The original Anaconda Brewery was built in Anaconda, Montana, near Walnut and West Fourth streets and operated by Joe Paul and Joseph Steger, later joined by John V. Petritz. About 1900 Henry Mueller took control of the Anaconda Brewery. Mueller also owned Centennial Brewery in Butte, the Billings Brewery, and was part owner of the Olympia Brewery. The Anaconda Brewery buildings also included a Brewery Saloon and Beer Garden and a bowling alley, which was added in 1914.
Mueller's brother-in-law, Adam Tuchscherer, became a bookkeeper at the Anaconda Brewing Company. In 1908 Adam Tuchscherer became president of the brewery. In 1916 when Prohibition went into effect in Montana, all breweries and liquor stores closed. The Anaconda Brewing Company became the Anaconda Products Company, and continued to bottle soft drinks. The machinery of the Walnut Street Brewery in Anaconda was sold to a Canadian brewery and the building was taken down in 1927. When the brewery went dry, Tuchscherer bought all the shares of the brewery.
After the repeal of Montana's Prohibition in 1926, the Anaconda Brewing Company was reopened at 1200 East Park in Anaconda, Montana, by Adam Tuchscherer and his two sons, Arthur and Walter on July 1, 1933. The bottling works and office remained on Walnut Street until 1939, when a new addition was made on the Park Street side of the brewery. Adam Tuchscherer died in 1944, but Adam and Walter continued the production of Rocky Mountain Beer until 1955. In 1958 the Anaconda Brewery closed and the soft drink division became the Sugrue Bottling Company.
This collection includes minutes of meetings for the brewery, names of shareholders and the amount of stocks they held, certificates, letters to stockholders, financial records, clippings about the Anaconda Brewery and articles about breweries in Butte, Montana. The artifacts in this collection include bottles of beer and White Soda that the brewery manufactured, and photographs pertaining to the brewery.
The collection is divided into five series:
Series I: Organization, 0.6 feet, 1898-1959
Series II: Financial Records, 1.5 feet, 1916-1957
Series III: Clippings, 2 folders, 1933-1989
Series IV: Artifacts, 7 items, undated
Series V: Photographs, 13 photographs, circa 1914-1940
Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of Archives and Special Collections, the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, and The University of Montana--Missoula.
Researchers are responsible for using in accordance with 17 U.S.C. and any other applicable statutes. Copyright not transferred to The University of Montana.
[Name of document or photograph number], Anaconda Brewing Company Records, Archives and Special Collections, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, The University of Montana--Missoula.
This collection remained with the Tuchscherer family until donation to the K. Ross Toole Archives.
Gift of Dr. Mabel D. Tuchscherer, 1970 and 1992.
The actions of the original processors are unknown. In 1999, the collection was reprocessed. The original materials were separated into two separate collections. Mss 167 includes materials directly related to the Anaconda Brewery and Mss 343 includes materials that pertain to the personal life of Walter Tuchscherer, one of the company's primary owners.
In 1999 materials pertaining directly to the personal life of Walter Tuchscher were separated out from this collection and assigned a separate designation--Mss 343, the Walter Tuchscherer Papers. In April 1992 Mabel Tuchscherer granted an oral history interview regarding her knowledge of the Anaconda Brewing Company and her family history. This recording can be found in the K. Ross Toole Archives Oral History Collection, number OH 273-001.
The Anaconda City Hall Museum holds a large collection of Anaconda Brewing Company artifacts.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
This series includes bound volumes and documents related to these bound volume. The documents include minutes of brewery meetings, stock registers, transfer records of stocks, names of shareholders, real estate owned by the brewery, Articles of Incorporation, correspondence to stockholders, Declaration of Trust, and the annual report for 1953.
This series includes financial ledgers and sales records from the brewery.
This series includes clippings from newspapers about the Anaconda Brewery and breweries in Butte, Montana.
Series IV includes seven empty bottles of some of the products the company brewed. These products include bottles of Rocky Mountain White Soda, Bock Beer, a bottle and a cone top can of Rocky Mountain Beer, and a bottle of Rocky Mountain Special Export.
This series includes photographs pertaining to the Anaconda Brewery. Identified individuals in the photos include John Murphy, Anton "Tony" Shen, Mrs. Anton Shen, Adam Tuchscherer, Maybelle Tuchscherer, Arthur Tuchscherer, Willis McMahen, Henry Lindy, and Hans Schaffer.