The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1927-09-16
COURT RECORDS
SHED NEW LIGHT
NEBRASKA HISTORICAL MAGAZINE
STRIPS SOME OF GLAMOUR
FROM WILD BILL
Story of Encounter with McCandles Gang
Says There Were Three Men and a
Boy, All Unarmed, and that HickOk
.ShOtat Them from Ambush With Rifle

The current issue of the Engineering
and Mining Journal carries the follow
ing, an interesting account of Marcus
DAILY and the Anaconda cOmpany'S first
Scrap-irOn precipitating plant, written
by Fl. W. Nixon of BiarritZ, France. 1t
follows:
Sir-The picture Of the Anaconda
scrap-iron precipitating plant at Butte,
Mon on the front page OF the E. q Nd.
j.. Of July 10 brings to mind the begin
nings of that feature of copper mining
in Butte and also a bit Of the personal
history of the late Marcus Daily, who was
so closely associated with the early his
tory of the camp.
When I was employed by Mr.. DAILY in
1892 to reconstruct the converting plant
at Anaconda, I was shown through the
Anaconda mine, and precipitation Of the
copper from the mine waters had not
been started. In the following year a lease
was given to some man whose name I
have forgotten, and the leaser built tanks
and used scrap iron Of all kinds to pre-
cipitate the small amount of copper that
was then dissolved in the mine water.
There had been a fire in the Anaconda
mine two or three years before in which
there was some loss of life, and to put
the fire out the mine was flooded up to
the collar Of the shaft. When the water
was pumped out the Sulphide ore was
still so hot that it soon started to burn
again, and n sulphur dioXide gas made
working in the mine disagreeable so that
part Of the mine in which the fire was
localized was bulkheaded off. Owing tC
the settlement of the walls it was i'm
possible to prevent the sulphur diOXide
from penetrating the workings, and DAILY
or n of his employees suggested thai
the fire could be e~Xtinguished by putting
down drill holes from the surface ano
running water down through these drill
holes into the burning area, an ideS
which was subsequently carried out.
The burning of the ore had caused the
formation of a lot of sulphates which
only needed water to go into solution an
at nee the mine water became blue solu
ton Of copper sulphate. The leaser OF
the mine water at the surface could no
build tanks and buy scrap iron fas
enough and he was making money so fas
and spending it so furiously that i
aroused Days ire. The leaser with hi
new wealth bought a large yellow dia
mond for his front and one for eacl
hand, bought a few race horses and gen
orally began to SOW a large crop Of will
oats. While his lease lasted nothinl
could be done apparently and DAILY was q
made as a wet hen.
One Sunday while I was in Butte
looked over the situation and learne
that not only was there a terrible loss c
copper but that the mine pumps, tn
pump CO4u4AlAlos IAlC AnlAlC Tails dnQ 6p4hc
were being destroyed by the acid water
Well, they stopped the flooding wit
water from the surface after it ha
caused great damage to the mine equip
ment n a great number Of sores o
the skin Of the miners where the he
acid solution had dropped. This did nc
stop the acid solutions going to tn
pumps, and the leaser continued to so
wild oats. In conversation Mr.. DAILY e.
pressed himself very forcibly on the sui
ject of the aforesaid wild oats, yello
diamonds, race horses, ETC., and his irrits
ton was further increased by the fa'
that one Of h ~leaser's plugs beat or
of Days horses. DAILY remarked thu
he 1.-THE leaser) had a racing stable, an
that's expensive, / know that"
I suggested that the trouble with II
pumps n pump columns might I
much reduced by putting scrap iron
the stump in the mine and also enlarl
ing the stump so that the copper woul
be precipitated before the water enterg
the pumps. This seemed to appeal i
lDaly's imagination, and it was done, b