A glimpse into the life of William A. Clark

SEELEY LAKE – Copper King, risk taker, western Midas, corrupt, personality of last year's bird's nest, and shame to the American nation were all words used to describe William A. Clark, one of the wealthiest men in Montana. Montana State University-Billings Associate Professor and Chair of the History Department Keith Edgerton, PhD spoke of Clark's life, corruption and his marks on Montana history, including building the Mowitza Lodge on Salmon Lake, Friday, Nov. 16 during a presentation hosted by the Seeley Lake Historical Society.

Born in Pennsylvania in 1839, W. A. Clark was raised in Iowa. The prospect of gold in the west brought Clark to the Idaho Territory in 1863. However, when that didn't pan out, he took what little money he had and invested in freight wagons. He hauled freight including shovels, eggs, whiskey, tobacco and dry goods from Salt Lake City, Utah into Bannock, Virginia City and the other booming Montana mining camps.

"As you know, the freight rates are pretty high so everything he bought down there he marked up a substantial percent and that is how he starts making money very quickly," said Edgerton. "As one of his business associates once said, 'Not one dollar went into his left hand, that two didn't appear in his right.'"

Clark continued to delve into the business world and as Edgerton put it, "Everything he touched turned to gold."

After marrying his long-time sweetheart from Pennsylvania, they moved to Deer Lodge, Mont. in 1870 and opened a bank. Edgerton said Clark would go out into the mining camps with a wad of cash and purchase gold dust to build the reserves in his bank. He received a lot of mining claims in Butte when loanees defaulted on their loans.

He moved to Butte City in 1875. After taking a year off and studying metallurgy for a year at the School of Mines at Columbia University in New York, Clark realized he was sitting on a lot of copper.

Clark started to develop his mining claims, investing his fortune in smelting equipment to process the copper.

Edgerton said Clark's operation happened at a very opportune time in history because in 1876 Thomas Edison harnessed the power of the electric light bulb, "and guess what is the best conduit of electricity, copper wire. And guess who sits on all this copper, W. A. Clark and several other copper moguls notably Marcus Daly. He is very, very quickly going to become very, very rich," said Edgerton.

Clark also purchased real estate in the Seeley Lake area for timber.

"A lot of your wood up here went into the mines in Butte," said Edgerton.

Butte quickly became the copper-producing center of the world, even though Clark's copper in holdings in Jerome, Ariz. was his highest producing operation.

As Montana headed towards statehood, Clark turned his eyes toward politics. He was at the head of the Montana Convention that drew up the state's constitution. Edgerton ensured it was a mine-friendly document. Once Montana achieved statehood, Clark coveted one of the U.S. Senate seats that the state legislature elected.

After the appointments went to the Republicans in 1890, Clark's archrival Daly made it his personal goal to deny Clark the senate seat in 1893. Through a series of bribes from both, Clark lost the seat by three votes.

The decade-long feud continued between the two copper kings in the selection of the state's capital in 1894. Daly wanted Anaconda, the site of his Anaconda Copper Mining Company, to become the capital. Clark felt that Helena was better suited and gave him access to key legislators.

Edgerton said the voter turnout for the election was "impressive." There were 52,000 registered voters in Montana. On election day 53,000 people voted, a 110 percent turnout.

Edgerton said one of the students in his Montana History class told the story of his great grandfather living in a logging camp above Seeley Lake on the day of the election.

"He was eight years old at a Clark camp. They brought out barrels of whiskey at the voting booth. The eight-year-old went up and voted and got a shot of whiskey and a $5 gold coin for voting that day," said Edgerton. "Where did the other 1,000 voters come from? I guess one of them was up here in Seeley Lake that day, as an eight-year-old no less."

Helena won by around 2,000 votes. Edgerton said Clark opened up the bars and his champagne bill that night was $30,000 in 1894 dollars.

Clark continued to try to win the senate seat in 1899. However, he was caught in a sting operation to expose his bribery of the Montana legislators. While he was denied the seat, Edgerton said this led to the 17th amendment to the U.S. Constitution that was ratified in 1914 allowing for the direct election of U.S. Senators.

Finally Clark was seated as a Montana senator in 1901 until 1907.

"He didn't do much in the way of legislation or leaving much of a mark on national or state politics, but for the rest of his life he was always known as Senator Clark. That is what he coveted more than anything else," said Edgerton.

Clark continued as a businessman often working 20 hours a day. Edgerton referred to him as a "western Midas" with copper holdings in Butte and Arizona, southwest railroad line, copper wire factory in New Jersey, the world's largest bronze firm, 10,000 acre sugar beet ranch in California, stone quarry in Maine, coffee plantation/cattle ranch in Mexico, lumber interests in Seeley Lake, the Milltown Dam, water company in Missoula, street car line in Butte, apartments in Paris and real estate everywhere.

One of his most notable real estate purchases was in southern Nevada. Originally it was a stop to water his steam engines on his railroad between Salt Lake City and Long Beach, Calif. However, it was subdivided into Clark's Las Vegas townsite.

"Indeed it became Las Vegas," said Edgerton. "It is no longer Lincoln County, Nevada – it is Clark County, Nevada. The most visited city in the world was founded by W.A. Clark."

Clark also collected more than a $1.5 million in French artwork that he housed in a mansion on 5th Avenue in New York that he built in the late 1890s.

Clark was married twice and had eight children. In 1915, his son William A. Clark, Jr. built the Mowitza Lodge on Salmon Lake. Edgerton said Mowitza is an Indian name meaning "by peaceful waters."

The Clark family spent a lot of time recreating at Mowitza, particularly Clark Jr. who took over Clark's Butte holdings.

Missoula resident Warren Little shared a story told by a relative that worked at Mowitza. Little said Clark Jr. hired a former race car driver to drive him in a Duesenberg from southern California to Salmon Lake. He would give him bonuses if he got here in record time. Little said he made the trip in 30 hours.

Little also recounted a story his uncle told him about Clark Jr. practicing with a new rifle while others were cutting ice out of Salmon Lake. Little said some of the rounds were coming pretty close so his uncle asked Clark Jr. to knock it off.

"The young Clark said 'It's okay. If I hit you I'll pay you," said Little.

"That was their attitude," said Edgerton. "Clark, when he bought the Montana Legislature, said, 'I never bought a man who wasn't for sale.'"

Edgerton said that Clark Jr. had a heart attack in Butte but still wanted to come to Mowitza. He died in the lodge in June 1934.

The Mowitza Lodge was later sold to the Catholic Diocese of Helena and renamed "Legendary Lodge."

Clark died in 1925. Clark had no investors or cooperation. Everything went to his children. All his Butte holdings were sold to Anaconda Copper Company in 1928. The other companies were divested to other people. Edgerton pointed out that while Clark made his fortune in Montana, he left no philanthropic investment to the state except a donation to the Paul Clark Home, named after his son who died young.

"He had $200 million and gave $10,000 to an orphans' home in Butte," said Edgerton. "Try as I might to like him, it is not possible."

Nine pieces of Clark's art collection were given to the Montana Museum of Art and Culture at the University of Montana. They are on display through June in the Art Annex across from the Adams Center.

Edgerton started working on Clark's biography 10 years ago. He looks forward to filling in the blanks and releasing his book "Copper King" once Clark's documents are released to the public. They have been tied up in litigation following the death of his daughter Huguete, the last heir to his estate who died in 2011.

For more information about W.A. Clark visit https://mtprof.msun.edu/Spr2014/edger.html and http://www.bonnermilltownhistory.org/william-andrews-clark