The Anselmo Mine: Evolution of a Butte Mineyard

The Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives continues its Brown Bag Lunch series with a presentation by Butte-Silver Bow Historic Preservation Officer Mary McCormick. McCormick’s talk explores the evolution of surface plant developments at the Anselmo Mine, a major producer of copper and zinc in the Butte Mining District between the late 1910s and late 1950s. The Anselmo boasts the largest and most diverse collection of buildings and structures at Butte’s surviving mine yards of today. This presentation emphasizes the dynamic nature of mining history as represented at the Anselmo Mine.
Mary McCormick is an architectural historian with over 30 years of professional experience in the field of historic preservation. She has worked in Butte since 1985 as cultural resource specialist for the Montana Power Company and as an architectural historian for Renewable Technologies. After working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Seattle for three years, she returned to Butte in 2015.

[@freewill1114]

Fascinating. I was born and raised mostly in Butte, born 1940 in a house in Centerville. My mom's family were miners, starting with my grandfather, who came to Butte about 1917 and worked the mines 35 years, mostly at the Mt. Con. Stepdad at the Lexington, uncle at the Kelly, and others. I left in 1957, and worked in the electronics industry, and I make occasional visits back to Butte. I was glued to my chair for the entire time of this video, and I want to thank you for the most interesting history of the Anselmo. Looking forward to more!

[@andrewstroud782]

Nicely done!
Just some observations:
*** On the 1870's map, there are two small shafts indicated and a discovery. These were left over from the pre-1872 district mining laws where each miner could only stake one claim that was a maximum of 100' square per lode. The first miner could stake two 100' claims - one by discovery and one by pre-emption. When the federal1872 mining law was passed it invalidated all of the earlier local mining claims, and allowed for claims up to 600' x 1500' (about 20 acres) which provided for industrial sized mining. Due to lack of communications, the law did not invalidate the old claims until July 1, 1874, and then was again pushed back to January 1, 1875. On New Years Day 1875 the whole hill was restaked in a frenzy of activity. Incidentally, that is where the 'Con' comes from in many of the mine names as the old small claims were consolidated into the larger federal claims (eg, Mountain Con Mine). The old claims were registered in the Silver Bow County Recorder's Office. The restaking went on for the rest of the year, which is apparently when the Anselmo claims were staked.
*** John Ryan pushed Anaconda to modernize in the late 1920's, and many of the small mines in Centerville were closed down to consolidate them into fewer large mines. There were three around 1928 - Anselmo, Mount Con, and I think the Badger State that were upgraded with larger headframes (can pull up more ore skips at one time) and newer DC electric funicular hoisting motors were added to replace the old steam engines. Anaconda owned Montana Power Co, and had a nearly endless supply of cheap hydroelectric power. The DC motors were rarities, as most mines used AC Keppe systems. DC was more expensive because the power came in as AC (lower line loss) and had to be converted to DV using an AC motor coupled to a DC generator ('MG set'). The mines were also equipped with the latest Lilly controllers for overspeed protection (English inventor William Lilly's son George was a mining engineer for Anaconda).
*** I don't remember all of the dates, but by the 1950's the next wave of modernization and consolidation was being implemented. The Kelley Shaft had been sunk circa late WWII and most of the hauling was being re-routed to it as it was more efficient due to the use of block cave mining techniques. The Berkeley Pit was started in the mid-1950's, and needed the area around the Kelley for expansion. The Anaconda engineers came up with the Northwest Project as a final plan to mine the entire district. All of the uptown shafts would be abandoned, and all hoisting would be done through through a new central hoisting shaft - the Ryan - located northwest of the Alice pit dump. The Ryan was located far enough away from any potential expansion of the Berkeley Pit that it would not interfere with surface operations. The Butte Forward drive was started to move the entire uptown to the flats. The Ryan Shaft was designed as the only mine in Butte to have a circular configuration, and was equipped with 4 x 7,000 HP Nordberg DC electric hoists - largest in the world at the time. The circular outline of the shaft was laid out and the concrete collar was poured, but the shaft was only excavated 4'. At that time Cornelius Kelley, the Anaconda CEO who had been pushing the project, died and the project stalled, never to be resurrected. But I believe that the consolidations to anticipate the Northwest Project was what ended the operations at the Anselmo Mine.
Cheers!
Andy Stroud

[@DuncSargentsKarstValleyRR]

It's a mesa? It's a Butte! ... And right purty too. --dunc