Born in 1841 to tenant farmers, Marcus Daly came from rural Ireland to New York as a boy. Having learned the big city’s harsh lessons, he traveled west to the gold and silver mining camps of California, Nevada, Utah and Montana. Then, a spectacular discovery in the Anaconda mine made him one of Montana’s famed Copper Kings. Yet his early life remained shrouded in myth. Daly was famed for his machinations in state politics and shaping Butte into the “Richest Hill on Earth,” but his path from farm boy to mining king has been overlooked. For the first time, author Brenda Wahler brings his secretive and formative early years to life.
Brenda Wahler is a fourth-generation Montanan. An attorney, historian and equine consultant, she and her husband live near Helena, Montana.