Clark, William Andrews (1839–1925)

US mining operator and Democratic senator. He formed the Colorado and Montana Smelting Company and the Butte Reduction Works. He established the first water and electrical systems in Missoula and Butte, Montana. He was elected to the US Senate for Montana 1901–07, where he opposed President Theodore Roosevelt's conservation policies.

He was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. The family moved to Iowa in the 1850s and he began to teach school in Missouri until the Civil War drove him to Colorado to mine gold quartz. By 1863 he was in Montana panning for gold, which he used as capital to start a store in Virginia City. In 1867 he got the mail concession between Missoula, Montana, and Walla Walla, Washington, through which he became wealthy. In 1872 he bought three mining claims in Butte, Montana and studied mining at Columbia University for one year. In addition to buying more mines around Butte, he bought the United Verde Mine and its smelter in Arizona. His business interests were vast and also included railroads, newspapers, timber, and a sugar refinery in Los Angeles.