At first glance, you see my picture and probably say "Oh, look. Mark's golfing again."

But it's all about the stack in this post. I grew up in Great Falls back before they demolished our smokestack in 1982. When you traveled out of town, you always knew that you were almost home when you could see our stack.

According to Wikipedia, "The Anaconda Smelter Stack" is now a two-part state park. The exact height was 585 feet,  one and a half inches when it was new in 1918, but they took some terra cotta off of the top and it's sunk a little bit since then. Inside diameter at the top is sixty feet, two inches. Construction started May 23, 1918 and was completed that same year on November 30.

The smokestack in Great Falls was a little shorter at a mere 506 feet. In fact, Wikipedia says the stack in Anaconda is the tallest masonry, brickwork structure, and chimney of any kind in the world, even today. There have been taller ones that have been built but have since been demolished. Any taller ones that you see are made of concrete.

My daughter thought I was making it up when I told her that the Washing monument would fit inside the smokestack in Anaconda. There would be an overlap of about a foot at the bottom so you couldn't just lower it in there. But, I was rolling with my vast historical "dad knowledge" and didn't see any need to go back and correct myself.

Anyway, if you ever find yourself in that area with nothing to do, you could check out the state park there. And if you just happen to have your golf clubs along, Old Works is right there and really a very pretty golf course to see.

Now, I have to run and make a tee time.

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