Marcus Daly (December 5, 1841 – November 12, 1900) was an Irish-born American businessman known as one of the three "Copper Kings" of Butte, Montana, United States.
Early life
Daly emigrated from County Cavan, Ireland, to the United States as a young boy, arriving in New York City. He sold newspapers and worked his way to California in time to join the gold rush on what was to become Virginia City, Nevada, and the fabulously rich silver diggings now known as the Comstock Lode, in 1860.
Career
Daly gained experience in the mines of the Comstock under the direction of John William Mackay and James G. Fair. While working in the mines of Virginia City, Daly met and befriended George Hearst and partners James Ben Ali Haggin and Lloyd Tevis, co-owners of the Ophir Mining Company. (Hearst's son was William Randolph Hearst). In 1872, Daly would recommend purchase by the Hearst group the Ontario mine, near Park City, Utah. In ten years, the Ontario produced $17 million and paid $6,250,000 in dividends, and made many millions for Hearst, Tevis and Haggin.
Their business friendship was to extend for many years and help establish the Anaconda Copper Mine in Butte, Montana. Daly originally came to Butte in August 1876 to look at a mine, the Alice, as an agent for the Walker brothers of Salt Lake City. The Walkers purchased the mine, installed Daly as superintendent and awarded him a fractional share of the mine. The Walkers became the namesakes of Walkerville, which formed around the Alice.
Always an energetic engineer and geologist with a keen eye for paying ore, Daly noticed while working underground in the Alice, that there were significant deposits of copper ore. He gained access into several other mines in the area and concluded that the hill was full of copper ore. He envisioned an ore body several thousand feet deep, some veins of almost pure copper that would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He urged his employers, the Walker Bros. to purchase the Anaconda and when they refrained, Daly bought it. Daly founded his fortune on the Anaconda Copper Mine in Butte, after selling his small share of the Alice Mine, for $30,000.
The Anaconda
The Anaconda began as a silver mine, but Daly's purchase was for the copper, found to be one of the largest deposits known at the time. However, he lacked the money to develop it, so he turned to Hearst, Haggin and Tevis. Backed with many millions of dollars, he set out upon developing The Richest Hill on Earth. The first couple hundred feet within the mine were rich in silver, and took a few years to exhaust. By that time, Butte's other silver mines were also playing out, so Daly closed the Anaconda, St Lawrence and Neversweat mines. He reported to his associates what he had in mind and they approved. Prices on surrounding properties dropped and Daly quietly purchased them. Then he re-opened the Anaconda as a copper mine and announced to the world that Butte was "The Richest Hill on Earth". Because Thomas Edison had developed the light bulb and built a city block in New York to show off what electricity could do, the world would need copper, a very excellent conductor of electricity. Butte had copper. Hundreds of thousands of tons of it, waiting to be taken from the ground.
He built a smelter to handle the ore, and by the late 1880s, had become a millionaire several times over, and owner of the Anaconda Mining and Reduction Company. Daly owned a railroad, the Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railroad to haul ore from his mines to his smelter in Anaconda, a city he founded for his employees to work the smelters. He owned lumber interests in the Bitterroot Valley, a mansion and prized stables in the same valley, south of Missoula.
In 1894, Daly spearheaded an energetic but unsuccessful campaign to have Anaconda designated as Montana's state capital, but lost out to Helena, which was supported by William Andrews Clark. Daly was active in Montana politics throughout the 1890s, because of his opposition and intense rivalry with fellow copper king, and future U.S. Senator, William Clark. Daly tried to keep Clark out of office by lavishly supporting Clark's opponents.
In 1898, Daly went looking for a buyer of his company. He entered into negotiations with William Rockefeller and Henry H. Rogers of John D Rockefeller's Standard Oil of Ohio. The Anaconda Mining Company (and associated interests) were purchased in 1899 for $39 million and became Amalgamated Copper Mining Company. Daly was made president of the company in 1899 and died the following year in 1900.