National Park After Dark - A Christmas Massacre: Keweenaw National Historical Park

Episode Date: December 25, 2023

The Copper Mining Strike of 1913 is one of the most violent in US History. When strikers throw a Christmas Eve Party for their families and children, 73 people end up dead when someone falsely yells "fire!".For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Quince: Use our link to get free shipping and 365-day returns.Microdose Gummies: Use code NPAD to get free shipping and 30% off your first order.Lume Deodorant: Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with @lumedeodorant and get $5 off off your Starter Pack (that’s over 40% off) with promo code [NPAD] at LumeDeodorant.com! #lumepodHello Fresh: Use our link and code npadfree for free breakfast for life.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Monday AI agents took over my work. And I absolutely love it. Chasing deadlines, writing status reports, updating stakeholders. Agents handle the daily grind now. They live inside Monday.com. So they see the full picture, my work, my team, the whole company. And I don't have to worry about the data. It's safe, which means I'm free to focus on the big stuff,

knowing everything runs smoothly in the background. It's completely shifted the way we work. Create your own AI agent in minutes on Monday.com. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress.

Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope. It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. Take a trip with me in 1913 to call you met Michigan in Copper Country. I will take you to a place called Italian Hall where the miners are having their big Christmas ball.

I will take you in a door and up a high stairs. Singing and dancing is heard everywhere. I will let you shake hands with the people you see and watch the kids dance around the big Christmas tree. You ask about work and you ask about pay. They'll tell you they make less than a dollar a day. working the copper claims, risking their lives, so it's fun to spend Christmas with children and wives. There's talking and laughing and songs in the air, and the spirit of Christmas is there everywhere. Before you know it, you're friends with us all, and you're dancing around and around in the hall.

Well, a little shy girl sits down by the Christmas tree lights to play the piano so you've got to keep quiet. To hear all this fun, you would not realize that the copper boss's thugmen are, milling outside. The copper boss's thugs stuck their heads in the door. One of them yelled and he screamed, There's a fire. A lady she hollered. There's no such thing. Keep on with your party. There's no such thing. A few people rushed and it was only a few. It's just the thugs and the scabs fooling you. A man grabbed his daughter and carried her down, but the thugs held the door and he could not get out. And then others followed a hundred or more. But most every day. remained on the floor. The gun thugs they laughed at their murderous joke while the children were

smothered on stairs by the door. Such a terrible sight I never did see. We carried our children back up to their tree. The scabs outside still laughed at their spree and the children that died there were 73. The piano played a slow funeral tune and the town was lit up by a cold Christmas moon. The parents they cried and the miners they moaned. See, what your greed for money has done. Welcome to National Park After Dark. I think you're really creative, but you didn't make that up, did you? No, I didn't.

That is a song that was written by Woody Gunthrey. It's kind of like an old, an old country folk song that was written because of this event that we're going to talk about today. And the song is titled 1913 Massacre. Okay. Yeah, no offense or anything, but I'm like, what? No offense taken. I'm not a poem writer or a songwriter.

Okay, well, it seems like it's, I know it's a holiday right now when this is being released, but this seems pretty dark. Yeah, yeah, it's definitely dark. And Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, whatever anyone's celebrating today. My whole idea for this episode, I was like, oh, I have an episode coming out on Christmas. Maybe I can find something that's fun and happy and cheery for the Christmas time. And of course, I found a story that could not be more opposite than cheery. So that's what I have in store for everyone today.

And it's a massacre. 1913 massacre, you said? Yeah. Oof. Okay. All right. Yeah. And I do want to give a warning that for people listening today, this episode includes

the death of children. So this is not only a massacre, but mostly the deaths in this story. are of children. So I think that that should be noted, especially because it is a holiday, and I know today is a day that a lot of people celebrate. I also know that today is a lot of, is a day that is really hard for people, too. So maybe a really morbid, horrible story will bring everyone down with people who are enjoying today. But all right, well, I'm ready. Because I'm not, you're not telling me on Christmas. So, yeah, we're recording this like two weeks early. So this is for everyone who's actually listening on Christmas, I guess. And today we are going

to a national park. This is a national historic park and we're heading up to Michigan. Did you, why does the copper mining thing ring a bell with you? You've definitely talked about copper mining before. Was it on? I don't know. Oh, God. I've talked about mining before and I talked about, I recently talked about gold mining. No, it wasn't that. It was, uh, was it was it. Was copper mining. I've done some mining episodes in Alaska too. Yeah, but I want to say it was like there was a legend about a guy who was like not the hermit in the Olympics, but another one and he had like a gold pouch of money. Oh, you're talking about the hermit in Apostle Islands who had a bunch of gold and money on his island that people were coming after for his treasure.

I'm pretty sure you talked about, I mean, whatever, I guess it doesn't matter. This is a long time ago. I'd have to like relook at my notes. But possibly, I mean, we're not that far from that area in this. Right. Yeah. That's true. Yeah.

So for this one, we're going to be visiting Kiwanan National Historic Park. And this is a site of the National Park Service. And today, the story that I'm going to be telling is about an event that happened on Christmas Eve in 1913, when 73 people died. during a Christmas party when someone falsely reported a fire and a stampede to the exit caused a frenzy. But with this event, it was dubbed as an accident for years, but since that, it's believed that this act was very intentional and it is believed that it was murder. This is a case that still has unanswered questions, and the murder of these people is directly correlated with an ongoing strike from copper miners that were happening at the time, who were demanding better working conditions and better pay. And in response to

that they were met with hostility and violence. So before we get fully into that story and how it unfolded, I want to first visit the National Historic Park and talk about the copper mining that was going on at that time. Okay, so I'm going to get a lesson in copper mining no matter what. Yeah, for sure. Great. We're going deep into copper mining. The Kiwanan National Historic Park is located in Michigan and it's on the Kiwanan Peninsula. This is the most northern part of Michigan and it extends into Lake Superior. It was established as a park unit in 1992 to preserve and protect the region's history of copper. It's made up of two units, the Columet and the Quincy units. In 2009, some of the park was actually privatized, but the National Park Service owns approximately 1,700 acres or

