ANACONDA — There are as many as
17,000 bodies buried in Anaconda’s five cemeteries, some of the
graveyards sprawling across hillsides overlooking the one-time company
town, and you might think all those headstones an apt metaphor.
What
could easily have been the kiss of death was delivered to Anaconda back
in 1980, when the smelter the town grew up next to was closed forever.
As
it was, the closure exacted a huge toll on the town, greater even than a
long-ago state election. With a change in just more than 900 votes out
of more than 52,000 cast in 1894, Anaconda would today be the capital of
Montana, and home to all the state jobs that come with the title.
Even though Helena won out in a
vicious election – Montana’s warring copper kings, William Clark (who
backed Helena) and Marcus Daly (Anaconda’s founder), spent the
equivalent of approximately $80 million in today’s dollars trying to
sway voters – Anaconda still thrived for decades after the capitol was
built 83 miles away.
But when
the Atlantic Richfield Company shut down the smelter in 1980 due to
falling copper prices, it was almost too much for Anaconda to bear.
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