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Rare highly detailed photolithographic view of Butte, Montana, published in Milwaukee by Henry Wellge.
Butte began as a mining town in the 1870s, in the Silver Bow Creek Valley. In 1879, the central business district burned to the ground and the town was thereafter reconstructed from the ground up, using brick and stone.
While initially only gold and silver were mined in the area, the advent of electricity created a massive demand for copper, which was abundant in the area. The resulting boom turned Butte into "the Richest Hill on Earth". Three men fought for control of Butte's mining wealth. These three "Copper Kings" were William A. Clark, Marcus Daly, and F. Augustus Heinze. In 1899, Daly joined with William Rockefeller, Henry H. Rogers, and Thomas W. Lawson to organize the Amalgamated Copper Mining Company. Not long after, the company changed its name to Anaconda Copper Mining Company (ACM). Over the years, Anaconda was owned by assorted larger corporations. In the 1920s, it had a virtual monopoly over the mines in and around Butte.
The full title is:
Panoramic view of Butte, Montana, 1904 : population 60,000, altitude near gov. bldg. 6,000 feet, values taken out of Butte mines over 600 million dollars, the largest mining camp on earth, a model city with all modern institutions and conveniences
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