690 hectares. This National Historic Park is important for several reasons. First, this site has the most extensive known deposits of natural copper in the entire world. It has the oldest and largest lava flow known on Earth, which is located in the Kiwanan Peninsula of Michigan. And this volcanic activity produces the only place on Earth where large scale economically recoverable, 97% pure copper is found. And I don't know like a ton about how copper is created, but a lot of times it's not in its purest form and it's created in another way and has to be manufactured more. And here it's just pure, which is unusual and made this place basically a gold mine, but a copper mine. It was just worth so much money. So this area has an extensive history of

mining, but it's especially unique because it's the only site in the country where prehistoric Aboriginal mining of copper occurred. So they found archaeologists have found evidence of native people's first mining this area around 7,000 years ago, and they used the copper here to make tools and trade items. This area of Michigan also served as an important entity of the first mineral boom in the United States in which commercial operations continued for over 100 years. People arrived to this area to get rich off of the natural resources of copper, silver, and iron that was in abundance in the UP. In the timing of the mine's operations, Michigan produced over 14 billion pounds. of copper. Okay. So they're really serious about it. Yeah, they're sitting on so much money here. And when

they discovered, I quote unquote discovered this. When settlers came in, they were like, wow, this is a place where we can all get rich. Kiwanah before the mineral boom was a relatively low population area. It has always been rich in indigenous history, but this was a difficult place to get to, which kept the population numbers low. It wasn't until 1864 when a civil engine. named Edwin J. Hewbert, if I'm pronouncing that correctly, was exploring the region when he found a large nugget of pure copper on the surface, and he suspected that there was a lot more. So he went back to his friends who were actually in Boston and told them all about his discoveries. Like, look at this giant nugget of copper. There has to be more here. And he convinces this group of investors in Boston to

go in on this venture with him. And they do. And they create the Calumet and Hex. Mining Company that takes over this region. They come in and they purchase large amounts of land and advertise thousands of jobs in their copper mines. Just six years after Edwin had discovered there was copper there, and I quote unquote discovered, a place with very few people was now a township and home to over 3,100 people. And most of these people were mine workers and their families. And 3,000 doesn't sound like a ton, but before there were like handfuls of people here. So a couple thousand people came to do this. It's a big population boom, especially for such a small, remote place. Definitely. And in this time, the people that were coming, they actually were mostly

immigrants. So the vast majority of people who headed to this place were from Finland, but there were also people from the British Isles, Canada, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, and Italy. Oh, my people. Your people. They were there. Some of the people who arrived spoken. English as their second language, but many of them didn't. So 90% of the population that was here in Michigan were a foreign descent. And a lot of reasons why there were so many people who were foreign coming to this area was because it was so difficult to get to. So a lot of other people who spoke English and could get jobs a little bit easier, like, I'm not going to travel up to this northern peninsula with harsh weather conditions when I can easily get a job somewhere else. But for

these people, it was almost a no-brainer because the copper mines were paying well at the time. And in other conditions, they weren't able to find a lot of jobs because they didn't speak English. So when these people got to this area, it was apparent almost immediately that those who spoke English were given more favorable jobs that paid more, while those who didn't speak English were given very labor-intensive jobs. The people who worked in the mines would spend up to 12 hours per day, six days a week, underground, and without sunlight. And if you think about that in the wintertime, they're doing 12 hours. You go in in the morning, no light, come out at night, no light, you're deep underground. And they were working for an average of $2.50 per day in 1913 currency.

Yes. And to give you an idea of how much that was, and I say, I said before, they could make good money here and it was good in comparison to other places but it was still very little so in today's money that's equivalent to about 58 dollars and 72 cents per day and because they were working 12 hour shifts that equates to being paid just over four dollars per hour in today's money right okay it's like i thought vet text didn't get paid well i know when you were describing you're like you go in deep underground no sunlight that our our animal hospital didn't have a windows. Yeah, we were basically in a copper mine. That's what I'm trying to say, yes. Not to be dramatic, but we worked in a copper mine. Yeah, with animals under strict labor laws,

or no labor laws, I should say. And just like vet teching, copper mining wasn't safe either. I feel like this is going to get really serious, really fast, and we're going to regret. I'm going to regret joking about this. You know what's coming, though. So I do. I feel like we got to sprinkle in some laughter here because we're going to bring it down in a little bit. But we do have a little ways before we get there because there's some history in here that I do want to talk about because copper mining actually really wasn't a safe job. It came with a lot of health risks and it came with a lot of risks for your life. Okay. You're describing vet-teching. You could be bit by a dog in the copper mines. Not really that I know of, but a huge problem down there

was a lot of people were getting injured from rock falls because they're blowing up these walls, they're literally mining. So a lot of people would be the victims of being hit by large rock debris while they were under there. And it would cause either serious injury, sometimes it caused death. And the crews were working with explosives. And sometimes they would go off when they weren't supposed to. There was a lot of risk of fires. There was also risks of actually falling down mining shafts.

because at this time, during part of this time period, electricity hadn't come down to copper mines yet. And I'm not even sure. I forget the year it was invented, but I think it's several years after the copper mines like started. So what? Electricity. Or like it being wired down. It being wired down. Oh, right. Yeah.

So they were using gas lamps. So there was serious risk of actually falling down these copper mines. There's no light down there. And it was said that most employees endured some type of. of injury along the way. Like, no one came out unscathed, much like vet teching. I have the scars to prove it, okay? Both physical and emotional.

Same. I have a small little scar in my hand from a chihuahua that bit me. I can't, you can't see it through the video, but it's on there. Mine is on my left hand. Evie, the cat. Evie. Evie. I always, like, you know.

She wasn't a regular. she, of course, hated coming and showed me. But I was trying to restrain her, and she was flipping her shit. And I just sacrificed my hand. Well, once you get attacked by a cat, it's like you just have to stand and wait until it's over. For them to be done? Because if you react, it's way worse. Right.

They just, like, hold on to you for dear life. Remember the time I got bit when that it wasn't, I feel like it was someone's, like, TNR, um, trap, neuter release cat because it wasn't fully feral, but it was. was pretty damn close. And it got loose in the hospital and it was running straight towards the dogs, the doctor's dogs. Yeah, the doctor's dogs in the corner and you like, ninja launched onto this cat. I tackled this cat. Because the cat was running head first into basically the lion's den. There was three poodles, two standard poodles, so big ones and a miniature poodle that were all just ready and waiting to eat this cat. And I just sacrificed myself.

And like I would, I skid it onto the floor on my stomach and reached out to this cat. And I grabbed the cat and it reached around and bit me and sunk all four of its canines into the back of my calf. And I had to go to the hospital. I remember that. I'm like, you're welcome. I know that you just saved its life. For saving your damn life. Okay, you're giving me, somehow copper mining is giving me flashbacks. Anxiety. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session.

And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L. Every year after, The Love Hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Low burns. Second chances. Chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Well, what I was saying was that most employees endured some type of injury along the way. And then I was going to go into the statistics of that. So copper mining had more fatal incidences than any other mining at the time. Statistically, for every 1,000 men who were employed in the mines, each year, five of them would die. In 1912, one year, one year, before our story today takes place, a total of 47 men were killed in the mines, 643 were seriously injured, and 3,936 were reported as, quote unquote, slightly injured. There are some records

that stay in this region, an average of 61 men per year died at this facility, which equates to about one person per week. Oh my God, that is, that's awful. Yeah, those numbers are steep. I mean, just imagine you work somewhere and one person dies every week. That's terrifying. That just says a lot about the position that these people were in as far as needing this work. Because to put your life on the line, I mean, clearly mining comes with some sort of inherent risk. But imagine just going down and be like, maybe it's me this week or my friend. You know, it's just those numbers are really, really steep.

