Anaconda Copper Mining Company’s Benevolence

The Anaconda Copper Mining Company controlled much of Montana in the first half of the twentieth century, and many compared its grip to a giant snake coiled around the state.


"In the coils of the Anaconda," Butte Daily Bulletin, October 2, 1920

The company tried to soften that negativity by doing good works, especially at Christmastime. The three hundred children at the state orphanage at Twin Bridges especially benefited from the company’s public generosity. In 1934, at the height of the Great Depression, the company carried out what the Anaconda Standard termed its “annual task of love.” Children at the orphanage were asked to submit a first and second request from Santa Claus, and the list then went to the Anaconda Company offices in Butte. Secretarial staff then did the shopping, choosing gifts according to the list. Among the gifts in 1934 were sheepskin coats, doll buggies, pleated hip skirts, skates, tinker toys, Tarzan books, phonographs, sleds, leatherette helmets, wrist watches, Brownie cameras, and bamboo fishing outfits. Staff individually wrapped each gift and decorated it with ribbons, tinsel, and ornaments, topping the finished package with a Christmas card bearing the child’s name and cottage number. The children lived in cottages on the property and each cottage had its own individual tree. Late on Christmas Eve, the gifts, along with a generous supply of candy and nuts, were placed beneath the trees in their respective cottages. The Anaconda Company extended equal benevolence to the children at the State Tuberculosis Sanitarium at Galen and the crippled children of Butte. At least on Christmas morning, the coiled snake of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company directed its grip to a truly needy population and used its wealth to do something good.

Spokane

Not all of Montana's great athletes have been human. As we continue our look at sports history, let's remember a four-legged champion...

Noah Armstrong made a fortune in the Glendale mines southwest of Butte. He had a ranch in Madison County where he built a beautiful three-story round barn. If you drive along the highway near Twin Bridges in Madison County, you can see it off the highway. Its board-and-batten walls are painted red, and its shape is like a wedding cake, with each story smaller than the one below it.

Photo by Tom Ferris in Hand Raised: The Barns of Montana.

This barn is famous as the birthplace of the only Montana horse to win the Kentucky Derby. Armstrong invested some of his wealth in raising and racing thoroughbreds. In 1887 the famous racehorse Spokane was born in Armstrong’s round barn. A quarter-mile track inside the barn was the colt’s first training ground. Armstrong sent him to Tennessee for further training. In 1889 when Spokane was three, Armstrong entered him in the fifteenth Kentucky Derby. Spokane had only run a few undistinguished races. Bookies overlooked him at six to one odds, favoring the famous Proctor Knott, a proven winner who already had brought his owner seventy thousand dollars. That day at Churchill Downs, thousands witnessed the little copper-colored horse from Montana make racing history. He passed Proctor Knott at the finish line. Spokane went on to win two more big races: the American Derby at Churchill Downs and the Clark Stakes in Chicago, beating the mighty Proctor Knott both times. No other three-year-old horse has ever won all three great races. Spokane lives on in the annals of racing history.

From Montana Moments: History on the Go