Anaconda Copper Shuts Down All Montana Operations to Force Legislative Changes

The Amalgamated Copper Company (later Anaconda Copper Mining Company) executed an extraordinary act of corporate extortion by shutting down all mining operations across Montana, deliberately putting 15,000 workers out of work to force the state legislature to pass laws favorable to the company. This “Great Shutdown” demonstrated the raw political and economic power of the Copper Trust and established a century-long pattern of corporate dominance over Montana politics known as the “Copper Collar.”

IMMEDIATE TRIGGER: Judge William Clancy ruled in favor of F. Augustus Heinze in the Minnie Healey Mine case in late October 1903, applying the “law of the apex” doctrine that threatened Amalgamated’s control over vast mineral resources. The court decision essentially declared much of Amalgamated’s mining operations illegal, threatening the company’s monopoly position in Montana’s copper industry. Rather than accept judicial oversight or legal constraints, Amalgamated responded with economic warfare against the entire state.

THE SHUTDOWN AS WEAPON: On October 29, 1903, Amalgamated shuttered virtually all copper mining and smelting operations statewide, instantly creating mass unemployment affecting roughly 80% of Montana’s workforce when considering ripple effects through the economy. The company’s message was explicit: operations would remain closed until Governor Joseph Toole called a special legislative session to pass a “Fair Trials Bill” allowing removal of judges deemed biased against corporate interests. This represented corporate veto power over judicial independence, with workers and communities held hostage.

LEGISLATIVE CAPITULATION: Faced with economic catastrophe and pressure from “innumerable interests” dependent on mining activity, Governor Toole capitulated and called the special legislative session in early November 1903. So confident was Amalgamated of its political control that the company ended the shutdown before the legislature even convened. On November 10, 1903, the Montana Legislature dutifully passed the Fair Trials Bill allowing change of venue provisions favoring corporate defendants. The episode definitively ended the “War of the Copper Kings” with Amalgamated emerging as the unchallenged ruler of Montana politics and economy.

LONG-TERM CAPTURE MECHANISM: The Great Shutdown inaugurated what Montanans bitterly called the “Copper Collar” era, when suggesting a politician “wore a copper collar” became political suicide. For the next 70+ years until Anaconda’s demise in 1977, the company exercised pervasive control over Montana’s political system, newspapers, judiciary, and economy. As one historical account noted: “Six months is the longest one may live in Montana without making the decision whether one is ‘for the Company’ or ‘against the Company.’ The all-pervading and unrelenting nature of the struggle admits of no neutrals.”

INSTITUTIONAL PRECEDENT: The episode demonstrated that sufficiently large corporations could override democratic governance, judicial independence, and worker rights through economic coercion. The mechanism - threatening economic destruction unless government submits to corporate demands - became a template for corporate capture nationwide. The shutdown proved that when corporations achieve monopoly control over regional economies, they effectively possess veto power over all three branches of government, reducing democracy to theater while economic oligarchy makes actual decisions.