was the community of Comet, in what today is Jefferson County, where there were mines and processing mills from 1869 to 1941. At its height, Comet was a town of 12 blocks and 6 streets and by 1911 had extracted $13 million worth of metals (gold, silver, lead, zinc, and copper ore), but is now abandoned and decaying. The town's most prominent remains are the mill, office, and bunkhouse, which are leftovers from the last productive years in the 1920s and 1930s. Most of the other structures and buildings have collapsed from neglect. Anaconda Metals manufacturing dominated life in four Montana communities: Anaconda, Black Eagle (a suburb of Great Falls), East Helena, and Columbia Falls. The industrial workers who lived in the shadow of the smokestacks faced health hazards and job insecurity. Wives often worked to supplement the family income and after 1960, women increasingly worked outside the home. The smelters, usually the only workplace for young men who wished to remain in the community, created blue-collar towns. Residents expressed a love-hate relationship with the companies, which paid high wages for semi-skilled workers and supported community projects but were heavy-handed with the workers. Labor unions united the community workers and local business. In 1903, the Socialist Party of America won its first victory west of the Mississippi when Anaconda, Montana, elected a socialist mayor, treasurer, police judge, and three councilmen. The Socialist Party had grown within the Montana labor movement. Initially, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company tolerated them, but when the Socialists gained political power and threatened to implement reform, particularly when a socialist mayor was also elected in Butte, the company systematically undermine the Socialists. City workers and councilmen refused to cooperate with the new mayor, and the company began to fire Socialists. In the long run labor lost ground in Anaconda and the company exerted ever greater political control. Timber Timber resources were critical to both mines and railroads. Western Montana had ample timber but not always along the most natural railroad routes, and timber near mines was quickly depleted. Thus huge swaths of timber resources were made available to private railroad and mining interests, usually in a checkerboard pattern of ownership interspersed with sections of publicly held land. The communities of Libby, Kalispell and Missoula rose in part due to the demand for timber and their location along strategic waterways. Coal Montana holds significant coal reserves and