The Granite Mountain Speculator Mine Memorial — Attraction in Butte

I've walked the trail here, around the Mt Con, and around Uptown. This place is a sacred memorial to those who lost their lives in the fire, many due to the oxygen being consumed and toxic gasses being generated. Many of these men built bulkheads to try to buy time for a rescue that was not to be, many writing their last words to their families as time and oxygen ran out... please, never forget them, this is the price of the modern world, of technology that many of is use, the price for what many would call progress.

The price paid for new safety regulations is often paid in the bodies of those that didn't have such laws to improve workplace safety. For many, they had no choice, it was work this job or starve, work this job or watch your family starve, work this job or be killed by the company. Attempts to organize and unionize for a safer workplace met with more than just hostility from the Copper kings, many others paid for the right to unionize with blood, their blood, and that of their families, gunned down in the streets by company henchmen like the Pinkerton Detectives, and even the US military and national guard. They would kill men women and even children... more innocent lives lost, the price of a safer workplace, the price of progress.

I have sat here many times, often alone, often in silence or with the gentle whisper of the wind, I think about these brave men, where we were as trade workers, how far we've come, and how we have a duty to make work safer for those that will inherit the tools that we lay down. We all have a duty to train our apprentices, so they are sharp and safer. We all have a duty to look out for the safety of our coworkers. We all have a duty to help make sure those that toil besides us make it home to their families.

Long winded, I know, but this place means a lot to me. Please help take care of it, and if you have the privilege of sitting here alone with the wisper of the wind, take that moment to think about something important to you that others, especially tradesmen and labor may have paid the...

This is a pretty cool place. Of course it was cold and winter when we were there.. And you can't see all the mines.. But they have a speaker setups you can push a button and it will tell you details about the fire. Each one of several minutes long so we didn't stick around because it was freezing to listen to all of them. But I'd recommend doing that if you had time. They have plaques up talking about some letters a couple of the men were able to write home to their wives while they were stuck in the very touching. There were some brave men who died with dignity. It's a nice little monument...

Just took a late evening journey to The Granite Mountain Speculator Mine fire memorial. We had some history in the family as my wife was able to find her Great Grandfather in the listing. There is an audio track that explains the history and there are some excerpts from letters of those who perished in the fire. The memorial is above the open pit mine that replaced the underground mines that...