Amorphous Silicon Solar Cell

Daly Mansion

By Brian D’Ambrosio

Marcus Daly was a colorful mining tycoon renowned as the “Copper King”. An industrious Irish immigrant, Daly (1841-1900) made his fantastic chance in the mines of Butte during the 1880s, and made the Anaconda Mining Company. Daly established the towns of Anaconda, to support his smelt mines, and Hamilton, to support his lumber industry.

In the late 1880s, Daly built a summer residence for his family in present-day Hamilton, the focal point of the marvelous Bitterroot Valley. Daly bought the existing Anthony Chaffin homestead in 1886, including the farmhouse, and had it completely remodeled into a majestic Queen Anne style Victorian mansion.

“This is a very captivating house,” said Kim Morris, Director of Development for the Daly Mansion. “It makes many people reckon of ‘Gone With the Wind.’ When you come here, you are able to step back one hundred years. It’s reasonably fascinating.”

The Daly Mansion and the estate renowned as “Riverside,” due to its closeness to the Bitterroot River, served to entertain and delight guests. Foreign plants, a swimming pool, and a children’s playhouse were all added to Riverside after the Daly family arrival.

After Marcus Daly’s death in 1900, Margaret, his widow, had the home redecorated into the present structure. The Georgian Revival style Mansion was drafted by noted Missoula inventor A.J. Gibson and finished in 1910.

The Mansion occupies 24,000 square feet on three floors, with twenty five bedrooms, fifteen bathrooms, and seven fireplaces, five of which are faced with imported Italian marble.

Some of the primary place to stay include a broad living room, a formal dining room, a music room, a sun room, an upstairs sitting room, a third floor billiard hall, and a trophy room which was annexed in 1914.

The Mansion grounds showcase fifty species of trees, a tennis court, a conservatory, a boathouse, and a laundry building.

Daly, who had a tremendous like for horse racing, came to the Bitterroot Valley for two compelling reasons: to buy enormous land for lumber and to establish a breeding homestead for thoroughbreds. The Copper King eventually obtained several large ranches and farms. While Daly lived, 1,200 head of horses were kept on the 22,000-acre holding he named the Bitterroot Stock Farm.

During the late 1880s, Daly bought up small sawmills in the surrounding areas and very quickly established a lumber producing industry on the grounds beside the Bitterroot River. Marcus Daly’s next huge thought was to bring a pair of men from another state to design and develop his fantasy town.

They were James Hamilton and Robert O’Hara, who arrived from Minnesota in 1890. The town was named after Hamilton, and O’Hara was the first mayor. Daly’s plotted community had a bank, stores, shops, a school, and four churches. Hamilton was incorporated about 1894.

“This is an infatuating house,” said Don Erdman, who volunteers as a Daly Mansion tour handbook. “The more you come here, the more passionate you become about the Bitterroot’s historic past. This is a fantastic house to come and gather about the past. The more you come here, the more you feel as if you’re a part of that history.”

Following Mrs. Daly’s death in 1941, the Mansion was boarded up in anticipation of 1987, when it was opened to the broadcast.

The Mansion and grounds offer tours, special projects and events, including picnics, weddings, reunions, murder mysteries, doll shows, concerts, and a unique Christmas open house. The Daly Mansion, recognized as a Inhabitant Historic Site, is owned by the State of Montana, and operated and maintained by the Daly Mansion Preservation Trust.

“Marcus Daly is a really huge part of Montana’s history,” said Morris. “This mansion is part of that same Montana history, too.”

Comments are closed.