Copper Kings

In the late nineteenth century, the Butte hill held some of the richest copper deposits on earth, and copper was becoming essential to a nation wiring itself for electricity. Three men fought for control of that hill. Their struggle, waged from the late 1880s until 1906 with money, newspapers, lawyers, and political campaigns, is remembered as the War of the Copper Kings.

Marcus Daly was born on December 5, 1841, in Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan, Ireland, one of the children of a small farming family. He emigrated to the United States as a young man, worked his way west, and learned mining in Nevada, where he gained experience in the great silver mines of the Comstock Lode. There he also formed lasting business connections, including his friendship with the California mining investor George Hearst.