ABSTRACT
Joe Howard was referring to the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, sometimes called the Big Snake. Anaconda is the empire that resulted from the war of three men who were rightly enough called the copper kings. Aside from Wall Street, which does not count because it deals with symbols like stocks and bonds and not with actual mines and ores, there has been no physical battleground in the same class with Butte, Montana. Butte stands a mile high, a mile deep, and it stands alone in the matter of violence. Viewed at twilight from the high pass where the Northern Pacific's Limited emerges from the mountains, Butte presents a dramatic picture, twinkling with astonishing brilliance in the high thin air. Viewed closely at noon the big camp is as ugly as sin and just as fascinating. William Andrews Clark was first on the scene. Nine years after he arrived, William Clark was the leading banker and all-around businessman in the Territory.
