Marcus Daly's Montana Empires with Brenda Wahler
Schedule
Sat, 14 Mar, 2026 at 01:00 pm
UTC-06:00Location
422 2nd Street South, Great Falls, MT, United States, Montana 59405 | Great Falls, MT
With business savvy honed in the West’s rowdy mining camps, Marcus Daly rose from poor Irish immigrant to Gilded Age magnate. From the mines of Butte, Montana, to America’s largest smelter in a town he also named Anaconda, Daly’s Anaconda Copper Company made a fortune. He used it to build his dream—a Bitterroot Valley ranch and a horse racing empire that stretched from California to New York. Meanwhile, his gregarious and generous façade hid a sly manipulator, one locked in a battle for political dominance with rival copper king W.A. Clark. With detailed research and more than one hundred photographs, historian Brenda Wahler peels back the layers of a complex industrialist, revealing his historic influence and legacy.
Born in Great Falls and now living in Helena, Brenda Wahler is an attorney, author, independent historian, and horsewoman. She remembers when the Big Stack stood over Black Eagle and enjoys digging into the deeper stories that make up Montana’s complex history. She is the author of Marcus Daly’s Montana Empires: Copper Mining, Racehorses and Politics, Marcus Daly's Road to Montana, and Montana Horse Racing: A History, all published by The History Press.
Where is it happening?
422 2nd Street South, Great Falls, MT, United States, Montana 59405Event Location & Nearby Stays:



















