Marcus Daly
Marcus Daly was an influential figure in the American mining industry, born on December 5, 1841, in County Cavan, Ireland. He immigrated to the United States at the age of fifteen and began his career in mining at the Comstock Lode in Nevada. Over the years, he rose through the ranks, ultimately acquiring a significant stake in the Anaconda mine in Montana, where he discovered a lucrative copper vein beneath the existing silver deposits. Daly played a vital role in developing the town of Anaconda, Montana, establishing a smelter and rail connections to facilitate mining operations. His efforts contributed to the rise of the copper industry in the region, which became a major economic driver. Daly was also a notable horse owner and the founder of the Anaconda Standard newspaper. He passed away at the age of fifty-eight in New York City, and his legacy includes the long-term impact of mining in Montana, which continued well into the late 20th century, despite facing challenges such as labor strikes and environmental issues. The Anaconda Copper Mining Company, which evolved from Daly's initial endeavors, underwent significant changes and eventually ceased operations, leaving behind environmental concerns that required remediation efforts in subsequent decades.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Marcus Daly
Business Person
- Born: December 5, 1841
- Birthplace: Derrylea, County Cavan, Ireland
- Died: November 12, 1900
- Place of death: New York, New York
Marcus Daly, an Irishman with few job skills and little education, immigrated to the United States and became, in one-quarter of a century, one of three “copper kings” in the United States. After he discovered that his silver mine at Anaconda in Montana contained a large copper vein beneath the silver, he successfully exploited the copper and virtually made “Anaconda” a household word in the United States.
Biographical Background
The youngest of eleven children in an Irish family in County Caven, Ireland, Marcus Daly was born December 5, 1841. Five years after immigrating to the United States at the age of fifteen, Daly sailed to San Francisco, then worked at a silver mine of the Comstock Lode in Virginia City, Nevada. By 1871, he was a foreman in Ophir, Utah, for the Walker Brothers mining syndicate. There he met and married Margaret Evans; they had three daughters and a son. When Daly was sent to the Montana Territory to acquire a silver mine for Walker Brothers, he kept a one-fifth interest for himself. He sold that interest in 1876 and, with additional backing, purchased the Anaconda claim.
In addition to his mining career, Daly was a horse owner and breeder and the founder of the influential Anaconda Standard newspaper. He died at the Netherlands Hotel in New York City at age fifty-eight. His remains are in a mausoleum in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
Impact on Resource Use
The Anaconda mine was principally a silver mine until Daly discovered a copper vein about 91 meters deep and 30 meters wide beneath the silver vein. By this time, copper was coming into use for electricity and telegraph wire. While the price of copper in the early 1880’s was only around $0.35 to $0.45 per kilogram, smelting costs were high because the ore had to be shipped to Swansea, Wales, to be smelted. Daly was determined to reduce those costs and realize a profit. With financial backing, he built the town of Anaconda, Montana, where he built his own smelter and connected it by rail to nearby Butte. By 1890, the Butte copper mines saw an annual production of copper valued at more than $17 million. Daly bought coal mines and forests to supply the fuel and timber he needed and built his own power plants.
From 1895 to 1980, the Anaconda smelter was a major employer. It closed because of a labor strike; one-quarter of Anaconda’s workforce became unemployed, an economic blow from which the town did not recover. Standard Oil bought the Anaconda Company in 1899 and had a major impact on the economy of that area until the 1970’s. From the 1950’s to the 1970’s the Anaconda Copper Mining Company engaged in open-pit mining until copper prices collapsed, at which time the Atlantic Richfield Company(ARCO) bought the company. However, ARCO ceased its mining operations in Butte in 1982, bringing to a close what Daly had begun almost one century earlier and leaving a pit containing heavy metals and dangerous chemicals. A plan to solve the groundwater problem was instigated during the 1990’s.