The Italian Hall Disaster in Calumet, Michigan, on Christmas Eve, 1913
Striking Miner’s Children Die in Stampede when someone yells “Fire.”
A shipment of coffins arrives in Calumet for the 59 children and 14 adults that died in the panic.
As many of you know, I do a lot of events throughout the year. I’m often asked about the Italian Hall Disaster in Calumet, Michigan, where someone yelled “Fire” and dozens of children were trampled in a panicked stampede for the door, and if there is something in my books about it. The answer is no, but a fellow Michigan author, Steve Lehto, has written extensively about it in a book called “Death’s Door.” This book, in my opinion, is the definitive history of the event.
Recently Steve Lehto gave a talk on the Italian Hall Disaster (also known as the Italian Hall Massacre) at Lake Superior State University. LSSU has posted that talk online. It is worth a watch. I attended and found the talk engaging and informative. Steve is an excellent speaker. He takes you through a lot of information quickly, but it is a gripping tale that will satisfy any curiosity on the subject. Follow the link below for Steve’s enlightening talk on the subject.
Writers Series – Steve Lehto – Death’s Door: The Italian Hall Disaster – LakerCast (lssu.edu)
What this does do, is give us a look into the faces that walked the streets of Red Jacket / Calumet in the 1880s and 90s. Walking along the streets one could easily encounter any one of these folks going about their daily business. The second picture is completely unknown though by looking at their faces, it appears that they are related. My guess would be brothers but it is impossible to be sure. It does illustrate the importance of labeling photographs of families. We don’t normally think of ourselves as historical but as time moves on all things become historical by their representations of days and people gone by.
The next picture, which is a typical Red Jacket couple, seem to be economically reasonably well off. If nothing else we know they are probably wearing their “Sunday best.” Most of the locals worked in the copper mines where the companies paid low wages and worked long endless days of hard labor. The early days of living on the Keweenaw were hard and cold, yet Red Jacket / Calumet thrived with art and culture. A dozen nationalities converged on the region all in pursuit of wealth from the copper deposits. Cornish, Irish, Italians, Finns, Swedes, and Slavs, all became the backbone of the copper community of the Keweenaw.
Like many communities, there were those that put on uniforms. Our fourth picture shows an unknown soldier from Red Jacket / Calumet. (For those that are unaware, Red Jacket is the original name of the town of Calumet. Calumet was the original name of Laurium. In the 1920s, they moved the name of Calumet to Red Jacket and Calumet became Laurium.) Not being an expert of the military, I’m not sure what this uniform is from. I believe he has a bayonet holder on his belt. It is his English style bobby hat he has next to him that has me guessing. It would be really great to put a name to this guy. Actually it would be really great to put a name to any of these pictures.
As I stated earlier, these are all people that one would have met on the streets during daily life. This last picture shows a pair of unknown women that still seem to have an old world connection. The embroidery on the dress of the woman on the right seems Scandinavian or Slavic. It is hard to tell if they are related. These pictures are around 150 years old. They depict the faces of those that came to one of the harshest places on Earth to establish their places in the American Dream. These are the pioneers of the Upper Peninsula. These are the faces of the U.P.’s past.
