Preserving the Washoe Smelter Stack

On September 29, 1980, the Anaconda Minerals Company, which had merged with the Atlantic Richfield Company three years earlier, announced the indefinite suspension of copper smelting in Anaconda and refining in Great Falls, Montana, citing high production costs and increasing environmental restrictions. The suspension soon became permanent, and the smelter and refinery were slated for demolition. When the Washoe Smelter stack was later threatened, a local group called Anacondans to Preserve the Stack formed and, working with state and local officials, Atlantic Richfield Company, and the Environmental Protection Agency, was instrumental in securing its designation as an official state monument. Largely through that effort, the Big Stack remains intact as a symbol of Anaconda’s industrial legacy while the former smelter complex is reclaimed.

Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, Montana · United States