They went down and they're like, I have to support my phone. family this week. Hopefully it's not me. Hopefully. And they all went down expecting some type of injury. So it wasn't even like, I hope it's not me this week. It's, I hope I'm not the one who dies this week. And I'm only the one who gets slightly injured. Yeah. And what is that? Is that like you lose a finger? Is that you get knocked out for a sec? Like, what is that? Yeah, because I don't know. It was just labeled a slightly injured. And you have to remember a lot of these people are foreign. So they were also treated really badly too. So slight. injured could in my mind, I think of slightly injured as like a small cut or a bruise, whereas for them, like you said, it could have been, oh, they lost a finger, but it wasn't

an important finger. You know, like it's just so different when you're dealing with people, especially in this time of foreign descent that don't speak the language. They were just treated like bottom of the barrel. They got the worst jobs. They got the worst pay. And they found themselves in the worst positions. And this job wasn't just really dangerous, but it was also really.

unsanitary. There were no bathrooms that were in the mines and traveling above ground to get to them took a lot of time because they were very deep in these mines in the ground. So instead, workers would just relieve themselves where they were working. And there were no rules against this and there was no protocol in place to clean it up. So it was just the rules were basically like, yeah, you can shit and piss wherever you want, but just occasionally clean it up and move it out of the way. And that was it. I feel like there should have been like a communal bucket that is just like hoisted up at the end. Like that still sucks and is gross.

But at least it's not just scattered around everywhere. Well, a lot of these jobs too is you picture, I know when I was first reading this, I was picturing a lot of miners down together in these tunnels and the mines, but it wasn't. People were going down like two people, maybe three people in pairs, down into these deep mine shafts and they were alone otherwise. and to hoist and carry all your shit back up. I mean, maybe it would have been possible because there were only a few of them.

But they also, I think it should be noted, they had to pay for all their own tools. They had to bring their own supplies. There was no safety gear that was given to them. So to add on the extra, like bring your own tools to clean up after yourself was probably like a last thought. I guess. I just.

But it's still so gross. It's like, why would you want to work in your own feces? unless you're moving on and you're like, I'm not even going to be a, I don't know, whatever. It's gross. Either way, it was gross and it was unsanitary. And then imagine getting injured down there and you're in that infections. It was just really bad. Yeah, not a good mix.

Yeah. And despite the dangers of the job, the unsanitary conditions, there were a lot of people who wanted to work there. And it was mainly because these people had come from another country and they were looking for a job, but also because housing opportunities were perverse. provided, which at face value sounds like a good deal, but this actually turned into a huge problem. So Calumet and Heckla mining company offered housing to their employees, and they did it for pretty cheap. It was just $2 to $4 per month, which was affordable for many people who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford housing for their families, because that was equivalent to about a day's work. Because the mining company the men were working for were also essentially their landlords,

the workers had to sign rental lease agreements with them. The lease agreements were entirely in the benefit of the company and not the renties at all. Their leases stipulated that they had to stay with them for five years. However, that the leasers could end the lease at any time for any reason and they could just give 15-day notice. So Calumet could just say, hey, you're fired. You have to be out in 15 days. I don't want you being here.

And so if they were fired, if it wasn't, oh, it wasn't even if they just were fired either. If a miner lost their life in the mine and their family and children lived in the house, Calumet could be like, hey, we're making room for a new miner, you got to get out, you have 15 days. Yeah, that's brutal. And if someone left the company under any circumstances, they also had to move out within 15 days. So there was no exceptions for that. And the mining company didn't just own the housing properties around town. They owned virtually everything in the Kiwanah area.

They own and built 10 school buildings. They owned the local armory, which they rented to state militia. They owned the public library, churches, the bathhouse, and even the hospital. The company had so much power that if you defied them in any way, it could affect your children. If they could go to school, it affected where you lived. It affected what kind of care you could receive at the hospital. And this company was so powerful, in fact, that they actually decided that it was more beneficial to them to change the local time to a half an hour later than anywhere else in the state,

which essentially meant that they could make workers start their days earlier. So in the rest of Michigan, if it was 6 a.m., Calumet and Heckla Mining Company deemed that it was actually 630 here in Calumet. And this made it basically mean that they essentially had control over every person in business that worked in the area. They controlled when things opened, what time people woke up. They were literally controlling the time of day. Yeah, who approved that?

They just owned everything. Money talks. They came in and bought everything. They're like playing God. Essentially, at that point, controlling the time they have everyone wrapped around their finger for every facet of life. It's like this giant monopoly. They're connected to them. Yeah.

Yeah, so it's bad. But by 1912, the Calumet and Heckla mining company were thriving. They had close to 4,000 men on their payroll. And they produced more than 67 million pounds. or 30 million kilograms of copper. But there were also a lot of problems that were arising with mining companies that were going across the country, and mostly this was happening in Western states, where people were starting to protest the horrible living conditions and wages.

Miners were attempting to unionize, which was something Calumet and Hekla had been actively trying to avoid from happening for years. In fact, they had hired private investigators and people to work within their minds, who were disguised as miners, to spread information. information to other workers about how unions were really bad. Because if you're unfamiliar with unions, they are basically organizations whose purpose is to represent the collective interests of workers. Often they're made up of former workers and current workers who use their voices together to negotiate for a better work environment, which include better wages, benefits, and things like safety in the

workplace. And Kalima and Hekla did not want a union coming in and trying to designate how they should be running their mine. So they hired people to come in and be like, unions are so bad. They try to take over. They take your pay. It's like they're taking over the government. You don't want that. So people were listening to that and feeding that. And they're like, oh, yeah, that's really bad. We don't want a union. How sneaky. So sneaky. But even with them doing that, in 1909, the Western Federation of Miners, which is a labor union, came to the Calumet area seeking to unionize the miners. At first, they were met with some interest, but not as much as hoped, with less than half of the workers interested. Many argued that their pay was better than other minds, which was true, and they said that

they received cheap housing. So they didn't agree with the need to unionize and negotiate better pay or working hours or anything like that because they said, this is good enough. I have somewhere to live. I have a roof over my head. My family's fed. I'll just take the bad things with the job. I think it's also worth noting that it was obvious that unionizing against a company that owned the entire town was also particularly scary. Of course, well, even if they didn't own the whole town just based off of what you described of the living situations, like if they caught wind that, you know, you were wanting to either be a part of the union or spreading the good news of a union or just being pro-union in any way, that seems like ground. to evict someone based off of what their setup is with the no reason needed 15 days get out of here type of thing. I can totally see that happening and just having the landlords be like, okay, we don't want this troublemaker in here. So we're going to kick them out and replace them with a minor

that is not pro-union and just kind of rip out the problem as far as. Yeah. And that was a huge concern. Right. Because they could do that. They had the right to do that. So they said, no, that's good. I'm not messing with this huge company. Everything's good enough. I'm not opening that door. Well, it's like a David versus Goliath thing. You know, it's like, who are we? We're so small compared to this giant business and corporation or what are they business? They're a huge business. They're a huge mining company and they owned the Calumet and Hekla mine and they actually owned several mines in the surrounding areas as well. But for this story, we're mainly just talking about this specific mine. Yeah, I just feel like business is too small a word.

