Butte in Silver Bow County, Montana — The American West (Mountains)
Butte-Anaconda Historic District
Photographed By Cosmos Mariner, July 18, 2016
1. Butte-Anaconda Historic District Marker
Inscription.
Butte-Anaconda Historic District. . It took millions of miles of copper to build the telegraph, telephone, and electrical lines that transformed the United States from a collection of small, isolated communities to a cohesive, industrialized nation. Looming gallows frames and the towering Anaconda Company smokestack recall the industrial roots of these sister cities, the source of much of that copper. Extracting the metal was hazardous work, and the danger bred solidarity among miners and smelterworkers. Two of the nation's most radical unions had their roots in Butte and Walkerville, “The Gibraltar of Unionism.” They were the Western Federation of Miners and the Industrial Workers of the World, whose rhetoric opposing “wage slavery” challenged the foundations of American capitalism. Clashes between capital and labor marked the district, especially after the 1917 Butte Granite Mountain/Speculator Mine fire, the worst hard-rock mining disaster in the nation's history. Labor unrest and years under martial law followed in Butte, while in Anaconda, the Company fired suspected Socialists and agitators, devastating the unions. Butte and Anaconda workers reorganized during the New Deal after the federal government guaranteed the right of workers to unionize. Their four-month industry-wide strike in 1934 precipitated the birth of the CIO, an organization that helped rejuvenate the labor movement nationwide. In 2006, the National Park Service recognized Butte, Anaconda, and Walkerville's significance to the intertwined histories of mining and labor by declaring the district a National Historic Landmark. It is the largest NHL in the West, covering the period 1876-1934 and encompassing nearly 10,000 acres with over 6,000 contributing resources.
It took millions of miles of copper to build the telegraph, telephone, and electrical lines that transformed the United States from a collection of small, isolated communities to a cohesive, industrialized nation. Looming gallows frames and the towering Anaconda Company smokestack recall the industrial roots of these sister cities, the source of much of that copper. Extracting the metal was hazardous work, and the danger bred solidarity among miners and smelterworkers. Two of the nation's most radical unions had their roots in Butte and Walkerville, “The Gibraltar of Unionism.” They were the Western Federation of Miners and the Industrial Workers of the World, whose rhetoric opposing “wage slavery” challenged the foundations of American capitalism. Clashes between capital and labor marked the district, especially after the 1917 Butte Granite Mountain/Speculator Mine fire, the worst hard-rock mining disaster in the nation's history. Labor unrest and years under martial law followed in Butte, while in Anaconda, the Company fired suspected Socialists and agitators, devastating the unions. Butte and Anaconda workers reorganized during the New Deal after the federal government guaranteed the right of workers to unionize. Their four-month industry-wide strike in 1934 precipitated the birth of the CIO, an organization
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that helped rejuvenate the labor movement nationwide. In 2006, the National Park Service recognized Butte, Anaconda, and Walkerville's significance to the intertwined histories of mining and labor by declaring the district a National Historic Landmark. It is the largest NHL in the West, covering the period 1876-1934 and encompassing nearly 10,000 acres with over 6,000 contributing resources.
Location. 46° 1.79′ N, 112° 32.197′ W. Marker is in Butte, Montana, in Silver Bow County. Marker is on West Daly Street west of A Street, on the right when traveling east. Marker is mounted at eye-level, directly on the Walkerville (Butte) Post Office building, near the northeast corner of the building, facing West Daly Street. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 42 West Daly Street, Butte MT 59701, United States of America. Touch for directions.
More about this marker. Marker is a large, laser-printed metal plaque.
Related markers. Click here for a list of markers that are related to this marker. Butte-Anaconda National Historic Landmark District
Also see . . . 1. Butte–Anaconda Historic District. The district's national significance relates to its long history of copper production as well as to its role in the development of the labor union movement in the United States. As the source of nearly one-third of all the world's copper in the early 1900s, Butte's mines provided one of the metals that were critical to American industrialization. Walkerville represents some of the earliest mines in the district and preserves the early mining camp flavor present
Photographed By Cosmos Mariner, July 18, 2016
3. Saint Lawrence Church, Butte, Montana
in the 1890s to 1910s. Butte itself is an urban metropolis where industrial relics such as mine yards and head frames are juxtaposed with a wide variety of residential and business structures. (Submitted on January 1, 2019, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)
2. Western Federation of Miners. The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was a radical labor union that organized the miners and smelter workers of the Rocky Mountain states. Created in 1893 by the merger of several local miners' unions, the WFM had a reputation for violent strikes and militant action from its beginning. On several occasions pitched battles occurred between union members and company guards, and state militia and federal troops were sometimes dispatched to keep order in strike areas. (Submitted on January 1, 2019, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)
3. Industrial Workers of the World. Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), byname Wobblies, labour organization founded in Chicago in 1905 by representatives of 43 groups. The IWW opposed the American Federation of Labor’s acceptance of capitalism and its refusal to include unskilled workers in craft unions.
Among the founders of the IWW were William D. (“Big Bill”) Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), Daniel De Leon of the Socialist Labor Party, and Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party. Debs withdrew his support as the group grew more radical. (Submitted on January 1, 2019, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)
Credits. This page was last revised on January 2, 2019. It was originally submitted on January 1, 2019, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. This page has been viewed 228 times since then and 13 times this year. Photos:1, 2, 3. submitted on January 1, 2019, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. • Andrew Ruppenstein was the editor who published this page.
