Anaconda Smoke Stack — Washoe Smelter State Park Landmark

You can’t miss it, and you shouldn’t. The Washoe Smelter Stack — 585 feet of brick and mortar built in 1918 — looms over Anaconda like a monument to the copper barons who carved this landscape. It’s the tallest freestanding masonry structure in the Western Hemisphere and marks the heart of one of the most significant industrial sites in the American West. The surrounding Washoe Smelter State Park has interpretive signage, a parking area, and a viewing platform that gives you full context on what the Anaconda Company built here and what it cost the land.

From Dillon, you’re hitting Anaconda relatively early on the Trans-America Trail corridor — this is a solid fuel-and-orientation stop before pushing into the Beaverhead-Deerlodge backcountry. Cell signal is good in town. No fees to view the stack from the park grounds. Worth 20 minutes of your time.

585-foot copper-era brick giant.