ABOUT THE BOOK
Anaconda And Me
Anaconda is old and was formed by the copper industry in Butte. The two most famous characters in the formation of what was called the Anaconda Company were Marcus Daly and William Clark, who are figures in a tale of intrigue themselves. That story has been told by a number of local and national authors who are more interested in Montana history than I am. To make a long history short, the Anaconda Company sold its interests in Butte and Anaconda to Arco, and Arco closed its purchase in 1981. The good thing, if there is a good thing, is that the government forced Arco to clean up the whole damned area, and that has been one of the largest cleanup efforts in the United States. I can report that the countryside looks very inviting now, and the nakedness, which once was very unsightly due to years of the pouring of arsenic and other chemicals into the air from the big stack, has been replaced by green trees and grasses, and the hills are beautiful and animal life has reappeared. Our town is now populated by a large herd of whitetail deer, which are in our yards almost daily, and if you walk the trails east of Anaconda, you will see cranes and eagles.
The closing of the smelter did injure our economy, but the people of Anaconda are a hearty lot. We are still here, and brave souls begin businesses; and the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge, the Anaconda Job Corps and Warm Springs State Hospital, our own Anaconda Community Hospital, the Anaconda school system, and employment in other communities— such as Butte, Deer Lodge, Helena, and Philipsburg—keep us afloat.
The southern hillsides of Anaconda were one block away from my house, and when we all played there, many an imaginary Indian or outlaw died from cap pistols. We built cabins and roasted marshmallows and baked potatoes. We skied and rode sleds in the winter. We skied cars and skated on the rink at the city commons. In the summer, we played and fished at Washoe Park, and we rode the rafts at Hefner’s Dam. We floated in tubes down Warm Springs Creek.
We played baseball and football in the streets, occasionally breaking a window or two. We played basketball in the alleys. Generous adults would sometimes put basketball hoops behind their garages, so we could play. It was all magical, but with high school, it all came to a crashing end, and the reality of adulthood came upon us.
