CFAC's history an interesting journey

The Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. has an interesting and fascinating past. Spurred in part by the creation of the Hungry Horse Dam, CFAC was an idea whose time had come.

For more than 50 years the plant has provided the valley with good paying jobs and even today, with just one potline running, the plant still employs about 150 people and has a payroll of about $7.5 million.

The following is a timeline of the company's history, from groundbreaking to the present.

€ In 1914, the Anaconda Company first considered producing aluminum in the Flathead Valley using power from a hydroelectric dam built there.

€ In 1950, the Harvey Machine Co., of Torrance, Calif., announced plans to build an aluminum plant in the Flathead using power from the Hungry Horse Dam, and the company began looking at purchasing 760 acres of land below Teakettle Mountain, north of Columbia Falls.

€ On Nov. 15, 1951, Anaconda announced it had purchased 95 percent of Harvey's interest in power from the Hungry Horse Dam for an aluminum plant near Columbia Falls. Anaconda would become the fourth aluminum-producing plant in the U.S.

€ On May 15, 1953, the Anaconda Aluminum Co. placed a large ad in the Hungry Horse News seeking interviews with workers at its new plant. By June 1953, more than 750 people had applied.

€ A ground-breaking ceremony at the plant took place on June 2, 1953. Foley Contractors, of Pleasantville, N.Y., was awarded the general construction contract on July 9, 1953.

€ As many as 1,600 workers were employed building the aluminum plant at one time. In February 1955, a mile-long power line was strung from the plant to the Bonneville Power Administration transmission lines across the Flathead River, and steel framework was erected for the 130-foot tall paste plant - the tallest building in the Flathead.

€ At 9:15 a.m. on July 20, 1955, electrical power was first applied to the some of the plant's 120 aluminum reduction pots.

€ A dedication ceremony for AAC's $65 million plant took place Aug. 14 and 15 with more than 2,000 residents in attendance, including the CEO and the president of Anaconda and the governor of Montana.

€ On Aug. 15, 1963, Anaconda chairman Clyde Weed announced plans to build a third potline at the AAC plant.

€ On Aug. 11, 1966, Anaconda announced plans to build a fourth and fifth potline simultaneously, bringing the total plant up to five potlines, 10 rooms, with a capacity of 175,000 tons per year.

€ In July 1969, Clinton Carlson, an air pollution specialist hired by the U.S. Forest Service, reported on the impacts of fluoride emissions from the AAC plant on surrounding plant and animal life.

Over time, concerns spread to private lands and Glacier National Park.

€ In September 1970, Dr. Loren Kreck and his wife Mary filed a class action lawsuit against AAC to reduce fluoride emissions at the plant.

The lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice by District Court Judge Robert C. Sykes on May 15, 1973.

€ In 1976, Anaconda purchased reduction technology from Sumitomo, of Japan, and began updating the French-style Soderberg pots at a projected $42 million cost. Anaconda also purchased dry scrubbing pollution technology from Alcoa the same year. Combined, the two technologies enabled AAC to reduce fluoride emissions to new state limits and run pots at greater electrical efficiencies.

€ In March 1976, Atlantic Richfield began purchasing controlling stock interest in Anaconda. Over time, the company invested heavily in upgrading the plant, including purchasing French-made pin cranes, but by the early 1980s, the oil giant began to back out of the metals business, closing smelters across Montana.

€ On April 22, 1985, led by the grass-roots group We Want The Plant, more than 3,200 people crowded into the Columbia Falls High School gymnasium in an attempt to persuade BPA representatives to lower electrical power prices to the aluminum plant.

€ In June 1985, private investors Brack Duker and Jerome Broussard began negotiating the $1 purchase of the aluminum plant from ARCO. As part of the deal, concluded in September 1985, workers took wage and benefit cuts in exchange for future profit sharing under the new name Columbia Falls Aluminum Co.

€ On Jan. 30, 1992, CFAC accountant Bobbie Gilmore filed a lawsuit against CFAC claiming the two owners had failed to properly pay workers their share of the company's profits.

€ On June 1, 1993, more than 1,200 locals and plant workers gathered in the Columbia Falls High School gymnasium trying once more to persuade the BPA to sell power to the aluminum smelter at lower rates.

€ On Jan. 21-22, 1998, U.S. District Judge Jack Shanstrom held fairness hearings winding up the five-year long profit-sharing lawsuit. Workers were awarded $100 million. In May 1998, when workers received their share of the settlement, the total amounted to about 10 percent of the Flathead's entire annual payroll.

€ In late 2000, a West Coast energy crisis emerged out of California, with rolling blackouts and soaring power prices. One by one, Pacific Northwest aluminum smelters were forced into bankruptcy or curtailment.

€ On Jan. 18, 2001, CFAC announced it had signed a power remarketing deal with the BPA. All remaining potlines would be shut down by Jan. 26.

€ As the power market stabilized, CFAC re-energized one potline after the other, reaching 60 percent capacity by May 2002.

€ Citing a "perfect storm" caused by lingering high power prices, continuing low metal prices, and alumina prices doubled by demand from China's growing aluminum industry, CFAC announced it would shut down two of its three potlines on March 11, 2003. One potline runs today.

