This handsome presentation album, showcasing the Anaconda Copper Mine of Great Falls, Montana, was given to William Bassett in 1928. According to a 1925 article published in the Great Falls Tribune, Bassett was a technical superintendent and metallurgist of the American Brass Works of Waterbury, CT, a subsidiary of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. The album contains a number of professional views showing the plant’s large-scale industrial operations, as well as recreational areas such as the facilities employee park and bowling alley.

In 1876, Marcus Daly was hired to investigate silver mining properties in Butte, Montana on behalf of the mining and banking firm Walker Brothers, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Through a shrewd series of business moves, he ended up with a controlling interest in the Anaconda Mine, which led to the creation of the town of Anaconda in 1883, and the 1891 incorporation of the Anaconda Mining Company.

The company took an aggressive approach to vertical integration, building its own processing facilities and its own railways. In 1895, the Anaconda Mining Company was reorganized as the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, and in 1895 all ACMC stock was acquired by the Amalgamated Copper Company. The various businesses owned by the ACC continued to operate independently, and in 1910 the ACMC took over most of the other businesses associated with the ACC.

The ACMC enjoyed significant profits and success throughout the early- and mid-twentieth century, acquiring international holdings including a zinc treatment plant in Poland and several copper mines in Chile. In the 1970s, following the nationalization of Chile’s copper mines, the company struggled, ultimately selling in 1979 to the Atlantic-Richfield Company.

Album titles include:

“Entrance to Plant” (two views); “A.C.M Club” (exterior view); “A.C.M Club-Reading Room;” “A.C.M. Club-Bowling Alleys;’ “Park at Employment Office;” “General Office” (exterior view); “Park at General Office;” “Shopmen at Lunch;” “Tramming System Locomotive;” “Zinc Plan -General View;” “Zinc Plant-Roasting Department;” “Zinc Plant-Electrolytic Tank Room;” “Zinc Plant-Casting Department;” “Copper Refinery-Park;” “Copper Refinery -General View;” “Copper Refinery-Tank Room;” “Copper Refinery-Cathode Handling;” “Copper Refinery-Charging Furnace;” “Copper Refinery-Casting;” “Rolling Mils-General View;” “Rolling Mils-Rod Department;” “Rolling Mills-Wire Department;” “Zinc Plant-Substation;” “Copper Refinery-Substation;” “Riverside Pumping Plant;” “First Aid Contest A.C.M. Club Lawn;” “First Aid Station - Low Line;” “Trophies Won in International First Aid Contest”