Interior secretary approves district expansion

By Roberta Forsell Stauffer of The Montana Standard - 04/27/2006

It’s finally official.

Parts of Butte, Anaconda and Walkerville have become what might be the largest National Historic Landmark District in the country.

At 2 million acres apiece, New York’s Adirondack Forest Preserve and Alaska’s Cape Krusenstern Archeological District are much bigger size-wise, but inside the boundaries of this new 9,774-acre district lie 7,885 “resources,” which is jargon for buildings and other structures such as gallows frames and the Anaconda stack.

Of those resources, 5,991 have historical significance.

Lysa Wegman-French, a National Park Service historian based in Denver, stopped short of saying this is the largest for sure because landmark districts weren’t required to count their total numbers of properties until the 1980s.

“That’s what makes us a little nervous about saying straight out that this has the largest resource count,” she explained. As far as they can tell, however, it’s No. 1.

By comparison, Savannah, Ga.’s historic district is large, but it contains only between 1,200 and 1,400 resources. Charleston, S.C.’s district is larger, but not six times larger, according to Patty Henry of the landmarks survey office in Washington, D.C.

The heart of Butte has been a landmark district since 1961 because of its national significance as a copper-mining district. With the expansion, the park service is finally recognizing the bigger picture.

“When we looked at that larger story, we realized that Butte would not have been as productive as it was if the Anaconda Co. had not had the town of Anaconda there with its smelters and other facilities,” Wegman-French said. “The whole region — Butte, Walkerville, the railroad, Anaconda — worked together.” The designation also comes with a nod to the area’s importance to labor history.

“It’s a nationally significant, internationally significant, area in my opinion,” she said.

Just as actors have their Academy Awards, and athletes their Olympic medals, historic communities have this landmark designation, Wegman-French said. “You’re officially now one of the country’s most important historic sites.” The final step for designation was approval by the Department of the Interior, and as it turned out, former secretary Gale Norton signed the papers right before leaving the post in late March.

Wegman-French didn’t learn that until this week and then quickly shared the news with the Montana contingent.

“She (Norton) was typically announcing them herself, and when she left, there was this lapse,” she said. “She hadn’t announced it and nobody else knew they needed to announce it.” A formal dedication ceremony and celebration will take place later this year, but plans for that are still in the works.

Cheryl McKinley, Anaconda’s historic preservation officer, said she sees this as one more tool that will help attract visitors and move Anaconda forward.

“It was a long hard journey but we persevered,” McKinley said. “I think that it’ll be a way to put Anaconda on the map.” Walkerville Mayor Bernard Harrington said he’s glad the community is now included in the district as it should be.

“I just hope that some good comes out of it for all the communities,” Harrington said.

More than 50 people from around the state worked on the expansion nomination, which took 14 years to move through the process.

Reporter Roberta Stauffer may be reached at roberta.stauffer@mtstandard.com.