Marcus Daly in Hamilton

The town of Hamilton was founded by Marcus Daly who was one of Montana's colorful "Copper Kings." Daly was an Irish immigrant who made his fortune in the mines of Butte and founded the Anaconda Mining Company. He established the town of Anaconda with his smelter. Daly came to the Bitterroot valley in search of timber for his mines--and this he found in abundance. He built a mill to process the timber and formed a company town around the mill for the workers. He built a beautiful summer home in the valley in 1887 and accumulated large tracts of land for his hobby of breeding and racing thoroughbred horses. This large ranch was named the Bitter Root Stock Farm.

The town of Hamilton was incorporated in 1894 and was named after James Hamilton, a Daly employee, who platted the town along the route of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1890. By the time Daly died in 1900, Hamilton was the commercial center of the Bitterroot Valley and the seat of Ravalli County.

Old Fashion Romance

In 1871, on a sunny afternoon near Ophir, Utah a young Irish foreman was working for the Walker Brothers of Salt Lake City. He was showing recently discovered diggings to a crowd of miners. A young lady by the name of Margaret, a daughter of one of the miners, was very curious to see the samplings and edged herself too close to the ridge edge. She leaned too far over the edge and slipped right over, landing in the arms of the unsuspecting Irishman.

The result was red faces and apologies, but it lead to a wedding in 1872 in Salt Lake City. Marcus Daly and Margaret Evans were married at the Joseph Walker home.

This storybook marriage lasted until Marcus Daly died in 1900. They had three daughters and a son, and became the founders of present-day Hamilton, Montana. Marcus's pet name for his wife was "Maggie," and he dooted over her his whole life.