2. Historic Basics The Copper Kings were industrialists by the names William Clark, Marcus Daly, and Augustus Heinze, and were known for the fortunes they made and the battles they fought amongst each other in the late 1880’s through the early 1900’s. Back 1876 Butte was a prosperous silver camp, however during the 1880’s Butte became the world’s greatest copper producer, and silver mine owners began in search of copper in stead of silver and gold.
3. History Basics (cont.) With their copper mines in the area of Butte they made a fortune, which they used to only increase it, by creating newspapers, banks, courts, police, and anything that would give them an edge over their opponents.
4. Politics In 1899 William Clark ran for U.S. senator, he got caught in a scandal of bribing the state legislature for their votes. The senate refused to seat him until 1901 when he won his chair fairly.
5. What Exactly Happened? The Copper Kings owned old silver and gold mines, when the cost of smelting copper went down, the demand for copper skyrocketed. The Copper Kings created a huge Industry in the heart of Montana Territory. Bringing in more and more settlers looking for work in the copper mines.
6. Economics Each one of the Copper Kings helped Montana very much economically by the production of copper to be sold and shipped by train out-of-state. They created jobs all over the Butte area for white settlers and immigrants. They brought about the beginning of industrializing Montana.
7. Effect On Native Americans With more and more people coming into Butte in search of a better lifestyle the Sioux Indians were moved out of their homelands in the Bitterroot Valley and were moved to the Flathead Reservation.
8. A Little Later In 1899 Daly teamed up with two principals from John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil to create the Amalgamated Copper Mining Co. When Marcus Daly died in 1900 a local banker became close to his wife Margaret, he convinced her and Heinze to sell out their mines. Allowing for the monopoly Amalgamated wanted, in 1910 they changed their name to the Anaconda Copper Mining Company.
9. Overview Overall, Montana wouldn’t be anything near what it is now without the help of the Copper kings. The capital would probably still be Anaconda. It would have taken much longer for us to become a state. Montana probably wouldn’t have the economy or the cities it does now.
