The Anaconda Smokestack

[Brian Moore]

Fifteen or twenty miles east of Butte is the small town of Anaconda, Montana. It's about 8 or 9 miles from the main highway, the I-90, along which we were traveling on our way to Spokane. Looking to my left I spotted an enormous chimney. It was some 6 miles from the highway (I later learned) yet clearly of an impressive size. Detour!

Turns out it was the Anaconda Smokestack, used back in the day for the smelting of copper, which I gather was the main mining commodity in Butte (clearly a mining town) and surrounding areas. Officially it's called the Anaconda Smelter Stack. It was built in 1918 and, according to Wikipedia, "is the tallest surviving masonry structure in the world." Except for its base (which is concrete) it is built of brick.

I had hoped to be able to get up close but it is off limits to visitors.

(Canon 5DSR with Canon 24-105L)



Here's the smokestack with the added feature of some local power lines, which I find attractive in the frame.

 

[Ralph Turner]

Fab shots, Brian… the power lines and pylons add to the strong sense of it’s industrial past, to say nothing of the amazing light and foreboding cloud mass.
A dollar for every brick, please

 

[Dave Farnes]

Beautiful shots, the dark clouds echo the smoke that must have once poured from the stack.

 

[Brian Moore]

Fab shots, Brian… the power lines and pylons add to the strong sense of it’s industrial past, to say nothing of the amazing light and foreboding cloud mass.
A dollar for every brick, please

Thanks a lot, Ralph. Fortunately we were far enough to the west to be out of the smoke and so the sky, albeit laden with clouds as it is here, was often magnificent.

 

[Brian Moore]

Beautiful shots, the dark clouds echo the smoke that must have once poured from the stack.

Yeah I can only imagine how much smoke an particulates belched from that thing over the years. Thanks, Dave.

 

[Pete Askew]

What an impressive structure. I agree with Ralph that the power lines add some context (even if unrelated to its original function). It is interesting that nothing else of the plant seems to survive.

 

[Brian Moore]

What an impressive structure. I agree with Ralph that the power lines add some context (even if unrelated to its original function). It is interesting that nothing else of the plant seems to survive.

Thanks Pete. Here it is in 1920. (And no, I did not take this photograph !) Apparently the smelter operation was dismantled in 1981. Originally the smokestack was going to be demolished also but the people of Anaconda organized a movement to save it and so it stands today.

 

[Pete Askew]

That certainly gives it some sense of scale!

 

[Brian Moore]

That certainly gives it some sense of scale!

It does. (I had hoped the earth mover I included in the first picture would provide scale also, but perhaps it's just too far from the smokestack to be meaningful.)

 

[Pete Askew]

Yes, it is just too far away to help I think.