to describe just like how much weight they have. Corporation might be a good. Yeah. Yeah, it's a giant corporation. And it is, it's what you said, one or two voices. You have a couple of people who are kind of interested in unionizing, but most people aren't. So people really weren't being swayed. However, the miners changed their mind in 1913, and that was with the introduction of the one-man

drill. The one-man drill was a new lighter drill to use in mines, and it only required the use of one-man instead of two. The major problem with this was now the miners were being asked to work alone, which eliminated the previous safety in the buddy system. And some argued that this one man drill actually needed two men in general, but a big part of being down there in groups and in pairs was that if something happened to you, there was someone there who could either help or report that something had happened to you. So if there was an explosion, if you were hit with a falling rock, if you fell down a shaft, someone would be there to help you. And not only that, but now an extremely

dangerous job spent 10 to 12 hours working underground in the winter. You're not seeing daylight. You're not seeing anybody. The only kind of good thing about your job is you had someone to hang out with during the day. And now you're making it a completely solitary job. And people were upset. They're like, this is dangerous. This is extremely isolating. And now before it was maybe I won't make it to my children tonight and then it turned two, I'm definitely going to be someone who gets hurt out here and no one's going to know and my family's not going to know what happened for maybe days. With this, on top of the many deaths and the extreme injuries that were still happening within the mines, it incentivized the workers to join the labor union. And it wasn't just the Calumet and Hecla mining company that joined.

Also, many miners from mines nearby in the same region, most of whom were subsidized by Calumet, joined the union as well. On July 14th, 1913, with the union's help, they sent a letter to all the mine owners simply asking for them to take a meeting to discuss changes that could be made because the employees weren't happy with the current conditions. While most of this letter was professional, in one part of the letter, they did write in regards to if they did not listen to their wishes and follow similar decisions that mine owners in the West did, because they were in ongoing battles out West. They said, quote, should you follow the example given by some of the most stupid and unfair mine owners in the past, the men have instructed us by the same referendum vote to call

a strike in the mines owned and controlled by your company. So it's pretty professional, but then they're like, if you're so stupid to not take a meeting with us, you'll pay. Well, I mean, that's attention grabbing. It sure is. But it not enough, I guess, because after that each mine owner decided not to respond to the letter at all. And they had this idea that either it wasn't going to happen or if the miners quit, they would just hire new ones. It wasn't a big deal. They had plenty of money. If a small strike did happen, it would be short lasting. They had enough money to sustain themselves through a small strike. It didn't really matter to them. Well, as promised, the miners went on strike. They demanded better pay, better hours, more safety precautions,

and to not use this one man drill. And it wasn't just the miners. There were many women who joined the strike as well, and they actually became a crucial part of organizing protests. Although they didn't actively work in the mines, or there were only a couple on payroll for the company themselves and they were more secretarial roles, their lives were deeply affected because their husbands, their fathers, their sons were working in these minds, and they felt just as inspired and angry to join these efforts as well. And I will say not everyone went on strike, and there were people who had no interest in going on strike or going up against the mines. They had families to feed.

They just wanted to keep their head down, go to work. So that following morning, after the strike was called, there were still people who tried to show up to work. There are some reports that say that as many as 9,000 people join the fight for better working conditions. At the time, there were about 14,278 mine workers in this entire region. This one mine that we're talking about has about 4,000. So there's over 14,000 people, 9,000 of them join. That's more than half. Yeah, that's a good amount.

Yeah. So the strike was called in July 22nd, 1913. And on the following morning, when non-strikers workers were on their way to work, they were met with large crowds of strikers who gathered near the mine entrances. There was this huge heated moment between them. There were lots of yelling, as you can imagine. There are people they knew that were striking and people they, that were showing up to work.

And eventually fists were thrown, rocks, and even bottles. And the aftermath left about five people who were hospitalized. After this, the mine operator somehow got the permission to deputize non-striking workers with handguns, with permission from the local sheriff's department. So basically, they were given permission to give guns to every person who was not striking and were given the authority to punish striking workers. and they have no training at all. What a recipe for disaster.

Is this all in the same day? This is, yeah, within like the same, like maybe day or two. It happened very quickly. Following that, after they were given permission to deputize everyone pretty much who was on their side, Calumet and Heckla started handing carloads of handguns out like candy to any non-striking men. So basically they went out with these huge things of guns. and just were like, yep, here you go, here you go.

Don't use them. But you get a gun. You get a gun. You get a gun. Everyone gets a gun. What a bad idea. Such a bad idea. After that, it wasn't long until mine owners actually decided to shut down the mines entirely

with the thought that if they closed them down and allowed no one to work, the strike would end sooner when people became not only desperate for money, but also just realized that they weren't going to give in. And they did during the shutdown agree to pay the loyal workers. So they're like, don't worry, we'll still pay you. Thank you for staying with us. Don't go on strike. But for everyone else, it was like, we're not meeting your demands.

We're not even going to think about it. And we're going to shut down the mines. So no one, no one's out. Despite the fact that the protests were not entirely out of control, there was that little mishap with five people hospitalized. After that, the protests that were happening were fairly cordial. Mine owners still went to the government asking the National Guard to come in and protect them, stating that they were convinced that things were about to get worse. And the government

listened to them. A few days later, 2,354 guardsmen led by 211 officers, showed up and pitched tents in town with the objective to keep the peace between the two parties. But they stated they wanted to keep the peace. On top of that, this company hired what is known or what was known as the Waddell and Mahon detective agency, which at the time, was an agency that was basically comprised of thugs who agreed to come in and do your dirty business for you, which included violence, intimidation, and all of these men were armed. They actually advertised themselves as strike breakers and that they could stop any strike that was happening. And the company hired at least 229 of these thugs to patrol the streets and hand out punishments as these group of men deemed necessary.

Now, while tensions are still rising between the strikers and the non-strikers and the mine owners, it should also be noted that there was a huge disconnect here in a lot of ways, because many people didn't speak English and there were many people from around the world that didn't speak the same language. In fact, in this region, there were eight different languages that were being spoken, and there were eight different newspapers being published just so everyone could read what was going on in their own language. And a lot of these mine owners only spoke English. Just the amount of confusion going on, I can't even imagine. Just there's, you keep saying that and then this was thrown into the mix and then this group of people and then this happened and now there's everyone has a gun and, you know, and this is over things that are serious, you know, like people's lives are on the line and livelihoods are on the line and it's not, you know, taken lightly.

