Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-08-23
KANSAS EDITOR ENTHUSIASTIC
ABOUT GREAT FALLS AS SEEN
WHILE HERE WITH CONVENTION

Following is an account of the visit
TO Great Falls last month of the
National Editorial association, written
by ". y. Greason, editor of the Miami,
Kans.. Republican, in which the story
appeared:
Friday morning, July 2S, we arrived
at Great Falls, where We were enter
tanned for breakfast at Hotel Rainbow.
Great Falls is the second city of Mon
tana. with a population of 25,OOO: 1t
received it's name from the big falls
of the Missouri river, near which 1t is
located. It is the county seat OF Cas-
cade county. which has over two mil
lion acres of land. more than half OF
which is farm land, of which 10000
acres are irrigated with large irrlga-
tion projects in contemplation. The city
has many manufactures, 40 wholesale
houses. a $15O,OOO Y. NJ. 6. A., the
largest meat packing plant between st.
Paul and Spokane and has better hotels
and business houses than most cities
of twice its population. The plant OF
the Great Falls Tribune is n OF the
best and most complete printing plants
We have ever seen. There are ex-
tensive coal, silver and lead mines in
this county.
"After breakfast we were driven over
the city and to the country immedi-
ately about, through the great wheat
fields, and to the Rainbow falls and
Giant springs. This is the largest
fresh water spring in the world, dis
charging $50. 100000 million gallons Of
water each "a hours. Its water IS OF
uniform temperature, 81 degrees
Fahrenheit. all the year round. 1T IS
a wonderful spring. Wish Paoia had 1t
for a water supply.
Inspect Smelter
I'VE had luncheon at the Park hotel,
following which we were driven to the
copper and zinc refineries and the cop
per wire mill of the Anaconda Copper
Mining company. Cheap electric power,
developed from the great falls of the
Missouri river, is responsible for the
location of this great plant here. The
reduction plant of this company, located
at Anaconda, of which | wrote IN a
former letter. smelts the copper from
the ore mined at Butte. This copper
contains 20 ounces of silver, four
tenths OF an ounce of gold and a small
per cent of arsenic and antimony to
the on of metal. This metal is run
into lugs or anodes 36.5 inches long
by % inches wide and LIS inches thick,
weighing SIS pounds each. These
anodes are shipped to Great Falls,
where the different constituents are
separated. The process is very intricate
and interesting. and requires the ser
vices of a large force OF men. The
copper is run into large bars or ingots,
small replicas of which were cast for
the editorial party as souvenirs, but
-, H., -24 A.. A. {ar win ant
| samples of gold and silver bars, we
did not get any of those. However. we
were thankful for the copper samples.
Intense heat is employed in this
process. which is supplied by crushed
coal, blown into the furnace.
Interested in Wire Mill
The process of making copper wire
was of especial interest, as but few of
our party had ever before witnessed it.
The copper bars are placed in a fur
mace heated by fuel oil, and move con-
tinuously along until given the proper
amount of heat, 100 bars being taken
| out of the furnace each hour, taking an
hour for each bar to travel through
the furnace. The bars Of copper pass
through successive grooves, then
| through a succession of rolls. until re-
| duced to the proper size, when it is
run on coils. The next process is to
draw these rods through a succession
of dies, until the desired diameter of
wire is reached. Various degrees of
hardening of the wire are produced by
| apnealing. The dies for wire drawing
are circular, small in size, made of
chilled cast iron, cast with a tapered
| hole and reamed to exact size by hand
Strands or cables are made by twisting
smaller wires together until the desired
size is reached.
"As with the copper, the zinc for
| this plant is mined at Butte and smelted
| at Anaconda, the resultant zinc concen-
trates, as it is called. being shipped to
Great Falls for roasting and the other
| processes which finally turn it into zinc
bars or slabs, each weighing about so
pounds. There is practically no waste
in either of these plants. in the mines
at Butte or the great reduction works
at Anaconda. At the mines the ore is
washed. and the water that flows off
| contains a small per cent of copper
| This is recovered by running the water
| over old junk and scrap iron in fumes.
The iron takes up the minute particles
| of copper, which in turn eat up the
| iron and only copper is left, which is
| treated as other copper. At Anaconda
and at Great Falls all waste Of every
sort is gathered up and bundled and
| remelted. The fumes from the plants
at Anaconda and Great Falls escape
| through long. wide flues to large smoke
stacks, passing through thousands Of
wooden bags in the process. which re-
cover the lead and zinc fumes. which
| drop into hoppers from which it is re
! moved by screw conveyors into railroad
| cars for shipment to a lead smelter.
Evening at Big Falls
"In the evening we were taken to
the hvdroelectric plant Of the Montana
Power company at the Big falls of the
Missouri river, where the great power
plant and falls were inspected. In a
| stretch of IL miles the river has a fall
| Of 512 feet. The total power now pro-
duced is 1911 900 horse power. There
are also undeveloped sites with a ca
pacity of $4,000 horse power. The dam
here is very high and long. and the
water rushes down in q great cataract.
| On either side the benches are very
| high, overlooking the river valley. In
| the long ages which have passed, the
| volume of water rushing through here
| has sliced away the soil and rock until