The Big Stack—Anaconda, MT

In the late 1800s, Montana's Anaconda mine gave birth to the largest copper producing company in the world. The mine received its original name because the guy who staked the claim had enjoyed a quote about a civil war maneuver that was compared to the constricting movements of the Amazonian snake of the same name. The mine's name was kept as the name of the metal production company, and then also applied to the town where the major smelting operations took place.

Anaconda is no longer the mining and metals hub it once was, but it seemed like a nice enough little burg. It was only a few miles off the main highway, so Tanner and I decided to zip over to take a look. It was a gorgeous morning to scope out the sights.



The main thing on our list was "The Big Stack," which I'll talk about in detail below. But first, I thought I should acknowledge the website we used as our primary source for tourist information: Roadside America. You should definitely check it out if you're at all interested in the fascinating assortment of unusual attractions that are hidden in small towns all across this great country. (And yes, the do have a page on the giant prairie dog.)

The Big Stack is the world's largest smokestack, which used to vent the exhaust from Anaconda's gigantic copper smelting operation. The processing buildings are all gone now, but the citizens of Anaconda fought to keep the stack intact -- just because it was so cool.



Because the stack site is polluted with all sorts of toxic residue from the metals operations, you can't get all that close to it. There's a little state park set up on the edge of town where you can learn about it.

OK, so maybe the photo above isn't that spectacular. But take a moment to click on it and look a little closer. A casual glance might fool you since it's hard to get the proper perspective. But if you look near the base of the stack, you'll see some standard telephone poles--no, not the ones outlined against the clouds; they're too close to the camera...I'm talking about the teeny tiny ones that are actually as far away as the stack, just to the right on the edge of where the hill drops off . That should give you a better clue as to the stack's monstrous immensity.

If that doesn't help, here's a to-scale photo that shows how the Washington Monument would fit inside it. (You can see people at the bottom if you zoom in and look closely enough.) Yeah, it's a BIG stack, all right.

Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot to do there. We didn't stick around very long. We read all the placards at the State Park area, climbed around on the mining buckets, took some photos, and tried to imagine what it was like for the 1800s bricklayers who had to climb scaffolds and slap down the mortar.

According to the literature, the insides of the stack contained various baffles, filters, and processing components -- it wasn't just a hollow tube. A system of ducts from several different processing facilities piped their exhaust into the central stack, where some of the chemicals were condensed out or captured. But I still have to imagine that what came out the top was pretty nasty stuff. And I'd bet that the citizensof Anaconda were very interested in which direction the wind was blowing on any given day.

Anyway, I am always interested in large-scale operations. The company I work for deals in nano-scale products; most of our inventions are based on structures far smaller than the width of a human hair. Devices are built by literally adding a few atoms at a time. But these guys dealt with larger quantities of materials.



The central feature of the park is a brick ring that represents the top diameter of the stack. It's a simple, yet very effective visual aid.



The nearby railroad tracks weren't really a part of the park, but I don't get to take pictures of trains very often, so I wandered over among the trains while Tanner continued to examine the old mining equipment.

As I said, though, we didn't stay all that long. Our next stop was scheduled to be the "Miracle of America" museum in Polson, MT -- another recommendation of Roadside America. The drive to Polson featured some wonderful Montana scenery. Even the highway rest stops had nice stuff to look at. The reflection on the water in the following picture demonstrates what a gorgeous day it had turned out to be. We had heard the horror stories of the floods back home in Colorado, but our entire day was simply lovely.



I don't know if I can shoehorn the museum report into a single post, but I'll try not to be too boring. I think it's safe to say that most of you have never seen anything quite like it -- I hope to have it posted soon, and I hope you'll return to read about it. Have a great day!