File:Granite Mountain Memorial (Butte, Montana, USA) 4.jpg

On June 8, 1917, 168 men died in the Granite Mountain Mine Fire. The loss of life in this fire is metal mining’s greatest disaster.

“Here they lie sleeping --- cut off ere their time Givin’ their all to bring ore from the mine. Shift after shift --- their’s but to toil, With Buzzy or Lyner, Shovel or moil.

Irish and Serbian --- Cornish and Finn Lascovich -- Maki -- Opie -- McGinn Scotchman and Welshman -- Missourian -- Swede McDonald and Evans -- Swanson and Reid.

Now their last shift is over --- at last deep enough May the drilling be easy --- the bottom not rough May the chutes all flow freely --- and no barring down With things running easy ‘til they get in their round.”

William Burke, 1940

World War I has begun. To meet the demand for copper, every mine is working to capacity. Friday morning, June 8, 1917, an electric cable being lowered into the mine gets away from workmen, and falls in a tangled coil below the 2400 level.

TIME LINE OF THE FIRE - JUNE 1917

Friday, June 8

11:30 PM The night shift of 410 men is at work. Four men go down to inspect the cable. An assistant foreman accidentally ignites the oily, frayed cable with his carbide lamp.

11:45 PM The fires starts! Thick smoke drives the men from the 2400 level.

Midnight The 4-deck cages are ready to be lowered to rescue survivors, but the signaling system is burned out. Terror spreads through the workings and shift bosses try to warn men. Near the 2600 foot station, “the shaft is like a roaring furnace”. Smelling the smoke, many of the miners escape through adjoining mines. Gas penetrates to the High Ore, Diamond, and Badger mines. Underground, J. D. Moore orders eight men to “make for the drift on the 2200 level”. They make a bulkhead and remain entombed for 50 hours.

Saturday, June 9

12:10 AM Smoke is pouring from the shaft.

12:30 AM Underground, Manus Duggan leads 29 men to the 2400 level and build a bulkhead. Thirty-eight hours will pass before they are found.

1:00 AM Rescue attempts begun.

2:00 AM Survivors tell of many badly burned bodies. “The soot was up to our knees. Several bodies are under the soot. They are all cooked.”

Sunday, June 10

11:00 AM Underground, Duggan party struggles from the bulkhead to the shaft station and are met by startled rescue workers. At the surface, the shaft bell rings from the 2400 level. The engineer spreads the alarm. It seems impossible for anyone to be alive at that level. The cage is lowered. Again, a signal -- this time to hoist. Up comes the cage with nine blackened and haggard men inside. Sixteen more miners are alive below!

Monday, June 11

9:00 AM Underground, Moore’s bulkhead is discovered. Two men are dead, but six are revived and taken to the surface.

A shift boss, J. D. Moore, saved six men from death. His group was underground for 50 hours. Moore died shortly before they were rescued.

Moore’s letter written in his time book: FIRST LETTER 6-8-17 Dear Pet -- This may be the last message you will get from me. The gas broke about 11:15 PM. I tried to get all the men out, but the smoke was too strong. I got some of the boys with me in a drift and put in a bulkhead . . . . if anything happens to me you had better sell the house . . . . and go to California and live. You will know your Jim died like a man and his last thought was for his wife that I love better than anyone on Earth . . . We will meet again. Tell mother and the boys goodbye.

With love to my pet and may God take care of you.

Your loving Jim, James D. Moore

SECOND LETTER 6-9-17 5:00 AM

Dear Pet: Well, we are all waiting for the end . . . . I guess it won’t be long . . . . We take turns rapping on the pipe, so if the rescue crew is around, they will hear us. Well, my dear little wife, try not to worry. I know you will, but trust in God, everything will come out all right. There is a young fellow here, Clarence Marthey. He has a wife and two kiddies. Tell her we done the best we could, but the cards were against us.

Goodby little loving wife It is now 5:10

THIRD LETTER 6-9-17

7:00 AM All alive, but air getting bad Moore One small piece of candle left. Think it is all off

FOURTH LETTER [Written on the cover of the book] 6-9-17

9 AM “In the dark”

Manus Duggan’s letters

These notes were found in the pocket of Manus Duggan, who saved the lives of 25 men by building a bulkhead against the gas. These notes were found when his body was recovered.

Sunday morning, 8:45. Have been here since 12 o’clock Friday night. No gas coming through the bulkhead. Have plenty of water. All in good spirits.

I realize that all the oxygen has just been consumed. Everybody is breathing heavily. If death comes, it will be caused by all the oxygen used from the air in this chamber.

By the time all the men were rounded together Friday night, we were all caught in a trap. I suggested we must build a bulkhead. The gas was everywhere. We built a bulkhead and then a second for safety. We could hear the rock falling and supposed it to be the rock in the 2400 skip chute.

We have rapped on the air pipe continuously since 4 o’clock Saturday morning. No answer. Must be some fire. I realize the hard work ahead of the rescue men. Have not confided my fears to anyone, but have looked and looked for hope only, but if the worst comes, I myself have no fears, but welcome death with open arms, as it is the last act we all must pass through, and as it is but natural, it is God’s will. We should have no objection.”

DUGGAN

To my Dear Wife and Mother:

It takes my heart to be taken from you so suddenly and unexpectedly, but think not of me, for if death comes, it will be in a sleep without suffering.

I ask forgiveness for any suffering or pain I have ever caused. Madge, dear, the place [the Duggan home at 1010 Zarelda Street] is for you and the child.

MANUS

From The Butte Daily Post on Saturday, 9 June 1917:

33 KNOWN DEAD; 162 MISSING

GRANITE MOUNTAIN DISASTER WORST IN METAL MINING HISTORY

BUTTE STAGGERS UNDER PARALYZING EFFECT OF TERRIBLE LOSS OF LIFE. EVERY MINING OFFICIAL IN BUTTE AIDING IN THE GHASTLY RESCUE WORK

HELMET MEN BRAVING DEATH EACH MINUTE. LATE TODAY PENETRATED 2200 FOOT LEVEL OF THE MINE; THEY REPORT SCORES OF BODIES IN THE WORKINGS

Mining officials of North Butte and Anaconda Companies, after making every conceivable effort to gain access to the lowest depths of the mine and taking innumerable risks, declare that there is almost no hope that any of the missing men below the 1800 level are alive.

Thirty-three bodies have been recovered, score of others have been sighted by mines rescue teams and helmet men in the gas-filled workings and 162 of the 412 miners who went to work last night are still unaccounted for this afternoon as a result of the greatest disaster in the history of quartz mining, resulting from a fire of accidental origin in Granite Mountain shaft of the North Butte Copper Mining Company.

The entire mines rescue organization of the Butte district, most efficient in the world, coupled with every agency of the city government, is engaged in rescue work, but hope of finding any of the men who were cut off from escape by the smoke and gas which filled the underground workings was practically abandoned at noon, so that there is likelihood of the death toll reaching possibly more than 190.

The great loss of life, heroic efforts to quench the flames and to rescue any who might still be alive produced a condition of confusion at the mine from which it is almost impossible to get an exact summary of the situation, although it is known that the Granite Mountain shaft is caved for some distance, due to the burning of timbers and effects of the big volume of water poured into it to stop the inroads of the flames.