EAST HELENA — It has been 24 years since the ASARCO smelter officially closed in East Helena. Next week, smeltermen will once again come together in East Helena.
The second East Helena Smetlermans Reunion Picnic will be held at Main Street Park in East Helena on July 12, 2025, at noon.
The picnic is open to all former ASARCO employees, their families and anyone interested in East Helena history. Last year’s picnic was attended by over 100 former employees and family members.
Organizers say reconnecting with people many haven’t seen in decades has been great.
“ASARCO shut down in 2001 and it's been all this time until we actually got together again,” said organizer Jim Adolph. “So it was great seeing people we used to know, but didn’t recognize anymore, and were able to get acquainted with and enjoy a little smelter humor and chat from days gone by.”
Food will be available, and people are encouraged to bring a lawn chair.
The Helena and Livingston Lead Smelting Company built the large smelter on the banks of Prickly Pear Creek in 1888. ASARCO purchased the operation in 1898.
The custom smelter processed lead ore into bullion, which was further refined at other facilities.
The town of East Helena grew around the operation.
The company even had a baseball team called the Smelterites. Country singer Charlie Pride was a pitcher on the team while he lived in Helena.
WATCH: 2020 MTN interview with Charlie Pride about baseball career
After decades of operations, the East Helena site was contaminated with lead, arsenic and other heavy metals. In 1984, the EPA classified it as a superfund site.
Grupo Mexico, one of the largest mining companies in the world, bought ASARCO in 1999. Two years later they’d suspend operations at the site and would never reopen.
The closing of the East Helena ASARCO site created ripples that are still being felt today.
On August 14, 2009, the stacks at the site came down, signaling a final end to the smelter operations.
WATCH: 2009 footage of ASARCO stacks demolition
Remediation work on the old ASARCO site continues to this day.
