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====Smelting operations==== On April 7, 1908, construction began on a masonry/brick chimney measuring {{convert|506|ft|m}} tall on the B & M's (now the city's largest employer) smelting site at Black Eagle by the Alphonse Custodis Construction Co. of New York, for dispersal of fumes from B & M's copper smelting process. B & M would soon merge with the Amalgamated Copper Company and become the [[Anaconda Copper]] Mining Company or "ACM". The B & M smelter stack was completed on October 23, 1908. The chimney had an interior measurement of {{convert|78.5|ft|m}} in diameter at the base and {{convert|50|ft|spell=in}} in diameter at the top. At the time of its completion, it was the tallest chimney in the world (see [[List of tallest chimneys]]). With the moniker "The Big Stack", it immediately became a landmark for the community; after over 70 years of operation, the smelter closed in 1980. The Big Stack's [[Anaconda Smelter Stack|"sister" stack]] in [[Anaconda, Montana|Anaconda]], also of masonry/brick construction, completed in 1919, and slightly taller at {{convert|585|ft}}, began to suffer from cracking and the ACM decided to remove the support bands from the upper half of the Big Stack in 1976 and send them to Anaconda. This action proved to be the Big Stack's ultimate demise, since the cracks it was also suffering from rapidly worsened such that the ACM, citing concern for public safety (due to the continual deterioration of the stack's structural integrity), slated the Big Stack's demolition for September 18, 1982. In an interesting twist of fate, the demolition crew failed to accomplish the task on the first try; the two worst cracks in the stack ran from just above ground level to nearly {{convert|300|ft|round=5}} up. The demolition team's intent was to create a wedge in the base so the stack's rubble would fall almost vertically into a large trench, but as the {{convert|600|lb|abbr=on}} of explosives were set off the cracks "completed themselves" all the way to the ground—effectively severing the stack into two-thirds and one-third pieces. Much to the delight of the spectating community, the smaller of the two pieces remained standing, but the failed demolition only solidified the safety issue whereas the community cited the event as the stack's defiance. The demolition team who had planted the charges was recalled and later the same afternoon they returned and finished the demolition, after packing another {{convert|400|lb|abbr=on}} of explosives into the smaller wedge.<ref name=stackun>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=w5dfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QjEMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4405%2C1224206 |work=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=(Idaho) |agency=Associated Press |last=Van Swearingen |first=Hugh |title=Historic Anaconda Co. stack withstands first dynamite blast |date=September 19, 1982 |page=4B}}</ref>
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