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Fire and Brimstone: The North Butte Mining Disaster of 1917
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Average Rating:  out of 11 Reviews
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Price: $15.95
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Sale: $8.95
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Manufacturer: Hyperion
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EAN (European Article Number): 9781401308896
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Paperback
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Author: Michael Punke
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Publisher: Hyperion
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Dewey Decimal Number: 973
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Publication Date: 2007-08-28
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Reading Level: 368
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Description: The worst hard-rock mining disaster in American history began a half hour before midnight on June 8, 1917, when fire broke out in the North Butte Mining Companys Granite Mountain shaft. Sparked more than two thousand feet below ground, the fire spewed flames, smoke, and poisonous gas through a labyrinth of underground tunnels. Within an hour, more than four hundred men would be locked in a battle to survive. Within three days, one hundred and sixty-four of them would be dead. Fire and Brimstone recounts the remarkable stories of both the men below ground and their families above, focusing on two groups of miners who made the incredible decision to entomb themselves to escape the gas. While the disaster is compelling in its own right, Fire and Brimstone also tells a far broader storystriking in its contemporary relevance. Butte, Montana, on the eve of the North Butte disaster, was a volatile jumble of antiwar protest, an abusive corporate master, seething labor unrest, divisive ethnic tension, and radicalism both left and right. It was a powder keg lacking only a spark, and the mine fire would ignite strikes, murder, ethnic and political witch hunts, occupation by federal troops, and ultimately a battle over presidential power.
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: Butte Mining History told from the Miners Perspective |
Date: 2008-07-10 |
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Details: My grandfather died in the Butte mines decades after the Speculator/Granite Mountain disasters. This is an excellent book interweaving the story of the worst hard rock mining disaster to occur in the US with the story of Butte at its apex. I could not put this down as I quickly turned the pages to learn the fate of Manus Duggan. Read Glasscock's War of the Copper Kings for more details regarding Clark, Daly and Heinze. |
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Review Summary: "Butte's villains are more villainous, its heroes more heroic, its wealth more extravagant, its poverty more grinding" |
Date: 2008-04-07 |
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Details: Fire and Brimstone is not just about the fire that broke out in the Granite Mountain mine in Butte, Montana on June 8, 1917 and the death of 163 miners, it is also about the mining industry of Montana and its sociopolitical impact on the state in general and the town of Butte in particular. Punke's coverage of Burton K. Wheeler towards the end of the book veers away from the main storyline and is the reason for the dropped star.
The story begins with an accident involving a 1,200 foot, 3-ton cable that would lead to the fire. Like the Cherry Mine (Illinois) disaster covered in the book Trapped by Karen Tintori, there is a story of men attempting to return to the fire-engulfed mine to rescue doomed miners only to be caught in a cage when the hoist signals stopped working (pg. 13). This story is not near as heroic and horrifying as Tintori's, however.
The book skips to give background information on the Montana "Copper Kings" William Clark and Marcus Daly during the latter half of the 19th century later to be joined in competition by Fritz Heinze. The background showed to what extent political corruption shaped the mining industry in Montana controlled by the Anaconda and, later, Standard Amalgamated Oil.
By far, the best part of the book covers the efforts to survive by two separate groups of miners. Each group was organized by a savvy, confident man of strong personality. The group that is more detailed is the one led by a young nipper Manus Duggan. Although he did not have a commanding position in the mine, he understood what was needed for survival and oversaw the careful construction of a bulkhead and the continuous rotation of the other 28 miners in his group to circulate the air. Another group of ten miners was led by shift boss J.D. Moore. Both leaders faced down and prevented challenges to their authority as well as attempts by the other miners to escape the bulkhead too soon. Many of these miners owed their lives to those two men.
The story of the trapped miners was so intriguing it was maddening when the book reverted to more background information. Once the fire and its aftermath was covered, the book shifted focus to the labor union situation in Butte (the AFL vs. the IWW), the brutal demise of IWW executive chairman Frank Little, and quite a bit of information on Senator Burton K. Wheeler (D. A. during the tragedy and the ugly situation brought on by the competing labor unions) who was an important player in FDR's administration. These sidelines (especially the labor unions) have a relation to the Butte mining disaster, of course, but as the book moves into the 1930s and 1940s, the tragedy seems to be left behind save for when Wheeler referenced it in one of his writings. Parts read like a brief history of WWII, over a generation removed from the mining tragedy. Then it is revealed that the Granite Mt./Speculator mines had been closed all that time (since 1923).
The book ends with an update on the town of Butte that makes one wonder why people still live there. There is four pages of photographs included with a few relating directly to the mining disaster. There is only one picture of a miner (a doctored newspaper photo of Duggan) which was disappointing but I guess that's probably the only one that exists or is available. |
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Review Summary: Compelling Read |
Date: 2007-03-12 |
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Details: Michael Punke has an incredible ability to make the story jump off the page. Too many non-fiction writers are turgid; Punke is anything but. I highly recommend it. |
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Review Summary: Quite the page turner |
Date: 2007-02-28 |
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Details: I agree with what the other reviewers have said. I'd like to add that I picked this book up on a whim from the library and could not put it down. While it is a heartbreaking page turner, it is also reads like a love letter to a hardscrabble city. The book jacket says that Punke currently lives in Montana. I am not sure if he is a Butte native, but he has served the city well within the pages of this enthralling read. |
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Review Summary: Recommended |
Date: 2007-01-03 |
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Details: If you have any ties to Montana, or like history. This is a great telling of the events that happened at this time.
An enjoyable book. |
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