Staying at the Pintlers Portal Hostel was amazing. They have bunk rooms with triple bunks to each room. They plan to have double bed bunks, but the parts hadn’t arrived yet. Seems that most of what they ordered was sitting on a boat outside of the LA Harbor.

Destiny, the newly hired manager of the Hostel was magnificent. Because their hiker washer/dryers had not arrived yet, she allowed us to wash our clothes in their industrial washer/dryer.

The Hostel is a converted Elks or Lions Club type building. The downstairs included a large area to “lounge” about (on leather recliners), large dining tables and a complete kitchen to cook meals if you want.

In the evening we caught up on our Alone episodes, and I did my best to also catch up on this blog.

The following day (our zero), included shopping for our resupply and attending the Smeltermen’s Brewfest. Problem was, that when we finally got there (3pm-ish), they had actually run out of beer! This meant we had to saunter over to the Smelter City Brewery.

Anaconda was once a town of over 40,000 people. There’s about 9,000 now. In 1891, it lost out to Helena in its bid to become Montana’s capitol. It was one of the largest copper smelting towns in the country. In 1980, the Atlantic Richfield Co., who owned the Washoe Smelter closed the plant. Its 585 ft smoke stack, known as the “tallest surviving free standing masonry structure in the world”, is what remains of the once bustling factory. That, and a huge pile slag (byproduct of copper smelting).

We wandered the downtown and nearby neighborhood areas. It’s a town under a slow renovation. But it holds promise.

The town of Anaconda has been trying to reinvent itself into more of a tourist destination. It holds plenty of history, and loads of recreational opportunities. It is worth a visit.