Anaconda, city (1990 pop. 10,278), seat of Deer Lodge co., SW Mont.; inc. 1887. Marcus
Daly chose this place (1883) for the Anaconda Copper Mining Company's processing operations, and in the 1890s tried unsuccessfully to make it Montana's capital. The city's famed high-stacked smelter was closed in 1980 as the copper industry declined. Tourism, spurred by a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course (1997), is now important.
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