At a Christmas Eve party in Calumet in 1913, the holiday cheer was cut short when someone falsely yelled, “Fire!” 73 people were trampled to death during a rush to escape. Months into a copper mine strike, the families of union miners held a Christmas Eve party in Calumet’s Italian Hall. A supposed anti-union person yelled, “Fire!” to cause chaos amongst the crowd of hundreds. A frantic rush to the stairway left 73 people dead, 59 being children.
Nobody truly knows what happened that night. There are rumors of the man who started the chaos wearing an anti-union button on his coat, and possibly being associated with mine management. The event struck the small mining town with grief as the families of the union miners were affected heavily by the tragedy. Today a stone arch stands as the only remains of the Italian Hall to commemorate the terrible event that took place over a century ago.