Phillips saw plant through thick and thin

By CHRIS PETERSON

You might say Lyle Phillips worked his way up the corporate ladder.

But his ladder was most definitely aluminum.

Phillips' career at the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. spanned 42 years. He started out as a laborer on the potlines in October 1962. When he retired in November, 2004, he was the plant's human resource manager.

While the pay was good, Phillips admits he didn't like being a laborer.

"I knew that work wasn't what I wanted to do," he said in a recent interview.

So the Whitefish native entered an apprentice program to become a substation operator and eventually became the chief substation operator - in short, he was the main man that controlled the power flow into the plant. That's no small responsibility, considering that an aluminum plant runs entirely on electricity.

A potline can't run very long without electricity - after about an hour, "You're in trouble," Phillips said.

"It was the best job in the plant. It's clean, you work by yourself. But it's a lot of responsibility," he said.

Phillips held that post for about 10 years. In 1978, the Atlantic Richfield Co. bought the plant from the Anaconda Aluminum Co.

He was promoted to maintenance foreman and then began studying electrical engineering and technology. After he received his diploma, he was promoted to maintenance supervisor.

Phillips then held other posts through the years, from sales to service crew superintendent. He knew what it was like to work on a line. He knew how to deal with customers. It would all prove beneficial at the end of his career when he found himself in labor negotiations as a manager at the plant - particularly as human resource manager, when he helped steer the company through trying times as labor and management butted heads in the 1990s over a profit-sharing dispute with owner Brack Duker.

In 1993 Phillips was named human resources manager and the profit-sharing dispute, which was now a full blown multi-million dollar lawsuit, was in full swing.

"I was in the eye of the storm," Phillips recalled.

Even through it all, as tensions mounted between management and labor, the plant kept running. There was never a strike.

Phillips said his primary goal was to make sure the legal wrangling didn't effect the plant's operation.

Phillips credited the dedication of the workforce and the leadership of the union under Terry Smith.

"In the end … we had the same goals … to keep the plant running," he said. Smith, he said "had a lot of guts."

It would have been easy to go on strike, but Smith held the workforce together.

In fact, it's the local workforce that has always made the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. successful, Phillips said.

"The only thing consistent is the workforce, those workers are the ones that made the plant succeed," he said.

What finally shut the plant down in January, 2001, was high power prices.

The cost of electricity skyrocketed, and basically closed the aluminum industry down.

Today electricity prices have settled somewhat, and the plant is operating one potline.

"The future of the plant depends on raw material costs stabilizing and power rates coming in a 30 megawatts an hour," he said. "The production of the plant is as good as its ever been."

Mason kept the plant clean as a janitress

By HEIDI DESCH

World War II is remembered as a time when women joined the workforce, but it wasn't until after the war ended that Edith Mason went to work.

Mason started working at what is now the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company in 1955.

She spent 27 years total working as a janitress at the plant, at the employees' club and then later on working in office services.

She said she was the first janitress to be hired, just two days before the plant opened.

"I cleaned everything," she said of her time at the plant. "I cleaned chairs and did scrubbing, waxing and polishing."

Later she split her time between cleaning at the plant and at the employees' club.

Then she was trained to work in office services. She learned to use a Multilith to make copies for the different departments.

"That's a job I really liked," she said. "A lot of people would come in there every morning to get their office supplies and I met a lot of them."

She originally got the job with CFAC because her sister had been offered it, but turned it down and asked Mason if she would like it.

"I was nervous," she said. "(The plant) was so big, I thought 'I'm going to get lost around here,' but I got used to it."

It was her first job. Previously, she had been a homemaker.

She said the job came at a good time because her first husband, Leo Schulte, only worked seasonally in construction and with her youngest child starting first grade she could go to work.

But that doesn't mean it was easy.

Mason worked swing shifts while as a janitress.

She said it was hard missing some of her son's basketball games.

"I thought 'should I do this?'" she said. "It was hard, but I managed."

Mason grew up in Dazey, N.D., where she met Schulte, while he was working construction.

Mason first visited Columbia Falls when her husband was working in Havre on the Fresno Dam.

"When we were here I thought 'this is where I want to stay and then I did,'" she said.

But before coming to Columbia Falls permanently, Mason and her husband spent 11 years traveling around the country while he worked construction.

"I loved those 11 years," she said. "We spent three to four months at a time in different places. It was fun."

They lived in Washington and Oregon, and also spent time in Yellowstone National Park.

"We were camped out for a whole season," she said. "I liked that."

They also lived in Whitefish and Coram.

Mason's husband passed away in 1971 and she married Herschel Mason.

Her travels continued, when Herschel received $2,000 through the lottery.

She said he was selected to go to Bozeman for "Big Spin TV Show," while he didn't win the big prize, he did receive $2,000 for attending.

They used the money for a trip to Australia, stopping in Hawaii on the way.

Mason has fond memories of her time working for the plant and the friends she made there.

She recalls being at the grand opening for the plant in 1955 and then at the 25-year celebration later. Also being the only woman in a photograph taken of employees that had worked the whole 25 years.