So the tensions just rising and mounting, which I'm sure they're about to break or explode at some point, it's just so knowing that it's going to go bad gives me so much anxiety because I can only imagine the atmosphere around. It's like the pot starting to boil. Yes. Yeah. And it's only it's just it's not if it's going to happen. It's when is something going to happen. And strikers did attempt to have contact and discussion with. the mine owners about their demands. They just wanted to have a simple conversation. The mine owners at this time didn't even necessarily know exactly what they were striking because they wouldn't

have a conversation with them. They flat out refused to talk to them and they just thought that this would be a short strike, but it really dragged on. They had daily parades in the street. They conducted protests outside the mines. They tried to prevent anyone from working in the mines. fights were breaking out between the strikers and deputized non-striking parties, violent interactions began happening. Calumet and Hekla began attempting to evict everyone who was striking from their homes as well, which was just causing more and more tensions, which of course a lot of these people refuse to do because we're not going to listen to that. We're in the middle of a strike. We're trying to get what we want. But they were threatening to do that as well.

On top of that, adding more things to the pot, a group known as the citizens, a lot, a group known as the citizens, Alliance came to the area. And the Citizens Alliance was a vigilante group that was originally formed in Colorado that opposed unions and supported local businesses and often broke the law in doing so. And they began intimidation tactics and violence to the protests as well to attempt to stop the strike. Their idea was that they didn't want the Western Federation of Miners to exist in the region because they believed that they didn't have the best interests of the miners. Instead, they wanted to form their own organization and advertise trying to help the work. workers and support them and kind of meet whatever demands that they wanted, but they didn't want

this outside person to be doing it. They wanted it to be more. They just thought that these unions had a bad intent and weren't governing things appropriately. But they went about it in a weird way. They were very threatening. And in one article published in the Hellraiser's Journal in November of 1913, they wrote, quote, it is the belief of the members of the alliance that strikers who want to return to work, but who fear to do so, will be encouraged to take up their former positions through moral and material support of the alliance, and that the other strikers will be brought to see that their welfare and that of the community as well will be best served by the elimination of the organization of Western Federation of Miners. So basically, they're saying your welfare is on the

line if this organization does not leave. And it's in plain writing. I mean, it's published. Right. That they're saying this. It's a very clear threat. So tensions are rising and rising, and the first deaths in the strike happened in August. When a mob of strike breakers arrived at the homes of some of the strikers with the intentions to talk, with it ended with them taking out their billy clubs and beating several of the people in the home, then people with guns arrived and shot and killed two people. This was the first deaths in the strike, which would later go down in the United States as one of the most violent labor strikes in history. So this was just the beginning.

There was violence and intimidation coming from both sides from the strike breakers and the strikers themselves. It wasn't completely innocent on both sides. There were a lot of angry people involved. But the people who were striking were not deputized. They were not given a ton of weapons. I think it's really important that even though they were threatening and they were angry and there were fistfights, they were not supplying basically armies. And the Calumah and Hekla Mining Company also basically owned the armory.

that was in town, so they were supplying everyone with guns at this time except for the strikers, obviously. Meanwhile, the mine company was paying the loyal workers, even though the mine was closed, as they had enough money to withstand the strike with no work, and they actually still had plenty of copper to ship out and make money off of what the miners had already mined, so they were like, we're fine for a bit. What they hadn't planned on was how long the strike would last. Six months after the strike had began in December of 1913, the protests and parades had not slowed down at all. People had returned working in the mines, but faced angry and violent mobs each day, and breakouts and fights and death had been occurring for months. The beginning of

December was marked by more death when strike breakers shot up a community house from the outside, killing four people and injured others, while most of them were just asleep in their beds. But that was not the worst of the murders that would happen that December, because in only a few more weeks on Christmas Eve, 73 people would lose their lives. So the strikes have been going on since July. Oh, okay. I thought you just said December and I got confused, but okay, that's what I thought. It's now December. It is now December. Right. And this December, many people were struggling between the strike, the lack of pay. There were many people who were poor. And the strain of violence and death had taken a toll on a lot of people. But it was also the holidays. And a lot of these people had children.

and the holidays were a big celebration of family, and a lot of people celebrated Christmas. So even though people were from a lot of different regions around the world, many of the people here celebrated Christmas. And because of that, some of the women who had been organizing a lot of the strikes decided that they wanted to put together a Christmas party for the strikers, but mainly for their children to bring up spirits and make people a little happy, forget about all the sadness that's going on around them. and they decided to have the party in a place that was called the Italian Hall. The Italian Hall was a brick building built in 1908 and served as a commercial building, with the first floor used for commercial space, housing a saloon, and the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company store. The second floor of the building was a grand hall that was used as an event space that would be the location of the Christmas Eve party.

To enter the hall and go upstairs, visitors would walk through this big stone archway on the far left. side of the building, and then they would have to travel up a narrow staircase to the second floor. At the top of the stairs was a giant set of doors that opened up to this big event hall. When partygoers arrived around 2 p.m. on Christmas Eve, they were met with a stage with a piano and a little amount of Christmas decorations with two Christmas trees with just a small amount of decorations that they could scrounge up with the little money that they had. There were a group of Christmas carolers that sang on top of the stage. They were singing Joyous Christmas songs, that echoed throughout the halls.

They had a kitchen, they had put together for food for the guests, and then some of the parents slipped downstairs to the saloon for some drinks. Children walked in to see wrapped presents beneath the Christmas trees. There were smiling faces, full of holiday cheer there to greet them. Organizers had gathered gifts and candy, mostly from people who had generously donated to them from that area, because a lot of these people just wanted the children of these poor families to have a good Christmas. Almost every minor's child was in attendance that night to celebrate, and there were over 700 people that filled the building.

It quickly became a party. Adults found friends and other adults who spoke the same language as them. Children were laughing and running around with their friends. It was this big night of celebration with their loved ones. Eventually, it was time for the children to open presents, and the women got on stage and announced it to this big, boisterous crowd, where children ran to the stage to stand in line and receive them. Some of the children were so excited that they climbed up the stage to try to be first, while others were a little bit more behaved and walked up the side stairs to the stages they were instructed to do. Women stood on the stage smiling and handing out rap gifts and candy to each child.

Some of the children tried to go back in line for seconds, but were quickly caught. Hundreds of children gathered at the stage. Numbers were never fully counted, but it's estimated as many of 500 of them were gathered at the Italian Hall that Christmas Eve. Wow. So many kids. What were they handing out? Do you know? Like what do you have 500 of? They didn't say specifically. It was it sounded like it was a lot of candy and a lot of it was donated goods. So it sounds like a lot of people donated like little toys and they just wrapped them up so people had something to open. Right. Because it sounds like they went to different organizations in the area that were sympathizing with the struggles that they were going through and

collectively they just organized basically a drive for all the kids to give them a good Christmas. The hall was booming with noises. Friends and family members were gathered talking and laughing. Children were squealing with excitement as they played with their new toys, chasing each other around. And then there was the background of Christmas carols that were happening. And it was so loud in this hall that it was almost too loud to hear each other's conversations. But despite that, people just spoke louder and kept talking and kept dancing and singing and whatever, just having a good time. And what started out as a joyous event was about to turn disastrous. The doors at the top of the stairs swung open and a man wearing a dark coat and a hat pulled low over his eyes, burst through them.

