Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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Half an hour before midnight on the 8th of June 1917, one simple, wrong move in a single, split second a half-mile below ground sparked what was then the worst hard-rock mining disaster in U.S. history.
Today, a century later, the Granite Mountain fire in Butte, Montana still holds that infamous distinction, even though there is still no consensus on the precise number of lives it took. The numbers, skewed by confusion and uncertainty, range from 163 to 173.
Many miners were killed within minutes, others died in the dark hours and hours later – some more than two days later – succumbing to poisonous gases or simply exhausting every last bit of that most precious, basic requirement for life – oxygen.
In just days, in the midst of mourning and anger, miners returned to other sections of tunnels cut up and down and sideways beneath the Butte hill. Some wounds healed over time, some did not, and decades and generations have since passed.
But history lives on, especially in Butte, and even 100 years has not softened two tragic ironies about the disaster: It was during efforts to make the mine safer that it all began, and it was because the mine was ventilated so well – usually a great thing – that flames and deadly smoke spread so fast.
1917 Butte mine disaster killed at least 166 men. Here are their stories.
There are a shlew of article that came out to mark the 100 years since the Granite Mountain-Speculator disaster.
Today, a century later, the Granite Mountain fire in Butte, Montana still holds that infamous distinction, even though there is still no consensus on the precise number of lives it took. The numbers, skewed by confusion and uncertainty, range from 163 to 173.
Many miners were killed within minutes, others died in the dark hours and hours later – some more than two days later – succumbing to poisonous gases or simply exhausting every last bit of that most precious, basic requirement for life – oxygen.
In just days, in the midst of mourning and anger, miners returned to other sections of tunnels cut up and down and sideways beneath the Butte hill. Some wounds healed over time, some did not, and decades and generations have since passed.
But history lives on, especially in Butte, and even 100 years has not softened two tragic ironies about the disaster: It was during efforts to make the mine safer that it all began, and it was because the mine was ventilated so well – usually a great thing – that flames and deadly smoke spread so fast.
1917 Butte mine disaster killed at least 166 men. Here are their stories.
There are a shlew of article that came out to mark the 100 years since the Granite Mountain-Speculator disaster.
