Any of you that have been to Montana Tech have seen the statue of Marcus Daily on the top of the hill on Park Street. The statue has been at that location since 1941, it was unveiled in 1907 but was on Park and Main then, but it became a traffic hazard there so was moved to the Tech campus in 1941.
Well Tech is doing some heating system upgrades which necessitated tearing up the street under Marcus. So they have temporarily removed it, as a precaution to keep any damage from happening to him.
Those not from Butte are probably saying who the hell was Marcus Daily. He was one of the three Copper Kings and one of the richest men in the world at the time of his death. He was instrumental in the formation of the towns of Butte and Anaconda and Montana. He and William Clark (whom Clark County Nevada is named for) battled each other on several different fronts during their lives, but most famously for the location of the Montana State Capital. Daily wanted Anaconda and Clark wanted Helena. Clark won that battle.
Both men spent millions at that time trying to win the capital location battle. They both bought newspapers across the state to try and sway voters and both literally bought voters. Of course Clark was the Trump of his day, a very shady character who bought a US Senate seat to make only be thrown out.
I digress, back to Marcus’s statue I remember many a day walking up Park Street (when we were in grad school) huffing and puffing and when I reached the statue of Old Marcus I knew the hard part of the hike was over. So I would be damn happy to reach that statue. Again those not from Butte the West End of Park Street is a pretty damn steep hill. The arch in the photo below is the halfway point of the Park Street Hill. You can see the Marcus statue at the top of the hill.
Well Marcus will be on vacation until August when he will be hopefully returned to his perch looking East on Park Street.
Got the folks down to vote yesterday. Mom said it was weird to be on the other side of the table this year. She had a nice visit with the ladies working the election this year.
Today I will be taking them to a Forest Service retiree’s luncheon.
Well I better get a move on.
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