His loud voice was heard over the crowd as he yelled, fire and flailed his arms in the air to get everyone's attention. He waited for a moment to see if the cry had been heard and when it was clear that it had, he turned back through those same doors and ran away. As he turned, witnesses noticed a white pin at the top of his jacket in giant red letters that read Citizens Alliance. People who had been closest to the door at the time started yelling fire as well to repeat the warning to others who hadn't heard him. The word fire in several different languages was yelled throughout the hall to ensure anyone who didn't speak English understood the message. Within just a few seconds, children were running and screaming towards the stairway. What started as a few people turned into

hundreds all piling into this narrow stairway. One woman who had been organizing and helping with the party saw no threat of any fire at all. And she yelled at those who were yelling fire to stop and to stop scaring people as she's like, there's no fire here. Please stop. Stop saying it. She even jumped on stage and began yelling to the crowd that there was no fire. But by this point, it was too loud as too chaotic and the panic had already started. And many couldn't even hear what she was saying, and others actually thought that she was also yelling that there was a fire. The first several people to run down the steep staircase and out of the doors were met with no incident, and they safely left the building, and they allowed the doors to shut behind them. But with the confusion and panic that ensued in the crowd,

someone running down the stairs had fallen near the exit doors. Then others tripped over that person, and then more. Soon people started piling on top of each other in a small space. The ones who hadn't fallen in a panic to try and get away from this fire, were trying to climb over the people who had fallen. In less than a minute, there was a pile of people that was several feet high, and then people were stuck all the way to the top of the staircase. The screams were heard throughout the building, and the saloon owner rushed to the staircase entrance to see what was happening. After opening the door and seeing this huge pile of people, he reached in to try and help people and pull them out, but he realized really quickly that there was no use. The amount of people

piled onto each other was too heavy, and they were being crushed between each other and couldn't move. He couldn't pull them out. They weren't budging. So instead, he quickly went up the fire escape, which the building did have, but people weren't really that knowledgeable about at the time. He went up the fire escape and into the hall and yelled to the remaining people to stop using the staircase and replayed what was happening. Very shortly after the incident had begun, at 4.45 p.m., someone had called in a fire alarm and the fire department was there within minutes. They followed the same steps as the saloon owner had. They attempted to get the people out from the bottom, but then climbed up the fire escape to the top of the stairs instead. They brought in ladders to the windows and the fire escapes

along the side of the building where the staircase was and started pulling people from the top. There was crying and screaming and people in the bottom were being crushed. A baby was held out in the air out of the pile of people. Firefighters grabbed the baby safely, but when they got to the mother, had already suffocated and died in the pile of people. Oh my God. And this is all happening and I mean obviously it's mass chaos and panic, but there is no fire. Correct. There's no evidence of any fire at this point. Right now it's just a chaotic mess of people who are now piled on top of each other. Okay. Because I haven't heard you mention one thing about smoke, heat, flames, anything to do with fire. There's no evidence of fire at all. Okay. And just this person stated that there was

was one. And then everyone freaked out. Everyone freaked out. And actually, because of this new scene that was happening of devastation, people kind of forgot about the threat of a potential fire. And the people that were still remaining in the building actually started helping pull the bodies out of the stairway. The people at the top were mostly unhurt, but many others further down had passed out from lack of oxygen. They were dragged back into the hall and tended to until they woke up. As they pulled lifeless children from the pile, firefighters, deputies, and civilians tried to resuscitate them, but many with no success, all while a crowd gathered outside the hall, all wondering what was happening. Deputies tried to stop people from going into the building, but many with loved ones inside,

found back entrances and snuck up the fire escapes. People who did leave the hall ran to tell others, and soon there were thousands of people outside crowding the hall. What people noticed very quickly was that there was no sign of fire, not even a small one. People started asking, what are people talking about? Where is this fire? What's going on? And no one had an answer. It took hours to clear everyone from the stairway. As they did, rescue workers laid the bodies of the deceased out on the sidewalks in front of the building. One woman was so distraught that she picked up a child who had died and ran off hysterically crying with them, believing that this was her child. Shortly after, she returned with the child because she realized that that was not them. And later, she learned that

her child had actually left the event early and was home safely. Oh my God. But this child resembled them. Seventy three people were carried out who died. Fifty-nine of them were children. Holy shit. Many of them were related to each other and some were not identified for a long time because their family members had died with them. The bodies were moved to a temporary morgue in the village Center a few blocks away as they attempted to identify everyone. That night, news reporters flocked to the region to cover what had happened. On Christmas Day, every paper in the region was talking about it on their front page. And after many witness reports recalling, seeing the man with the Citizens Alliance pin yelling fire, the papers called for him to be identified. The Detroit news headline read,

Copper County officers seek man who cried fire. 80 dead, little children and minors are trampled to death and suffocated in wild panic. Although that number would later be revealed as 73, with many others injured, the autopsies revealed that the people who died passed away mostly from suffocation after being crushed. God, what a brutal way to go and especially so, so many kids. So many kids. And so it's so scary. It's such a horrible way to die, but it's also such a scary.

There's so much panic. And then to just be under there with everyone. I was panicking around you, I can't even imagine, especially as a small child. Yeah, it's the chaotic scene that is just surrounding you in final moments. Like you said, especially for someone who's young. I mean, it's frightening even for an adult. I mean, obviously, there's hundreds of people who are in a mass panic. But for a kid, especially if you're separated from your family and you're just, it's awful.

And you're going from one extreme to the other, like it's laughing and opening present. and eating candy to this mass panic that no one knows what's going on. And it all happened because people think that there's a fire. And no one knows where it is, what's going on, where to go. And there's just a mass panic. There was one person who documented a lot of what we have today. And he was a photographer who was a Finnish descent who had actually seen what was happening that night and took the opportunity to photograph it.

His photos account for almost all of the photographs. that we have of the event now. He took photographs of the aftermath of the hall, dead children and families, most of which in the photos look like they have no injuries at all because they died of suffocation. And he also photographed the services following. The amount of the dead was so overwhelming to the community that they couldn't accommodate them. Officials had to reach out to neighbor in communities for caskets and hurses as they didn't have enough. Every church was filled to capacity with family and friends mourning the tragedy.

The news of this event took to national headlines and hundreds of thousands of people arrived to Calumet to mourn the victims after their funerals. Most of the victims were buried the same day as each other on December 28th, 1913, and they were actually buried in a mass grave at the Lakeview Cemetery in Calumet, Michigan. They were buried in two trenches, one for Protestants and one for Catholics. 100 minors dug the trenches themselves. To handle the large number of deaths, six churches were chosen. to have services for the funerals all at the same time. The crowds who gathered for the funerals watched as hurses, some vehicles, and some sleighs carried caskets in a procession.

The children's caskets were white and covered with flowers. Following the caskets were 50 men chanting hymns. Following them were bands playing music. Following them were thousands of sobbing people mourning their loss. The procession was so long that it extended two miles from the semi-examination. gate. When the funerals were over, people really began to focus on the glaring issue of who was the person who yelled fire. The fire department had reported that they found no evidence of any fire in the building at the time. So this left a huge question of who said that and why.

