recall the industrial roots of these sister cities, the source of much of the world’s copper in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The dangerous work of extracting copper for telegraph wires, telephones, and electrical lines bred solidarity among miners and smelter workers, and Butte became known as the “Gibraltar of Unionism.” Two of the nation’s most radical unions—the Western Federation of Miners and the Industrial Workers of the World—had their roots here, and clashes between management and labor marked the district, especially after the 1917 Granite Mountain–Speculator Mine fire in Butte, the worst hard-rock mining disaster in the nation’s history. Labor unrest and years under martial law followed in Butte, while in Anaconda the company fired agitators and suspected Socialists, devastating the unions. Butte and Anaconda workers reorganized during the New Deal, after the federal government guaranteed the right of workers to unionize. In 2006, the NPS designated Butte, Anaconda, and nearby Walkerville a National Historic Landmark (NHL), one of the largest in the West. It encompasses nearly 10,000 acres, with more than 6,000 contributing resources.Contributing InstitutionMontana Historical Society Library and ArchivesGeolocation^[1]CountySilver Bow CountyDeer Lodge County

CollectionMontana Place Names from Alzada to ZortmanPlace Names MapMontana Place Names

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Butte-Anaconda Historic District NHL

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