ANACONDA

city, former seat (1883) of Deer Lodge county, southwestern Montana, U.S., 23 miles (37 km) northwest of Butte. Laid out in 1883 as Copperopolis by Marcus Daly, founder of Montana's copper industry, the settlement grew rapidly after 1884 when Daly built a copper smelter on nearby Warm Springs Creek. The plant became one of the world's largest nonferrous and reduction works, and its 585-foot (178-metre) smokestack dominates the landscape. The city was incorporated in 1888 and was renamed Anaconda, after Daly's mining camp in Butte, to avoid confusion with Copperopolis in Meagher county. Daly, who had hoped to make it the state capital, built there Hotel Marcus Daly, then one of the most ornate in the nation. His newspaper, the Anaconda Standard, had a plant as modern as any in New York City at the time, though it had a readership of only a few thousand. In 1977, the governments of Anaconda and Deer Lodge county were consolidated to form the city of AnacondaDeer Lodge county. Copper smelting and the manufacture of phosphate products remained the city's economic mainstay until 1980, when Atlantic Richfield Company, the owner of the Anaconda Company, permanently closed the copper smelter, putting some 25 percent of Anaconda's workforce out of work. Recreation areas include nearby Deerlodge National Forest, Lost Creek State Park, and Georgetown Lake. Pop. (1990) 10,278.