Reno Sales

Born in 1876 in Storm Lake, Iowa, Sales moved to Montana with his family at a young age and settled at Gallatin Gateway, southwest of Bozeman.[4] His father was an English farmer and his mother was German.[4]

Sales graduated from Gallatin County High School in Bozeman and received a B.S. from Montana State College in 1898. He played on its first-ever football team and was the only member of Montana State's first graduating class.[5] He then earned an Engineer of Mines degree from Columbia School of Mines in New York City in 1900.[2][6]

Upon graduating from Columbia, Sales returned to Montana at Butte as an engineer for the Boston and Montana Consolidated Copper and Silver Mining Company.[2] In 1901, he joined Anaconda Copper's newly organized Geological Department and became Chief Geologist in 1906 and retired in 1948.[2] As Chief Geologist, his systematic study of ore bodies became the standard practice for the industry, earning him the title of the "father of mining geology."[2] He also successfully defended Anaconda against the lawsuits waged by F. Augustus Heinze, who attempted to discredit and destroy the company.[7] He continued working as a consultant to Anaconda after his retirement and wrote a number of books on the history of mining in Montana, including Underground Warfare at Butte (1964).[8]

Sales was President of the Society of Economic Geologists in 1937 and received the Penrose Medal from the society in 1938.[9] Sales was conferred an Honorary Membership of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers in 1964.[2] He was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1967 and the National Mining Hall of Fame in 1990.[7][10]

Sales received an honorary Dsc. degree from Montana State College in 1935, and he was the namesake of MSU's Reno H. Sales Stadium from 1974 to 1998 after a generous donation.[5][11] For many years, he was known as "Mr. Bobcat" by fans of the Montana State Bobcats.[5][12]

In his early nineties, Sales died in 1969 in Bozeman.[13]