By Christmas morning, their party was national news.
“A holocaust unparalleled in the history of Michigan…ranking with such catastrophes as the sinking of the Titanic,” reported The Daily Mining Gazette. “Approximately 80 lives, mostly children, were lost.”
During the party, a man falsely yelled, “Fire!” The ensuing panic resulted in a stampede that killed 59 children and 14 adults. Bodies piled in front of the exit, making it impossible to escape the fabricated threat.
Charles Moyer, the miners’ union president, publicly claimed the incident was a malicious plot crafted by mining companies and strikebreakers. Two days later, Moyer was shot, kidnapped, and thrown on a train to
Chicago. His captors warned him to never return to Michigan.
To this day, the man who shouted fire has not been identified…
Continue this story on the Italian Hall Disaster and the infamous Copper Country Strikes of 1913– 1914, on episode 15 of the Michigistory podcast, by Cassidy Hough and Big Mitten Media.