Today, Mason spends her time exercising and going to Red Hat Society luncheons. She also enjoys spending time with her numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

She enjoys going to retiree functions and spent time as president of the Anaconda Aluminum Company/Atlantic Richfield Company Flathead Retiree Club.

She said she still visits the plant.

"Once in a great while, I've gotten out there. A lot's changed," she said. "The entrance is in a different spot and the number of potlines has changed."

Ogle enjoying life after CFAC

By JOHN VAN VLEET

Hungry Horse News

When Max Ogle wasn't on the job, he was probably hunting, fishing or at least daydreaming of the two.

Now that he's retired and has time for the outdoors, Ogle spends time remembering the people he worked with and the time he spent with the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company.

For over 33 years, Ogle worked his way up the organizational ladder, starting in labor and making his final stop as a pot line foreman.

"I started out as a laborer and I worked my way up as a foreman," he said. "We were operating five pot lines. Now, there's just one line operating."

Ogle moved out to Columbia Falls in the early '50s with his wife, Eula, to pursue a career and be closer to her family.

"I just come up here from Tennessee," he said. "My wife was already up here. I went out, put my application in and got on."

He began work on Feb. 22, 1956 and remained at the plant until June of 1989. Of the people he worked with and the personalities he came across, Ogle said that there was a nice diversity throughout the years.

"It was pretty good, I thought," he said. "There was all kinds."

Due to all his hard work and diligence, Ogle said he was able to retire early so that he could spend a lot of his down time hunting and fishing.

"I retired at 55," he said. "I got out early. I love to hunt and fish, fly fish."

Although Ogle lives in Montana most of the year, he still owns property in the hills of east Tennessee, a special place for him, albeit a place that is much different than here.

"My dad owned quite a bit of property there," he said. "I've still got the old homeplace."

Married now for 52 years, Ogle said that he and Eula spend half the year in Columbia Falls and the remaining months in a warmer climate.

"We go to Yuma (Ariz.) in November and come back in April," he said. "The humidity down there is terrible. Here, it's so dry."

Being able to provide for his family was one thing that stuck out in his mind about working at the plant. Taking care of his two daughters, Kathy and Karla, was a major priority, something that was satisfied through his time in Columbia Falls.

"I think it was pretty good," he said. "Good wages. I think it was a good place to work."

CFAC has its share of wildlife stories

By RICHARD HANNERS

for the Hungry Horse News

Wildlife stories abound in the Flathead, with bears raiding garbage cans and deer munching on flowertops, but who would expect wildlife stories from an aluminum smelter?

In February, 1953, a hunter killed a mountain lion and its kitten within half a mile of the newly cleared site where the AAC plant would be constructed. Construction crews clearing the site recalled seeing mountain goats on Teakettle Mountain and deer on the flats.

In fact, over the years, state fish and game officials planted Rocky Mountain sheep on Teakettle Mountain, above the smelter, and the U.S. Forest Service planted trees on the mountain's rocky slopes.

On November 9, 1975, two Columbia Falls High School freshmen, Rick Berry and Dave Sullivan, were hunting for mule deer on Teakettle Mountain above the aluminum plant when they surprised a black bear. As the bear grabbed a hold of Sullivan's pants leg, he and Berry opened fire and killed the bear.

That wasn't the biggest bear story at the plant, however. On May 25, 1986, early one Sunday morning, a young black bear wandered into Potroom 10 on the east side of the smelter and chased potman Jim Hunnewell four feet up onto a reduction pot.

Hunnewell said at first he thought it was a large dog, and he threw his broom at the bear when it was about 40 feet away.

"It stopped for a second, then saw a doorway and took off outside," Hunnewell reported.

By that time, Bob Seliger had already seen the bear as it entered the potroom at its north end and he had radioed his sighting, but there was no immediate reply on the radio from skeptical co-workers.

Foreman Lee Nelson saw the bear as it left the building and watched it try to climb a chain link fence. At that point, a female coyote chased the bear away from her lone pup. Later in the day, the same bear was seen crawling under a fence at the southeast corner of the plant and heading for Teakettle Mountain. Plant security guard Dan Smith reported he had previously seen the same bear in the area.

Exotic wildlife have also made appearances at the plant. On July 18, 1988, while unloading alumina from a railroad car, Bill Padgett found an eight-inch long brown snake in the fine white material.

Experts were not able to identify the snake, but it was thought to have come from Australia with the alumina, and there were concerns the snake might be poisonous. The snake died a few days later.

The Hungry Horse News ran a large cartoon by Craig Goble of a man outfitted for catching snakes on July 27, 1988. A second snake was discovered at the plant only to turn out under closer inspection to be made of rubber.

With much of the plant shut down since the 2000-2001 West Coast energy crisis, wildlife sightings in the mammoth rooms should not be surprising.

On May 20, 2003, a mule deer was rescued from the potroom basements by Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks personnel and Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. workers. The potlines in the rooms where the deer ran in the basement were off line at the time. After surrounding the deer, it was tranquilized and carried up two flights of stairs to the ground floor.