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How did a town in Montana come to be called Anaconda?
You raised an interesting question.
Here's what a Google search has to say about it:
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Anaconda was founded by Marcus Daly, one of the Copper Kings, who financed the construction of a smelter on nearby Warm Springs Creek to process copper ore from the Butte mines. In June 1883, Daly filed for a town plat for "Copperopolis," but that name was already used by another mining town in Meagher County. Instead, Daly accepted the name "Anaconda," suggested by the United States postmaster of the time, Clinton Moore.
OTOH, here's what a historical website suggests:
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In 1883, Marcus Daly obtained land and water rights on Warm Springs Creek for a new smelter for his Anaconda Company. The city of Anaconda, named for the company, sprang up around the smelter and was incorporated in 1887.
Another variation explains it thusly:
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The Anaconda Copper Mine was a large copper mine in Butte, Montana. It was bought in 1881 by Marcus Daly from Michael Hickey. Hickey was a prospector and Union Civil War veteran, and named his claim the Anaconda Mine after reading Horace Greeley's Civil War account of how Ulysses S. Grant's forces had surrounded Robert E. Lee's forces "like an anaconda". Daly then developed the Anaconda Mine in partnership with George Hearst, father of William Randolph Hearst, and James Ben Ali Haggin and Lloyd Tevis of San Francisco. Thus the town of Anaconda was born.
I wonder who's right?
Posted 09/28/2015 2:25 pm