While some people speculated that it was an accident and a tragic misunderstanding, most agreed from witness accounts that this was an act to incite panic. And it was coming from the Citizens Alliance and they believe that they deliberately yelled fire. Yeah, too far, way too far. Way too far. Getting out of hand completely. And I'm assuming just based on what you just described with all of the funerals and the processions and everything that's going on, like the striking just kind of screech to a halt, I'm sure, right? Like everyone just stopped. No matter what side you were on, it was just kind of like lay arms down and let's, yeah, focus. on what's important. Yeah. And I think especially because so many were children. Yeah. And not to say that,

you know, their causes weren't important for what they were fighting for, but you know what I'm saying. This is a mass tragedy. Yeah, this takes precedence over anything. Yeah. And they did. And at this point, too, there's thousands. There's thousands and thousands of people who are in the town now. And this has gained national attention. And eyes are on everyone here. I'm so curious. I know you're going to probably explained, but what did the company do? Like, did the company, like, step up in any way? So the company was adamant that they had nothing to do with it. And also the Citizens Alliance was adamant that they also had absolutely nothing to do with it. A lot of people were saying that the Citizens Alliance planned this, that they knew that this was going to be a fatal cry of

fire. And some people said, you know, I think that they went into this and they had the idea to ensue like some type of panic and just to ruin a Christmas party, but they didn't intend for it to be deadly. But it didn't matter. 73 people died because they did it. And the Citizens Alliance was adamant. They said we didn't do anything. We had nothing to do with this. We're devastated just as you are. And they even offered $25,000 to the affected families to try and help with funeral costs and just to give back in some way, to which they were completely denied. No one wanted their money. because everyone believed that they did this. Yeah, no one wanted to accept like blood money kind of.

No. You know? Like you did that out of here. You're the cause. Yeah. It's basically like stay away from us. And following that, a lot of investigations ensued. They were looking into the mine owners.

They were looking into everyone of who could have done this. And of course, Citizens Alliance and there were investigations. There were court proceedings following the incident. And with them, many accused the mine operators as co-conspirators. as co-conspirators in the Italian Hall disaster. They were accused of sponsoring this environment that led to several incidents of death. They said, hey, you deputized everyone. You handed out guns to everyone.

You actually encouraged people to do violent, to commit violent acts against the strikers. This, even if you were not the one who told someone to call out fire, it's your fault that it happened. Yeah, you created the environment in which someone or someone, or someone, group of people would think that this is okay. Yeah. And people were, which is a huge problem. It is. And they brought it to court in front of a grand jury to present this to them. And witnesses came forward in front of the grand jury and they detailed their account of that night. And a lot of them said, you know, I saw this man. They described him. There were varying accounts if he had a beard, if he had a mustache, if he was tall, if he was short. But a lot of people

said he did have the Citizens Alliance badge. But then there were a few people who later on, were like, I'm not sure. I think he did. I couldn't say for sure. But it sounded like from what I read, it wasn't people who at first said, oh, he definitely had an alliance badge. It was just people who were there were like, I saw the guy, but I have no idea if he had the badge on. Ultimately, after all these court proceedings, after evidence and witnesses and families came forward, the grand jury decided not to indict anyone for this disaster. They didn't indict the mine operators and they didn't indict. And they didn't indict the Citizens Alliance. To this day, it remains as an open case as who made the fatal fire cry. And it has been labeled from autopsies, even though the death certificates did not list

cause of death as murder. A lot of it just said suffocation or something like that. To this day, it is known that what happened that night is murder. And it is an open case where no one knows who the person is that did it. No leads at all. No leads at all. No one, no one spoke. I mean, to the day, it is believed that it was someone in the Citizens Alliance, but we just don't know who it was. Well, it just makes you think that, of course, pinning it on the Citizens Alliance, like, kind of makes sense based on what you described as far as, like, their tactics. And it just, it doesn't seem like they're above doing something like that.

However, it's not to say that maybe it was just a rogue person, like, associated with the Citizens Alliance. and it wasn't just like this known thing amongst that group that wasn't a plan. It wasn't this big grand plan that everyone was aware of. Maybe it was just one, and I hate this term, but lone wolf, that just decided to do something like this. Like, who knows? Because it feels like if it was a grander plan, someone at some point with some information would have either come forward or said something to someone who then, you know, it got leaked. Just for it to be completely unknown just makes me feel like it was just a system.

single person acting alone versus this big conspiracy going on with multiple people in this bigger group. I don't know. I think it's a valid road to look down for sure. I mean, I think that's definitely possible. I also think that it's possible that the Calumet and Hekla mining company still has their hand in everything. They control everything. They have, they hired basically thugs to be violent and intimidate people and people know that. And to go against them could be a fatal going against. So, and especially after seeing that they successfully killed 73 people, I feel like that could also be a deterrent to come forward if you did have information. So true. So I don't know. Yeah. But I agree with you. I think that what you're saying is definitely

possible as well. And I think that it's just like it's, it's so frustrating because part of why I think that nobody knows. And people did follow up. There was a jury. They did go in front of a grand jury. There were witnesses. But these were immigrants that were here. And a lot of them didn't speak English. And they did take second priority. And people weren't giving this the time of day that they needed. And I feel like because of that, we might never know because that history has been lost time. Yeah, it was over 100 years now. Yeah, it wasn't prioritized. And their testimony, I'm sure, was not prioritized and especially with, I don't know how I forgot, but I did kind of, it slipped my mind that they just have so, their hands in every pot. And I'm sure, you know, law enforcement and judges

and all of that is involved. And they didn't even indict. Yeah. I mean, they did, I read, they did indict some people, but they never actually went through with prosecuting them. Yeah, or kind of just like dropped. Going through with charges. They're like, yeah, you're indicted because we think you might have. And then it's like, no, you're not. Like, just go along with it. Just go along with it. It's fine. Yeah. And to kind of end this on a sad or note, too, is ultimately the miners lost their strike. I was just going to ask, so what happened with that? By April of 1914, the union that was helping them had, that was helping them had run out of funds to continue helping the miners. And they were also helping support them. You know, they couldn't pay their full wages, but they were helping get them food. And they were

supporting them in other ways to keep this strike happening, and they could no longer do that. With that, the owners of the mine agreed to take some of the strikers back under the condition that they leave the union with it. And they said, yeah, you know, all is forgiven. You can come back, work for me. But I'm also not going to, they never conceded to their needs. The only thing that changed because of the strikes was they changed it to an eight-hour workday instead of the 11 to 12. And that was only really implemented because it was kind of an incentive at the time for the people who weren't striking. They said, hey, we hear you guys. We'll give you eight hours instead of 12.

Thank you for working. And then they continued that once the strike stops. They're like, we're just going to keep the eight hour work day. So it wasn't even like, you went through this whole strike. They actually did that as a reward for the people who didn't go on strike and then just kept it. I can't even. Did they change the time back? Not that I'm aware of.

