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Copper King Mansion
Copper King Mansion - 219 West Granite Street,
Butte, MT
LOCATION:
The Copper King Mansion can be found
2 block north of Park street, near the corner of West Granite Street and
North Montana St., not a far walk from the courthouse area.
DESCRIPTION / HISTORY:
William Andrews Clark started off
his adult life going to law school for two years, taught school in Missouri
for a year before getting bit by the gold bug in 1862. He and a friend
headed for Bannack and worked a claim for 2 years before selling it.
His true genius was in the art of
being a business entreprenuer. He began by hauling supplies to mining
camps and evolved into helping minors manage their findings. He made his
fortune through recording claims for miners and making loans based on
their claims. His many mining and banking activities started his personal
fortune flowing, which at its height at about 17 million dollars a month!
By 1900, he was one of the wealthiest men in the world, having a fortune
around $50,000,000.
Of course, Clark put this fortune
to good use! Besides being generous to a variety of charities and the
Presbyterian church in Butte, he invested more money in business opportunities.
He owned 97% of the Jerome mine in Arizona and had bought mines in Butte
as well! He owned newspapers, sugar plantations and a large sugar factory
in Los Angeles. He also was instrumental in the founding of Las Vegas.
He owned the W.A. Clark Wire Company and the New York baed Henry Bonnard
Bronze Company, among many other businesses.
Clark built mansions in several other
cities; including New York, Santa Barbara, Washington DC and Paris, France.
However, the town of Butte became the family residence. By the 1880s,
he and his beloved first wife, Katherine had 6 children and a need for
a large place. In 1888 this glorious 34-room brick Elizabethan Victorian
mansion was complete and Clark and his family moved in! This mansion in
Butte was a real showpiece of his wealth, costing him half-million dollars;
But it was money well-spent!
Tom and I stayed here in the summer
and took the tour. It is the most beautiful mansion we've seen! The floors
were made of inlaid wood, and the woodwork was handcarved throughout the
mansion. One also sees stained glass windows, frescoed ceilings and lovely
antique furnishings. The top floor housed a 64 foot ballroom, complete
with its own organ. The bathroom on the second floor not only has a glorious
huge claw-foot bath tub, but also has a unique shower which squirts water
from all directions! Many of the rooms have lovely hand-carved and customized
mantelpieces, each designed by European craftsmen especially for this
mansion, and each from a different wood.
Katharine died in 1893. Clark remarried
in 1901 to a lovely woman, Anna Lachapelle, with whom he had two daughters.
One of these girls died of meningitis at the age of 17, but the other
daughter is still going strong, living in New York.
After Clark and his 2nd wife passed
on, the mansion was inherited by Clark's son, who liked to gamble. Uh
Oh! The mansion was sold to an outside person, who sold all the existing
furniture that was in the mansion. After becoming this owner's private
residence, the mansion was eventually sold to the Catholic church and
it became a home for the town's Catholic nuns, who turned part of the
top floor into a chapel, in the rooms off the ballroom area. The nuns
didn't appreciate the frescoe which was painted on the ceiling of the
master bedroom, so they painted over it. The mansion was put back on the
market when the nuns moved out some years later, and stood vacant for
3 years.
The new owners started at once to
clean out the cob-webs and dust, and began to renovate the mansion to
its former glory. While the owners were able to buy back some of the original
antiques owned by the Clark family, many other antiques similar to the
ones which existed in that era were purchased. Also the owner loved to
have collections, which today are still here on display, including dolls,
hats, toys, clocks, demitasse cups and steins.
To raise some money, this owner opened
up a restaurant in the main dining room which she ran for many years.
The mansion has stayed in the family since then. The granddaughter (who
is a great hostess & cook) and grandson (who helps with the upkeep) now
own the Copper King Mansion and run a Bed and Breafast here throughout
the year. Tours are given to the general public: May - September.
MANIFESTATIONS:
Though the very personable owner of
this Bed and Breakfast mansion stated that there are no entities in this
absolutely glorious mansion, others have reported:
* Feeling the presence of a cold entity
hanging around in the game room.
* A cheery presence is felt in the
old chapel and ballroom, and can be a bit of a tease with people who are
fearful of spirits. A former tour guide would fit the bill pretty well.
Among all the tour guides, she was the one who was picked to be the recipient
of the entities' antics.
In the top floor in the 64 foot
ballroom, the owner had cleaned out an old trunk one morning, leaving
it shut. During an afternoon tour, this tour guide who used to give
tours to the public and guests, was explaining about the ball room area.
The lid of the trunk flew up all by itself, scaring the tour guide,
and startling the other people. This tour guide seemed to be the one
the entities enjoyed getting their chuckles from because this person
reacted so beautifully, being a little scared of ghosts!
* A light-colored hazy fog like apparition
likes to float around the basement and the first floor hallway.
STILL HAUNTED?
Uncertain.
It depends on who one talks to. The
entities know better than to cut up with the owner, a very good business
person who runs a tight ship with her employees, and certainly wouldn't
put up with antics! Like mischievous children, other people seem to get
their attention; like nervous tour guides or guests. People with psychic
abilities have felt presences though no psychic research has been done.
Sources include: thecopperkingmansion.com
Haunted Places: The National Directory by Dennis William Hauk, 2002
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