The era of the Robber Barons is a fascinating time when the rich would cheat, steal, sabotage and even murder people in order to get rich. The accounts from this era are sketchy and although the dynamics of the town of Butte in particular are rather interesting, the town itself gives a great look into what life is like without regulation and what regulation can do when applied properly.
But without going into a great detail on the robber baron angle, there are many great places to read about the politics and the fortunes being made in the town which was the king of copper in the US for a time I highly recommend this book for this endeavor if one is interested:
CB, Glasscock, “War of the Copper Kings”, copublished by Montana Historical Society Press and Riverbend Publishing. http://montanahistoricalsociety.org/pub/press/warcopperkings.asp
BenfromMO 