Jane a chara, Anaconda, Montana, was a boom town in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Butte was the town where the copper was mined and Anaconda was the town where it was smeltered. Outside of Anaconda there was a huge hill of black ugly slag, it was the first thing you saw as you entered Anaconda.For many years Anaconda could boast that it had the highest stack in the world. Dad said that it was wide enough at the top to ride a buggy with a horse. My Donegal Grandmother Catherine Doherty Smith and her brother Patrick Doherty both from Ballyhillion, Malin Head, County Donegal first immigrated to Braddock, Pennsylvania. As the word spread about Anaconda, they moved westward about 1896. My Grandfather Michael Smith from Brackloon, Swinford, County Mayo first worked in the silver mines in Pueblo, Colorado then moved onto Anaconda in the late 1890s. When my Grandfather Michael Dowdall heard about Anaconda a friend told him that the town was paved in gold. He thought because of the copper mines and smelting that he could make a fortune. How wrong he was! Grandpa Dowdall was from County Derry and had first immigrated to North Attleboro, MA (25 southwest of Boston). Grandpa Dowdall immigrated to the U.S. in 1907 and moved to Anaconda abt 1916. Seems like almost every Doherty from Donegal who immigrated to the U.S. went to Pennsylvania (only kidding, but Dohertys are quite plentiful in Pennsylvania). Pennsylvania had the coal mines where the Molly Maguires came to prominence in disputes with the mine owners. Lots of Donegal people also worked in the steel mills in Braddock and Pittsburgh. Carnegie's U.S. Steel Company was based in Braddock, PA. This is a wee bit off topic, but my Great Grandfather Peter Flanagan from Kinghill, Newry, County Down went to Millom, District of Bootle, Cumbria to work in the iron mills as an iron worker. Many of the County Down people went over to the Millom area as iron workers. Many of them did it seasonally. My Great Grandfather stayed for a few years and then returned to County Down in the 1880s. Beannachtai, Margaret (Mairead)