They kept the time. They still have all their hands in the pot. Nothing changed. They still used the one-man drill that they didn't want. Right. Wages didn't really change. It actually wasn't until several years later in 1939 that they finally organized and got better working conditions. And part of that was because legislations were passed as a nationwide whole that there were child labor laws that were in place. There were work hours that were in place. There were pay that put in place in legislation. So things that they couldn't escape. They're like, okay, this is at a national level now. So I guess we'll concede to do it in these things. So that is, okay, that's more than 20 years later, right? And at this time, a lot of the mines had shut down. They had already mined a lot of these places to the extent of them or what was this big boom

was now kind of fluttered out. So a lot of mines were actually shut down by the time this went through. and there were just a couple minds left in operation that were actually getting the benefits of these legislations that were passed. It's too late. I mean, not for those people, obviously, but for the vast majority and for the people who fought so hard and obviously died in one way or another, whether it was at the Italian Hall or in the other instances that you were describing, like, God, how frustrating. Yeah, and a lot of them just left the area. Some people did go back to work. A lot did. But a lot just left the area because they didn't want to go back under those conditions. Too much bad had happened.

And they just found jobs in other minds somewhere else or just left the field entirely and found something else. The Italian Hall was ultimately demolished in 1984 after funds to restore the building were not approved and it became a safety issue with the structural issues that the building had. However, in 1987, a historic marker was erected to remember the site. So for this episode, of course I used a book and I have it with me here. It's called Death's Door, the Truth Behind the Italian Hall Disaster and the Strike of 1913. The author of the book, Steve Leto, he actually opens the book by accusing the National Park Service for what he says, whitewashing and sanitizing the telling of the strike of the Italian hall. Oh, okay, that's an accusation I want to know more about. Yes. And he talks about how their museum,

which they do have, which is located very close to the site of what is referred to today as the massacre, the Italian Hall massacre, does not honor the real history of that day. He states that they are perpetuating a less painful side of history, and he wrote in his book, questions are inserted into stories where the answer has been known for decades. Unpleasant facts are removed from the narrative as if they will go away when they are ignored. He states that they have attempted to rewrite history by questioning things that have been proven as a fact, and that in the museum they have, they try to make it look like there are two sides to the story

when in fact there is only one and that is of the people who died in the Italian Hall disaster at the hands of the mining companies, essentially. Interesting. I'm okay, okay. So do you have any idea of what that other side is? It sounds like there's a lot of questioning of history and facts of stuff that we know today that is going on.

And it sounds like they are re-looking at some things that have, what he states and feels has already been proven as fact. And it's kind of giving doubt and maybe even blame to the victims of that day, which was also something that happened in newspapers back then. People blamed the victims for not getting out of the building, for being the ones who had the panic. There were rumors going around that there was something wrong with the building. There was a lot of things.

and he is basically saying the National Park Service is entertaining this idea that it maybe wasn't murder and that there were other things around it. And I have to say, I've never been to the museum. I don't know what's on display there. This is, I'm just relaying what he's saying. I don't. It's, we talk about the National Park Service so much. It's weird to say like such a high accusation against them.

So I do want to make it clear that this is his view of it. And this was also written in 2013. So I don't know if things have changed. But with that being said, I did do an extensive look at their website to see wording that they had around this disaster. And they do have this one thing that I did think was interesting. They wrote, we confront conflict and controversy through continuous research and interpretation. What happened on Christmas Eve, 1913, is still up for debate.

What we do know is that how we see and interpret the past changes over time. as we consider familiar evidence and discover new sources which bring to light perspectives and spark contemporary questions. The park places the event and context through museum exhibits, waysides, and interpretive programs. So I did think that that was interesting to the author's point because he's basically saying that they're looking at, they're reevaluating evidence and trying to rewrite history in a way that it didn't happen and question history that we know happened. And then they do have something on the website that says that they're interpreting new perspectives, which he states that they are looking at another side of the story when there was no other side. It was just

murder of 73 people. Okay. So this is our call to action. Who lives up there that can go into that museum and give us an update on what is going on in there? Because that statement or if someone works there. Yeah. Or if somebody works there and can give us more insight because that statement is very vague. Like, you could say that pretty much about anything. Like, you, there's no real information about this particular incident that can be taken from that statement. It's very general. Like, that could be attributed to pretty much anything that you're reexamining in history. So, I would be really curious to see what is in the museum now, because obviously, whatever was there 10 years ago, pissed that guy off. For sure. For sure. I don't personally know. Right. We haven't been there.

I have no idea, but I would be so interested to know. So if someone works there, if someone is in this museum, if other people have seen this museum, or have an idea of what this author is talking about and why he might feel that way, I'd be so interested to know because that is a huge accusation against the National Park Service, which I will say with any organization, they're not perfect. Of course, we're seeing the National Park Service is, if you look at the Indigenous history where finally the National Park Service is starting to include them. You know, like, things aren't perfect.

So I am curious if there's some validity in what he's saying, if it's been changed, or if there's a whole different perspective on why it was that way. Yeah, especially to open his book with that. Like, it's not just a footnote. It's like a PSA, like right off the back. He flat out says, and then he writes a 500-page book that goes way into the court hearings, the witnesses that came forward. I mean, there's so much involved in it that he goes into and he researched for years of his. life. I will say on that note too, going back to the National Park Service and if they are remembering this appropriately, there is a memorial park with a memorial plaque with all the

victims' names and ages that are there remembering the victims. The National Park Service also has a memorial service each year on December 24th at the site of the Italian Hall in honor of the victims of that day. So that being said, there is definitely, I don't know if this is something new since this book has been written but there is clearly an effort being put in to remember what happened that day of course yeah yeah wow well that's that's my story of uh the christmas a christmas masquer wow that was a rough one i'm just like the end of that like the it's like a scandal like what's going on over there i gotta know now now you have to know people tell us yeah someone go up there. I know it's kind of, what is this historic park called again? Kiwanan National Historic Park.

Okay. All right. Well, someone go up there and let us know because we'll be waiting. Yeah. Don't make us go up there. Yeah. Don't make us go up there. Don't make us. Oh no. We have to go to a historic site. It would actually be kind of cool. Yeah. Because it's in the UP, right? Yeah. We've been wanting to go there anyway. All right. Maybe I guess don't let us know and we'll find out on our own. Yeah, we'll be up there. Well, happy holidays, everyone. I feel weird saying that. Happy holidays.

We hope you enjoyed that story. Yeah. And for people who are listening to this, you know, six months later in July. Happy Christmas in July. There you are. All right. And enjoy the view. But watch you're back.

Bye. Bye. Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at Stories at N-P-A-D-Podcast.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Join our Outsiders-only community on Patreon or Apple subscriptions to listen ad-free, unlock monthly bonus episodes, and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our sponsors, you are supporting our show. For our exclusive discount codes and source information from today's episode, check out the show notes.

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