With business savvy honed in the west’s rowdy mining camps, Marcus Daly rose from poor Irish immigrant to Gilded Age magnate. From the Anaconda mine of Butte to America’s largest smelter in a town he named Anaconda, Daly made a fortune. He used it to build his dream―a Bitterroot valley ranch and a horse racing empire that stretched from California to New York. Meanwhile, his gregarious and generous facade hid a sly manipulator, one locked in a battle for political dominance with rival copper king W.A. Clark. Brenda Wahler will peel back the layers of a complex industrialist, revealing his historic influence and legacy.
Brenda Wahler of Helena is a lifelong Montana horsewoman, an attorney in her day job and an independent historian and freelance writer. In recounting the history of the west, whether the bucking horses of Eastern Montana or the Copper Kings of Butte, she searches for the truth behind the myths.
Please join us in the Capitol Room at the Delta Hotel, 2301 Colonial Drive, on Thursday, January 15, 2026. No host cocktails at 5:30 (cash only), dinner at 6:00, door prize and 50/50 Drawing (tickets $1 each or 6 for $5) at 6:55, and entertainment at 7:00.
Dinner for each member and their guest(s) is $30, non-members are $45 each. To make reservations, or for additional information, contact Teri Flemming at 406-459-0432, or Wanda Cawley at 406-431-9262.
We look forward to seeing you.
