View source for Copper Kings

{{Short description|Trio of American industrialists}}
{{No footnotes|date=January 2025}}
[[File:CLARK, W.A. SENATOR 2.jpg|thumb|140px|[[William A. Clark]]]]
The '''Copper Kings''' were [[industrialist]]s [[Marcus Daly]], [[William A. Clark]], [[James Andrew Murray]] and [[F. Augustus Heinze]]. They were known for their struggles over control of the local [[copper]] mining industry in [[Butte, Montana]], and the surrounding region, during the [[Gilded Age]].

The battles between Clark, Daly, Murray and Heinze, and later between just Heinze and industrialist financiers [[William Rockefeller]] and [[Henry H. Rogers]] are a large chapter in [[History of Montana|Montana history]]. Eventually, Daly's original company, known as [[Anaconda Copper]] emerged as a [[monopoly]], expanding into the fourth largest company in the world by the late 1920s.

==History==
[[File:MarcusDaly.jpg|thumb|[[Marcus Daly]]]]
[[File:Augustus Heinze 1910.jpg|thumb|140px|[[F. Augustus Heinze]]]]
While the cost of smelting the complex copper-bearing ore was high, after the [[American Civil War]], investors like [[William Andrews Clark]] and [[Andrew Jackson Davis (mining)|Andrew Jackson Davis]] began to develop [[Butte, Montana|Butte]]'s mines and erect mills to extract the [[silver]] and [[gold]]. The riches in the hills made Davis [[Montana]]'s first millionaire.

By 1876, Butte had become a prosperous silver camp with over 1,000 inhabitants. Marcus Daly arrived that year representing the Walker brothers, entrepreneurs from [[Salt Lake City]]. His mission was to inspect the Alice Mine for possible purchase by the brothers. Daly purchased the mine and successfully managed it for the Walkers. The town of [[Walkerville, Montana|Walkerville]], which still overlooks the city of Butte, sprang up around the mine and other mines in the area.

In 1880, Daly sold his interest in the Walkers' properties and bought the [[Anaconda Copper Mine (Montana)|Anaconda Mine]]. He did so with investment money from several [[San Francisco]] capitalists, including [[James Ben Ali Haggin]], [[Lloyd Tevis]], and [[George Hearst]] (the father of media mogul [[William Randolph Hearst]]).  The area attracted other investors from Denver and points east. It wasn't long before capitalists from [[New York City]] and [[Boston]] bought into the huge potential of the area.

During the 1880s, copper mining came into the forefront and Butte became the world's greatest copper producer. The [[Utah and Northern Railway]] came to the area in 1881.

It wasn't long before Butte began to pay a price for the riches. The air filled with toxic sulfurous smoke. Daly responded by building a giant smelter in [[Anaconda, Montana|Anaconda]], just 30 miles west of Butte. To this day, the giant smokestack remains a landmark. Shortly after Daly built the smelter, the Boston and  Montana Co., with holdings second only to Daly's, built one in [[Great Falls, Montana|Great Falls]]. After complications with the [[Great Northern Railway (U.S.)|Great Northern]], Daly built his own railroad to transport ore from his mines to the smelter. Trains carried the ore from Butte's mines to both smelters.

Clark also yearned to be a statesman and used his newspaper, the ''Butte Miner'', to push his political ambitions. He became a hero in [[Helena, Montana]], by campaigning for its election as the state capital instead of [[Anaconda, Montana|Anaconda]]. Clark's long-standing dream of becoming a [[United States senator]] resulted in scandal in 1899, when it was revealed that he bribed members of the Montana State Legislature in return for their votes. At the time, U.S. Senators were chosen by their respective state legislators. The U.S. Senate refused to seat Clark because of the 1899 bribery scheme, but a later Senate campaign was successful, and he served a single, undistinguished term from 1901 until 1907.

In 1899, Daly teamed up with two principals of [[John D. Rockefeller]]'s [[Standard Oil]], William Rockefeller and Henry H. Rogers to create the giant [[Amalgamated Copper Mining Co.]], one of the largest trusts of the early Twentieth Century. (Neither Standard Oil nor John D. Rockefeller were directly involved).

Marcus Daly died in 1900. [[John D. Ryan (mining)|John D. Ryan]], a local banker, became close to Margaret Daly after her husband's death, and finally convinced Okrusch to sell out, creating the monopoly Amalgamated sought. By 1910, it had changed its name to the [[Anaconda Copper Mining Company]] swallowing several smaller mining companies along the way. The Company dominated Butte for the next 74 years.

{{see also|Anaconda Copper}}

== References ==
*''The Battle for Butte'', by Michael P. Malone.  2006 ed.  Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006. {{ISBN|0-295-98607-7}}
*''The Wealthy 100:  From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates- A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present'', by Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther.  Secaucus, N.J. : Carol Pub. Group, 1996.  {{ISBN|0-8065-1800-6}}
*''The War of the Copper Kings'', by C.B. Glasscock.  Helena, MT:  Riverbend Publications, 2002.  {{ISBN|1-931832-21-8}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20051211223201/http://www.butteamerica.com/copperking.htm The Copper King Mansion]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081012083114/http://ultimatemontana.com/sectionpages/Section6/Butte/butte.html Butte]

{{Montana}}

[[Category:Pre-statehood history of Montana]]
[[Category:Copper mining in the United States|Kings]]
[[Category:Butte, Montana]]