The fabulous month of June, where it could be summer, sometimes a little bit of spring and hopefully no winter. A lot of different events have happened in June over the years. Let’s explore.
On June 1, 1959 the Anaconda Company sold its 5 Montana newspapers (in Billings, Butte, Helena, Livingston, and Missoula) to Lee Enterprises. In those years the Anaconda Company was considered to promote pro-mining and pro Butte which earned it the name “Copper Collar”.
The Anaconda Company seldom if ever printed articles about mine accidents and worker’s strikes. The journalists couldn’t write anything that clashed with the company’s business enterprises. They had a tendency to not print articles about candidates who opposed the Anaconda Company, unless they were arrested or engaged in embarrassing activity. A perfect example of this bias was when a pro Anaconda Montana governor was arrested for drunkenness in New Orleans. Other Montana papers printed the story, but the story remained invisible in the 5 papers owned by the Anaconda Company.
Lee was a relatively small newspaper company at the time of acquiring the Anaconda Company’s papers. They owned 10 papers. Today it owns and has a stake in approximately 45 newspapers that have a combined circulation of 1.1 million daily and 1.2 million Sunday papers.
The 18th amendment was passed on June 16, 1920. Federal authorities stated in June of 1921 that Butte led the nation in per capita consumption of illicit liquor. The rum-runners of the early 1920s were rugged individuals, driving liquor across Montana’s long border with Canada. Liquor revenues in Canada increased fourfold. It appears that Butte residents didn’t care how the hooch got to town, they just loved it. Things are done big in Montana!
The first steamship to navigate the Upper Missouri arrived at Fort Union on June 19, 1832. The ship was 120 feet long and 20 feet in the beam. There were 22 crew members. The ship’s boiler burned 10 cords of wood each day with 18-foot diameter paddle wheels. Lots of splitting there.
Smallpox made its appearance in June of 1838 at Fort Union when a steamboat arrived with supplies. Every single one of the women at the Fort caught smallpox. Later on in the 1860s Fort Union was disassembled and reassembled 2 miles downstream as Fort Buford. Today a replica of Fort Union stands in the original spot. The Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site has a library holding rare first editions and a wealth of information on the Northwest fur trade.
Lewis & Clark arrived at the Falls on June 13, 1805. Lewis called the five cascades the “grandest sight I ever beheld.” He dwelt on the magnificent sight for some time. Daydreaming came to an end when a grizzly chased him into the river. The 18-mile portage around the falls cost the Corps of Discovery more than two weeks. Encounters with rattlesnakes, 3 bull buffalos, a mountain lion and of course the prickly pear cactus took their toll on the group. (Gee no selfies with the buffalos!)
On June 21, 2001 Carroll O’Connor, the man who played Archie Bunker died. Fame and fortune allowed him to donate more than a million dollars to the University of Montana. O’Connor was not a native Montanan. His father worked for the mafia during the Great Depression. Fortunately for U of M, his wife’s family was from Missoula.
Once again Butte showed its aggressive history. On June 23, 1914 the Miners Union Hall in Butte was dynamited. All night long, 26 charges ignited one after the other, leaving nothing but ruble. The bombing was the result of a conflict between miner’s groups.
The Western Federation of Miners (local Butte Miners’ Union) supported the Anaconda Copper Company. The opposing group was the miners dissatisfied with the WFM. The miners demanded that the union stand up for the rights of its workers, such as negotiating fair pay. The miners felt their union (WFM) was not doing this.
During the annual Miners’ Union Day parade on June 13, 1914, rioting broke out and the Butte Miners’ Union Hall was ransacked. Four men were injured and one man was killed during the riot.
The Butte miners quickly voted to secede from the WFM Union by a vote of 6,348 to 245. A new independent union under local control was organized. They were anti-Anaconda and wanted better working conditions.
The defeated Western Federation of Miners refused to relinquish control. The national WFM sent its president to Butte in a last ditch effort to maintain jurisdiction. President Moyer called a meeting of loyal BMU/WFM members in the Butte Miners’ Hall on June 23. Approximately 100 members entered the Hall, while an emotionally charged crowd of thousands packed the streets.
At 7:30 p.m., pistol shots came from inside the Hall. The WFM members escaped through a back door. The crowd panicked, but didn’t disperse. Dynamite was stolen from the nearby Steward Mine and used to dynamite the Hall. The destruction of the Butte Miners’ Union Hall symbolized the eviction of the once mighty BMU/WFM from Butte.
On August 30, a dynamite explosion blew up an office of the Anaconda Mining Company. The next day, the governor declared martial law in Butte. As a result the former union stronghold of Butte became an open-shop district, and the mine owners recognized no union from 1914 until 1934.
On a lighter note, the U S and Canada created the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park on June 18, 1932. The Peace Park is the union of Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada and Glacier National Park in the United States. It straddles the northern Rocky Mountains along the border between the United States and Canada. It is the world’s first “international peace park,” encompassing snowcapped mountains, high-altitude lakes, and rivers cascading from glaciers.
On June 22 of 1864 President Abraham Lincoln appointed Sidney Edgerton the first Governor of the Territory of Montana. Then on June 20th in 1921, 11.5 inches of rain fell in Circle to set a state record.
The “Olympian Flyer” express train crashed in Montana June 19th in 1938, killing 47. The Custer Creek train wreck is considered the worst rail disaster in Montana history. It occurred when a bridge, its foundations washed away by a flash flood, collapsed beneath Milwaukee Road’s Olympian as it crossed Custer Creek, near Saugus, Montana, south-west of Terry.
Many will remember these next times and series of events. 13 of the Montana Freemen surrendered after an 81-day standoff with FBI agents on June 14 of 1996. 81 days brought a lot of notoriety (not all good) to Montana. But it was interesting times that still do exist today in that part of Montana.
So June is a bit of an oddity month. No other month in the year begins on the same day of the week as June. So enjoy the oddity of the month and all its history.