The future looked bright for the local plant, which had survived the Great Depression and played an important role in winning World War II.

The Chronicle said on Sept. 27, 1952

Anaconda Wire and Cable Co., one of the community’s largest industries, dates its history to 1919 when a group of young Muskegon men saw an unlimited future in the production of copper wire.

Heading this group was Albert Maring, a young man with an inventive genius and several years experience in the field of wire production. Others were Fritz L. Meeske, the late C.B. VanDyke and attorney Edward C. Farmer.

Mr. Maring first became prominent in industry here as superintendent of the enameling department of the American Electric Fuse Co., an early local concern. When this company failed in 1912, local and outside interests provided capital for re-organization and the firm became the American Enameled Magnet Wire Co. with Mr. Maring as production manager and chief engineer.

This company flourished, especially during World War I. During the late ‘20s, however, outstanding stock was acquired by the Electric Autolite Co. of Toledo and the plant was moved from Muskegon to Port Huron, where it still is operated.

Early in 1918, Mr. Maring had resigned from the company to devote his time to the development of a new type electrical oven used in the enameling of wire. Failing to interest his former employer in the invention he brought it to the attention of the other Muskegon men who helped found the firm which was to bear his name for a number of years.

The Maring Wire Co. was started with Mr. Meeske as president; Mr. Maring vice-president; Mr. VanDyke, treasurer; and Mr. Farmer, secretary. Among its early employees were C.S. Prescott, now assistant general manager of mills for Anaconda Wire and Cable Co., and Gunnard Smith, Roscoe Williams, Clarence Bruining and Bert Cregg, all still employed by the Muskegon plant.

A small building at Clay Avenue and 8th Street was purchased for the newly-formed Maring Co. and the first shipment of wire was made to the Mechanical Appliance Co. of Milwaukee in 1919. The Milwaukee firm, now known as Louis Allis Co., has been a continuous customer.

During the Depression of 1921 the Maring firm encountered difficulty in continuing operations but survived. Customers included companies which manufactured electrical motors, transformers, radios, fans, vacuum cleaners and other products. In addition, the company supplied Ford Motor Co. with magnet wire use in automobile starting and lighting generators.

By 1923 it had outgrown its quarters on Clay Avenue and as a result of a transaction with the Rice-Sorin Saddlery Co. acquired the present Anaconda location on Western Avenue. Recently Anaconda re-purchased the original Clay Avenue site for one of the country’s most modern wire research laboratories.

In 1927 General Motors Corporation, a customer, invited the company to build a second plant in Anderson, Ind., to furnish the Delco Remy Division with a larger quantity of wire. The Anderson plant was established shortly after and has been in continuous operation for the benefit of General Motors for more than 25 years.

Steps for consolidation with the Anaconda Co. were taken in 1928 when it was suggested that the Maring firm, along with Inland Wire and Cable Co. of Syracuse, Ill., manufacturers of bare and weatherproof wire and Tubular Woven Fabrics Co. of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, manufacturers of rubber covered wire products, join with several wire fabricating units owned by Anaconda Cooper Mining Co.

The merger proposal met with the approval of the companies involved which became a part of Anaconda Wire and Cable Co. in May, 1929. Mills of Anaconda now are located at Hastings-on-Hudson, Marion, Ind., Anderson, Ind., Syracuse, Ill., Great Falls, Mont., and Orange, Calif.

Today a huge expansion program is under way at the Muskegon mill, engaged in the production of magnet wire, involving an expenditure of $1.25 million. In addition, the company has completed it Clay Avenue research laboratory, a $250,000 installation.

The Western Avenue program involves an extension of the main manufacturing plant to increase its tonnage output by 50 percent and add 10 new workers. Expected to be completed in 1953, it will include two stories above ground and a basement providing total added floor area of 32,000 square feet of manufacturing space.

The new laboratory, under the direction of Harry L. Saums, serves as a research center for its mill here and other mills of the company. Anaconda also conducts development work for the U.S. Navy in the former Hume Grocery building. During World War II, the Muskegon mill was awarded a Navy “E” for its contribution to the war effort. Much of the magnet wire currently produced is used in defense products.

Muskegon officials serving in key capacities with the parent company include Mr. Meeske, a vice-president; Mr. Prescott, assistant general manager of mills; M.J. McCarthy Jr., assistant sales manager, and Mr. Saums, technical director of magnet wire. Top management of the local plant includes W.C. Kratz, mill manager, and R.M. Hukle, superintendent.

Anaconda Copper Mining Co., parent of Anaconda Wire and Cable Co., today is one of the world’s largest industries. It owns all or the majority of stock in about 15 domestic companies, including American Brass Co., Anaconda Wire and Cable Co., Anaconda Sales Co., Anaconda and Pacific Railway Co., Butte Water Co., International Smelting and Refining Co., Interstate Lumber Co., Montana Hardware Co., North Lily Mining Co., Tooele Valley Railway Co. and many others.

Through these companies and other affiliates it mines copper, lead, zinc, silver, gold, manganese and other metals. It has mines or mining claims in Montana, Nevada, California, Utah and Washington, besides it Chilean and Mexican holdings.

At the head of the 56-year-old company is Cornelius F. Kelley, whose father was mine superintendent at Butte, Mont. Mr. Kelley worked his way through law school at he University of Michigan, entered the Anaconda legal department in 1901, became the company’s president in 1918 and chairman of the board in 1940. He is 76 and is known in the industry as the dean of copper mining.

The fortunes of the local Anaconda Wire and Cable Co. plant rose and fell with the those of Anaconda Mining, its parent company.

Anaconda Mining was listed on the Fortune 500 well into the 1960s and the local plant routinely employed close to 400 workers throughout the decade.

Often lauded for its exemplary safety record, the local plant was also an active participant in local community improvement projects.

The tide began to turn, though, in the late 1960s, beginning in Aug., 1967, with would become one of the longest strikes on record in Muskegon. The divisive work stoppage lasted 325 days, ending in July 1968 when the union agreed to a $1.11 an hour raise and improved health and pension benefits.

The local plant’s long-term prospects took another hit in 1971 when parent company Anaconda Mining Co. lost two-thirds of its copper production when Chile’s socialist president confiscated the firm’s mines in South America.

Despite a pair of modernization projects that led to $3 million worth of improvements in the local plant from 1971 to 1973, bad investments by the parent corporation hobbled Anaconda’s future.

Atlantic Richfield Oil Co.’s purchase of Anaconda for $700 million in 1978 did little to improve things and things grew worse still when the bottom dropped out of the copper market.

Declining demand spelled the end for the aging local plant and its remaining 83 employees on Oct. 31, 1981.

The abandoned factory was largely destroyed by a spectacular fire in September 1999.

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