Munday copyright 2006 1

Bound for Glory:An Environmental History of

Anacaonda, MontanaPat Munday, PhD

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The ACM, Superfund, Next Stop?

• Anaconda within national context

• Landscape as social construction

• Problems and opportunities

• Landscape is the story we tell ourselves

about who we are.

Munday copyright 2006 3Marcosson (1957)

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Marcus Daly (1841-1900)

• The Alice Mine (1876)• Demand for copper• The ACM• Butte “smoke wars”

Marcosson (1957)

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Anaconda, 1884

Kelly (1983)

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ACM: Vertical Integration

Mt Hist Soc Shay Petritz

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Anaconda, 1887

MT RR History

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Morris (1997)

Montana Hotel c. 1900

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Anaconda Brewery

BeerHistory.com

Munday copyright 2006 10Courthouse c. 1900

Morris (1997)

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Morris (1997)

Daly’s Racetrack

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Kelly (1983)

Daly’s Tammany c. 1895

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The Changing Landscape,Main Street looking south

1900

Mt RR Hist

1909

Mt RR Hist

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U Washington Library

The Melting Pot Myth

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Smoke Wars

Anaconda Standard,1911

MacMillan (2000)

Washoe Reduction Works, 1903

MacMillan (2000)

Munday copyright 2006 16Kelly (1983)

The Big Stack and

the bigger stack, 1918

Munday copyright 2006 17BA&P, Durant Canyon c. 1902

Mutschler (2002)

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Morris (1997)

Smelter Hill Commuter c. 1906

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Mutschler (2002)

BA&P c. 1915

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Durant Station c. 1915

Mutschler (2002)

Munday copyright 2006 21Pouring Anodes, 1942

Murphy (2003)

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Smelterwomen, 1944

Mercier (2001)

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The Changing Landscape,Main Street looking south

1909

Mt RR Hist

1950s

Mt RR Hist

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Montana NRDP

The End of an Era

Munday copyright 2006 25Finn (1998)

War in Europe

(Peaked at 150,000 tons in 1916)

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The Superfund Era• CERCLA (EPA)

• CECRA (Mt NRDP)

• Anaconda Smelter-Community Soils (1983 1987-98)• Stream Side Tailings (1983 1995)• Clark Fork River (1985 2004)

• Natural Resource Damage suit filed (1983)• Partial settlement (1998)

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Mt NRDP

Silver Bow Creek – Tailings Removal

28

Questionable Arsenic Levels

• Anaconda = 500 mg/kg• Lingering concerns re:

attic & wall dust• Bi-Mart fiasco with

“brownfield”• Social Justice issues?

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

< 10 11.-29 30-99 100-399

Fre

quen

cy

Cleanup Levels (mg/kg)Davis et al (2001)

X

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Old Works Golf Course

EPA

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Natural Resource Damage Program

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NRD Program

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Mt NRDP

Anaconda Uplands Injury

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Mt NRDP

Watershed Land Acquisition

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Next Stop?

• Ecological restoration as social reconstruction

• Sustainable use of natural resources

• Recreational amenities

• Good schools

• Pleasant towns

35

Recreational Amenities

Hans Will

Dick Wright

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Discovery Ski Area

37

Library of Congress

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Questions?

I. The ACM EraACM overview

Town of Anaconda

Changing landscape

BA&P

Wartime

The end of an era

II. The Superfund EraCERCLA (EPA)

CECRA (Mt NRDP)

III. Next Stop?

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Print Sources• Davis, Andy et al. “Policy Analysis: An Analysis of Soil Arsenic Records of Decision”

Environmental Science & Technology 35 (2001): 2401-2407.

• Finn, Janet L. Tracing the Veins (University of California Press, 1998).

• Kelly, Matt. Anaconda: Montana’s Copper City (Butte, Montana: Soroptimist Club of Anaconda/Artcraft Printing, 1983).

• MacMillan, Donald. Smoke Wars: Anaconda Copper, Montana Air Pollution, and the Courts, 1890-1920 (Helena, MT: Montana Historical Press).

• Marcosson, Isaac F. Anaconda (NY: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1957).

• Mercier, Laura. Anaconda: Labor, Community, and Culture in Montana’s Smelter City (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2001).

• Mitchell, Don. “Writing the Western: New Western History’s Encounter with Landscape.” Ecumene 5 (1998): 7-29.

• Morris, Patrick F. Anaconda, Montana: Copper Smelting Boom Town on the Western Frontier (Bethesda, MD: Swann Publishing, 1997).

• Munday, Pat. Montana’s Last Best River: The Big Hole and its People (Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2001).

• Murphy, Mary. Hope in Hard Times (Helena, MT: Montana Historical Press, 2003).

• Mutschler, Charles V. Wired for Success: The Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railway, 1892-1985 (Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 2002).