CALUMET - The tragedy at the Italian Hall in Calumet Dec. 24, 1913, is an important part of the area's copper-mining era, particularly the miners' strike of that year, and deciding how to make the tragedy a part of the strike centennial recognition was the topic of a public meeting Tuesday.
Marcella Wells of Wells Resources Inc. of Fort Collins, Colo., facilitated a discussion of what those in attendance thought should and shouldn't be part of the centennial activities.
During a Christmas Eve party on the second floor of the Italian Hall, which used to be located at the corner of Elm and Seventh streets, a stampede of the participants down the stairway led to 73 men, women and children being crushed to death. Although the popular conception of the cause of the tragedy is that someone yelled "fire," that has never been proven, and that fact was one of the topics of discussion during the meeting Tuesday.
There is now a park on the site of the building, which contains the arch from the doorway to the stairs, and a historical marker explaining the incident. The park is owned by the village and maintained by the Keweenaw National Historical Park. Property on both sides of the park is owned by the Friends of the Italian Hall.
During the meeting, members of the audience brought up issues they thought important, and Wells used large pads of paper to keep track of the ideas.
Wells asked audience members how they thought the tragedy was still thought of in Calumet and the surrounding area.
"Where does the Italian Hall story link in the community?" she asked.
One audience member said photographs of the bodies of the victims on display at a local church are still powerful images.
Wells said she expects people who come to see Italian Hall Park, which is constructed on the site of the former building, will want to know where to get first-hand accounts of the incident, and one audience member said the Finnish American Heritage Center in Hancock has some written accounts archived. There are also recordings of survivors and village residents made in the 1970s.
"There's a lot of stuff in the Finnish archive that has not been mined," Wells said.
Calumet Village Comptroller Sue Dana, who was in the audience, said many years ago village officials put out a call for survivors to come tell their stories.
"I have some people's first-hand accounts of what happened," she said.
Wells said any primary documentation about the incident is important "to really make it come to life from the human perspective."
Dana said people still come into the village offices asking where the Italian Hall building is.
"A lot of people don't know the building isn't there," she said.
The building the hall was in was torn down in 1984 because it was thought to be structurally unsound, Dana said, not because village residents felt it was too painful a reminder to keep up, as some people think.
Some people think the building burned down, also, Dana said.
Folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote about the incident in the song "1913 Massacre," which has, as its premise, that the stampede was caused by a mining company agent yelling "fire" and other company representatives holding the doors at the bottom of the stairs closed. None of those things were proved true, and one member of the audience at the Tuesday meeting said it's important the song not be used as a source about what happened during the centennial recognition.
There is also a popular misconception the doors at the bottom of the stairs to the second floor of the Italian Hall opened inward, making it impossible to open them after the victims piled against them, and members of the audience said it's important for the centennial event, that it be made clear the doors opened out.
Wells said at the Italian Hall Park, maybe there should be displays to "unravel the myths" about the incident.
Scott See, Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission executive director, who was in the audience, said he agreed addressing the myths was important, but some facts about the incident may never be learned.
"There's an element, we just don't know," he said. "It's not appropriate to take one explanation as gospel over another."
Wells said the farther in the past the incident becomes, the less likely some facts will be discovered.
"We almost have to admit a dead end," she said.
Wells asked audience members what they thought most important visitors to the Italian Hall Park take away with them regarding the tragedy, and ideas included:
families of the dead paid the greatest price.
it's important to understand not all facts of the incident will ever be known.
it was a horrible tragedy with national impact, as many national figures, including labor organizer Mother Jones, and attorney Clarence Darrow visited the site.
it is an important part of local history, which many residents share.
One audience member said it would be a good idea at the Italian Hall Park to somehow indicate the footprint of the building to give people a greater sense of what was there. Another audience member said it's important visitors to the park understand the Christmas party was on the second floor of the building.
Wells said getting all those facts into displays at the park will be a challenge.
"It's going to take a really good designer to fit all this into something that's spectacular," she said.
After the meeting, Wells said she'll make a final report based on information gathered from the public meeting, in-depth interviews she conducted and a roundtable she attended with local historians.
She won't make a recommendation about what the Italian Hall Park should look like for the centennial, but she'll outline the things people thinks are important. Village and KNHP officials and members of the Friends of the Italian Hall will make the final decisions about changes to the park for the 1913-14 miners' strike centennial recognition.
Kurt Hauglie can be reached at khauglie@mininggazette.com.
