Like a phoenix from the ashes, Old Works Golf Club is a restoration success story in the golf world. It’s a story that involves arguably the greatest player in the history of the game, a town called Anaconda, and an EPA superfund cleanup site.
What was Old Works Mining in Anaconda Montana?
In 1883, an Irish immigrant named Marcus Daly purchased land on which the city of Anaconda and old works would be built. Ore production started in 1884 and continued until 1902 in the old works area. Mining continued in some fashion in the area until 1980. With over a century of ore processing, milling and smelting behind it, the area was contaminated with high levels of arsenic, lead, copper, cadmium and zinc. In 1983, the EPA designated the 200 square mile area a superfund cleanup site and major remediation began and still continues in some form.
Who designed Old Works Golf Club in Montana?
In 1989, the citizens of Anaconda reached out to Jack Nicklaus and he agreed to create a championship golf course for the town. Jack and his company Nicklaus Design took on what they call one of their most challenging design projects ever.
Nicklaus Design worked closely with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) throughout the entire process. It began by placing a cap or lining on the entire golf course site. Nicklaus Design made major changes to the foundation of the property, but went out of their way to preserve the character of the mining history throughout the golf course.
The golf course has views of the 19th century smelters as well as the over 500-foot chimney. Parts of the course sit on top of “heap roast” piles, mounds of charred, coal-black rock that were set afire decades ago to reduce ore into copper and the brick smokestack from the smelter still towers over the course. But the most visually unique feature of the course is the black slag bunkers. Slag is an inert, harmless material left by the copper smelting process. It actually makes for a great bunker media and is unique to the eye and the golf course.
What’s it like playing Old Works Golf Club today?
Getting to Anaconda Montana is an adventure. You’ll be traveling the open highways of Montana. We made the hour plus drive from Bozeman to the small town of Anaconda that has a population of less than 10,000. The name Anaconda was chosen by town founder Marcus Daly because the name Copperopolis was amazingly already taken.
Old Works is worth the drive and was a unique, fun layout. The course plays about 7,400 yards from the back tees and is a par 72. It’s the only course I’ve ever played actually hoping to find one of the black slag bunkers to take on this ancient mining media. Nicklaus Design did a great job with the property as today, crystal clear running waters flank a few of the holes. Out on the course, the bones of the old mining works are peppered throughout the layout.
On one of the par-5’s, I hit what I thought was a perfect drive. Surely, it would provide a chance at hitting the green in two. However, once arriving at the ball, I found a thirty foot high heap roast pile to be navigated. Unlike trees, heap roast piles are zero percent air. You go around them.
Old Works Golf Club is a testament to a town that had a great idea to take environmental mistakes made over a hundred years ago and transform the land into a special golf course. It could also be the only place where you can play golf on a championship golf course that was once an EPA Superfund site.
