Portrait of William A. Clark

People/magnate, politician

William A. Clark

William A. Clark (1839–1925), magnate, politician, financier, from United States. Linked to copper.

The downfall

His 1899 election to the US Senate from Montana drew a bribery petition on the day he took his seat. A committee heard testimony of bribes from 240 to 100,000 dollars, and he resigned on 15 May 1900.1,2,3,4

Legacy

Montana elected him again in January 1901 and he served one term, retiring in 1907. The Mining Foundation of the Southwest records that Clara Clark, one of Montana Tech's first women mining engineers, evaluated ore deposits for him.1,2,3,4

Story cards

Where next

People

Partner ofClara ClarkOne of Montana Tech's first women engineers assessed ore for him.2

Sources

  1. The Contested Senate Election of William A. Clark US Senate
  2. 2025 Inductees from Mining's Past Mining Foundation of the Southwest
  3. Wikidata item Q2631638
  4. File pages and licence metadata for portraits (via the Commons imageinfo/extmetadata API) Wikimedia Commons

Pictures on this page: Waclark.jpg, Pirie MacDonald (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Chuquicamata from the ISS by Alexander Gerst (ESA), CC BY-SA 2.0.