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EPISODE · Jan 11, 2022 · 40 MIN

Bells will be ringing

from Big Crime, Small Potatoes · host Brandi Wilson

Imagine a crowded Christmas Eve party inside a large social hall at the heart of the Upper Peninsula's Copper Country. Most of the guests are union miners' families, glad for some holiday cheer because they're five months into a labor strike. Someone falsely yells “Fire!” and hundreds of people on the second floor panic, causing a stampede down a steep stairwell as they all try to get outside. Seventy-three people died on the stairs, 59 of them children. The youngest was just 2. There was never any fire. It was the largest mining-related disaster to occur in Michigan. The fact that it happened above ground - and that most of its victims were children enjoying a Christmas party - made it even more heartbreaking Sources: The Calumet Tragedy. American Heritage. Michael F. Wendland. April/May 1986. Vol. 37 Iss. 3 https://www.americanheritage.com/calumet-tragedy 1913 Massacre film 2013 Amazon Prime https://www.wiu.edu/cas/history/wihr/pdfs/Seems%20Like%20Yesterday%20HiltunenVOLVI.pdf Seems Like Yesterday: Community Memory and the Michigan Copper Strike, 1913-2013 - Lindsay Hiltunen - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calumet,_Michigan# https://www.liquisearch.com/calumet_michigan/history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_Country_strike_of_1913%E2%80%931914 Brandi's True Crime Paradise.com

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Bells will be ringing

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