- Anaconda
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/an'euh kon"deuh/, n.a city in SW Montana. 12,518.
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Either of two South American snake species in the genus Eunectes (family Boidae) that constrict their prey.The heavily built giant anaconda, or great water boa, is usually not more than 16 ft (5 m) long but can be longer than 24 ft (7.5 m), rivaling the largest pythons in length. The yellow anaconda is much smaller. Typically dark green with alternating oval black spots, the giant anaconda lives along tropical rivers east of the Andes and in Trinidad. It kills at night by lying in wait in water; it constricts prey as large as young pigs or caimans and occasionally forages in trees for birds. It may bear 75 live young at a time.
Giant anaconda (Eunectes murinus).© Z. Leszczynski/Animals Animals* * *
city, seat (since 1977) of Anaconda-Deer Lodge county, southwestern Montana, U.S., 23 miles (37 km) northwest of Butte. Laid out in 1883 as Copperopolis by Marcus Daly (Daly, Marcus), founder of Montana's copper industry, the settlement was the seat of Deer Lodge county. In 1977 the governments of Anaconda and Deer Lodge county were consolidated. The city grew rapidly after 1884, when Daly built a copper smelter on nearby Warm Springs Creek. Daly's plant became one of the world's largest nonferrous and reduction works, and its 585-foot (178-metre) smokestack dominates the landscape. The city was incorporated in 1888 and was renamed Anaconda, after Daly's mining camp in Butte, to avoid confusion with Copperopolis in Meagher county. Daly, who had hoped to make Anaconda the state capital, built one of the most ornate hotels in the nation—the Hotel Marcus Daly—there. His newspaper, the Anaconda Standard, had a plant as modern as any in New York City at the time, though it had a readership of only a few thousand.Copper smelting and the manufacture of phosphate products remained the city's economic mainstay until 1980, when Atlantic Richfield Company, the owner of the Anaconda Company, permanently closed the copper smelter, putting some 25 percent of Anaconda's workforce out of work.The city centre's Washoe Theatre (1931) is on the National Register of Historic Places. Another notable city structure is the Hearst Free Library (opened 1898), donated by Phoebe Apperson Hearst (the mother of American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst). Recreation areas include nearby Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, Lost Creek State Park, Mount Haggin Wildlife Management Area, and Georgetown Lake. There are several ghost towns in the region. Pop. (1990) 10,278; (2000) 9,417.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
