blackfoot-valley

operations in Butte, Anaconda, and Great Falls. Thousands of workers lost their jobs. In 1977, there was a flurry of hope when Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) bought the company, but as copper prices dropped further on account of cheaper sources abroad and a reduced demand for the red metal, ARCO was forced to continue shutting down, culminating in the closure and disman- tling of the great smelter at Anaconda and the aging refinery at Great Falls in 1980, and in 1983 all its mining operations in Butte. With ARCO’s pullout, copper was no longer king in Montana. Although there was a partial mining revival based on smaller cost-efficient operations during the later 1980s, and mining is still of major economic significance in the state, it is no longer the dominating force. The economic blow of declining metal-mining activity dur- ing the latter part of the twentieth century was softened somewhat by the increasing activity in lumbering and forest products west of the Divide, and in coal, as well as oil and gas production in eastern Montana. But coal, oil, and gas are extractive industries subject to boom and bust, and they have had their share of both. While forests are renewable long term, the western Montana forests (and the Rocky Mountain forests generally) are con- siderably slower growing than those in the warmer and wetter regions of the West Coast and American South. Montana lumber- “Anaconda Smelting Facility” Wikimedia Commons ing activity reached a peak in the late 1960s, stagnated during most of the next two decades, and revived significantly by the 1980s. Environmental re- strictions have brought increasing supply problems both here and elsewhere. Neither forest products nor oil and gas industries (especially the latter pair) employ great numbers of people. There is potential in coal - eastern Montana is estimated to hold 13 percent of the nation’s coal reserves, more than any other state. Most of it is sub-bituminous and lignite. Its heating ef- fiency is low, but a plus is that it is also low in sulfur and thus “cleaner” - that is, less polluting when burned than most other coal. While it is easily acces- 91