Anaconda Smelter Stack - Anaconda, MT
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member T0SHEA
N 46° 07.388 W 112° 55.877
12T E 350789 N 5109541
When the final brick was mortared into place on November 30, 1918, this smokestack stood 585.56 feet in height, the tallest in the world at the time. It narrowly escaped demolition with the rest of the Anaconda Smelter in 1980.
Waymark Code: WMKMHW
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 05/02/2014
Published By:Groundspeak Regular Member The_Draglings
Views: 3

When the Anaconda Smelter shut down, then was demolished by its owners, a group named "Anacondans to Preserve the Stack" was formed. Largely through their efforts the stack was spared to stand as a monument to the industry that gave the City of Anaconda life and to all the workers who toiled beneath the stack at that smelter.

This chimney/smokestack is certainly unique as it remains the tallest brick chimney in the world.
Anaconda Smelter Smoke Stack
During the early years of smelting in Anaconda, each of the many furnaces at the Old Works required its own stack. Later the individual stacks were connected through flues to a large central stack.

When constructed In 1902, the first Washoe Smelter stack stood 285 feet high. As the production capacity of the smelter grew, the decision was made to design and construct one enormous stack to handle the large volumes of flue gas. In May 1918, the 30-foot high octagonal base for the "Big Stack" was completed. It was comprised of 20,891 sacks of cement, 50 railroad cars of sand, and 118 railroad cars of crushed rock. The Washoe Smelter stack was a colossal construction project that was completed in an extremely short time. Construction took 142 actual working days (8-hour shifts), with an average of 12 bricklayers per shift. On May 23, 1918, the first block was set in place and the last block was set in place a little over six months later on November 30, 1918.

From the 30-foot base (elevation 5,754 feet), the stack rises to 585 feet and is constructed of 2,464,652 locally-manufactured tile blocks, the equivalent of 6,672,214 ordinary bricks. Elevation at the top of the stack is 6,339 feet. An enormous amount of material went into the mortar necessary to construct the stack: 41,350 sacks of cement, 77 railroad cars of sand (50 tons per car), and 37 railroad cars of fire clay. Over 300,000 feet of lumber were used in the stack's construction. By May 5, 1919, the flue and stack were placed into operation, and the first smoke from the Washoe Smelter emerged from the stack.
From a Plaque at Smokestack Park
Coordinates given are at Smokestack Park, from where the stack may be viewed.
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Is your description history or fantasy: It's fer real!

Public or Private Propery: Private Property

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