Life Underground Episode 4 - Working for Anaconda, Part 2

Life Underground - Episode 004

“Working for Anaconda, Part 2”

This is Life Underground, a history program about Butte, Montana, one of the richest mining districts in the world. I’m Clark Grant, with KBMF. Today, we take a second look at the Anaconda Company and hear stories from the men who worked for this company, which for decades was one of the biggest industrial operators in the world.

Considering that Anaconda has now been gone for half a century, it might be hard to know, especially for listeners of this program outside of Butte and Montana, just how big and important this company really was. Before we begin to listen to more oral histories of former Anaconda employees, here are just a few facts about the Anaconda Company.

Anaconda was one of the first vertically integrated multinational corporations, and in the early 1920s was the fourth largest company in the world. Their goal was to control copper "from mine to consumer.”

By 1923, in addition to their enormous mining operations in Montana and in Chile, they purchased the American Brass Company, the nation's largest brass fabricator and a major consumer of copper and zinc. They had smelters in Montana, Utah, Arizona, and copper works in New Jersey. Anaconda briefly had the largest plywood manufacturing facility in the world near Missoula, along with enormous forest land holdings and timber mills on a massive scale. They also had a zinc treatment plant in Poland, as well as numerous other industrial operations around the United States and the world.

In 1955, in recognition of the wide range of corporate operations, the company name was changed to The Anaconda Company, instead of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. In Butte, they simply became known as “The Company.”

In 1956 Anaconda netted the largest annual income in its history: $111.5 million.

Until the 1960s, Anaconda controlled most of the capital and development in the state of Montana. Up until 1959, the company owned five of the state's six daily newspapers, and the news was shaped by company politics.

Like in our last episode, today we explore the life stories of three men who worked for the Anaconda Company. Anaconda was ultimately made up of individual lives, men and women who bought their homes, educated and fed their families and built their lives with the wages earned on Anaconda’s time. One of those men who made his living and supported his large family with an Anaconda salary was Alan Brown. His oral history was collected by Aubrey Jaap at his home in Butte in 2018. He was a young engineer in the late 1940s when he went to work in the mines.

[Alan Brown]

Over his many years working for Anaconda, Al Brown saw a lot. Mine closures, near-deaths, fatalities, strikes, fights; he saw it all. He spent decades working in various capacities in one of the deadliest industrial operations in the nation. During his oral history recording, he recalled the story of three men who went missing one day down the mine.

[Alan Brown]

Towards the end of his time with Anaconda, Al saw the switch from underground mining to the big open pit that was beginning on the East edge of town in Butte. Here, he remarks on the changes he saw in the Anaconda Company during this time, especially given the changing circumstances in their overseas operations.

[Alan Brown]

This is Life Underground, and today we’re listening to more stories from men who made their career with the Anaconda Company. That was Alan Brown, who gave that oral history at his home in 2018. Those were just some of the stories from his long and colorful life that he shared with us in our 2.5 hour interview. Al passed away in April of 2020.

On today’s show, we’re sharing recollections of the Anaconda Company from three men. Alan Brown actually sort of referenced both of the other men we’ll hear from in this show. One is Jim Killoy, the nephew of the the Berkeley Pit Superintendent that Al was remembering earlier in the program. Like so many of the men we talked to about working for Anaconda, Jim Killoy comes from a family of miners. He went to grade school at the Immaculate Conception, then Butte High School, and then went to work for the Company. Aubrey Jaap, Assistant Director of the Butte-Silver Bow Archives, also conducted his oral history recording.

[Jim Killoy]

That was retired machinist Jim Killoy, who gave his oral history to Aubrey Jaap at the Butte Archives. Jim’s speculations about the unions and the company working together in their back-east headquarters to orchestrate Butte strikes demonstrates the complexities of large scale industrial operations the Anaconda Company was involved in. Once the Gibraltar of Labor, Butte, Montana today is a husk of its former self, both in terms of labor union membership and industrial might.

In our effort to better understand the workers who made up the massive Anaconda workforce, we now move to another oral history, this time with John Emmet Murphy.

As we’ve learned so far from our previous interviews, it was quite common for men who grew up around the mines to end up working in them. Murphy was no different.

[John E Murphy]

This is Life Underground, and we’re listening to stories from John Emmet Murphy. He’s one of thousands of men who worked for the Anaconda Company. His stories are numerous, and are made that much more enjoyable when delivered with his quiet, understated manner. John had close calls, but the danger of the mines was ever-present. So many families lost fathers, husbands, brothers, sons and friends. In our final segment for today’s program, John Murphy tells us about another close call, as well as the loss he endured on account of the Butte mines.

[John E Murphy]

This has been Life Underground, with part two of our stories from the men who made up the massive workforce of the Anaconda Company. That was John Emmet Murphy, who was interviewed as part of the Verdigris Project at the Butte Silver Bow Archives. Next time, we’ll look at the long-lasting effects of the Berkeley Pit on the town of Butte, and how the Anaconda Company nearly destroyed the city entirely as it struggled to survive in the changing geopolitical climate the mid 20th century. Join us for this detailed examination of Butte’s mid-century decline next time on Life Underground. For KBMF, I’m Clark Grant. Thanks for listening.