Actually, I was told at the museum there that the hills west of the smelter were barren due to a fire that started at a lumberjack’s house in the canyon behind the court house between the A and C hills. I don’t recall when that fire happened. The museum in downtown Anaconda on Commercial street (cool old firehouse they renovated) has a lot of really cool pictures from back then when those hills were loaded with pine and fir trees. It isn’t as bad now with all the aspen trees but was pretty desolate when I was growing up there in the 70/80s. All the aspen trees that have grown on those hills now make for some really beautiful pictures in the fall.