How Dennis built the fortune
Dennis Washington started his first company in 1964 with a small bank loan and a single piece of earthmoving equipment, bidding on road and construction work around Montana. The business benefited from the interstate highway building of the period and from Washington's willingness to take on remote, difficult projects. It grew into a sizable contracting firm and gave him the cash flow to start buying assets that others were selling.
His most important early bet came in the mid 1980s, when he bought copper mining assets in Butte that the Anaconda company and its owner had abandoned. Many in the industry thought the open pit was finished, but Washington reopened it under the name Montana Resources with a leaner operation, and it became a steady source of profit. He later added rail lines, a Pacific Northwest marine business and other industrial companies.
The pattern throughout has been patient acquisition of unglamorous, capital-heavy businesses, often during downturns, and long-term private ownership. Almost all of his holdings are held privately under the Washington Companies umbrella.
Washington's approach has often been compared to that of a contrarian investor. He tends to buy when an industry is out of favour, keep debt manageable and hold assets for decades, letting cash flow from mining and transport fund the next acquisition. That patience allowed the group to survive downturns in copper, shipping and construction that hurt more heavily leveraged competitors.
Companies and holdings
The Washington Companies are headquartered in Missoula and include businesses in several sectors:
- Montana Resources, a copper and molybdenum mine in Butte
- Seaspan ULC in Vancouver, which runs tug, ferry and shipyard operations in British Columbia
- Southern Railway of British Columbia
- Modern Machinery and other heavy equipment dealerships
- Envirocon, an environmental remediation contractor
Washington also has a large interest in container ship lessor Seaspan, whose parent Atlas Corp was taken private in 2023 by an investor group that included him. For many years the group operated Montana Rail Link under a lease from BNSF, an arrangement that ended in 2023. His earlier construction business eventually became part of Washington Group International, which was later sold.
The Seaspan businesses in British Columbia have become especially important in recent years, with the shipyards building vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard and navy under a long-term federal programme, alongside commercial ferry and tug operations on the Pacific coast.
Early life and career
Washington was born in Spokane, Washington, in 1934 and grew up in Missoula. He contracted polio as a child, and his family had limited means. After high school he went to work rather than university, taking jobs in construction and with his uncle's contracting business, where he learned to operate heavy machinery and manage crews in rugged country.
By his late twenties he was ready to work for himself. His experience on job sites across the northern Rockies and in Alaska helped him win early contracts and earn a reputation for finishing work that larger firms avoided.
He has spoken of his early health problems and modest family circumstances as formative, and he credits his first employers with teaching him the value of hard physical work and careful bidding. Those experiences became the basis of a business philosophy built on cost control and personal involvement in operations.
Philanthropy and public life
Dennis and his wife Phyllis created the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation in 1988. It supports education, health and community programmes, mainly in Montana and the Pacific Northwest, and has made large grants to the University of Montana and other institutions. He has also been a long-time supporter of the Horatio Alger Association, which funds scholarships for students who have overcome adversity, reflecting his own background.
Washington rarely speaks publicly about his business and is better known in Montana than nationally. His family members hold senior roles in the group.
Students supported by his foundation's programmes come from Montana, the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, regions where his companies employ thousands of people, and the foundation has also funded health care and youth programmes in the same communities.