Widows and Orphans of the 1926 Barnes-Hecker Mining Disaster, Albumen Print on Cardboard, Circa 1926
This image shows just some of the widows and orphans of a long-remembered Michigan mining disaster that took place on 3 November, 1926, killing 51 men.
According to Zlati Meyer of The Detroit Free Press, "The Ishpeming-area accident is the deadliest of its kind in Michigan history. An explosion caused the cave-in, which in turn allowed water from a nearby swamp to flood the mine. A 52nd man, 21-year-old Wilfred Wills, escaped by scrambling up hundreds of feet of underground ladders.... The cave-in left 132 children orphaned and 42 women widowed. A team of about 40 people recovered only 10 bodies."
Whom all of the women and children in this image are is not known, but it probably includes siblings Toivo Kallio and Taimi Walimaa, whose father, John Arvd, was killed in the mine cave-in, and who's family had a copy of this picture in the late 1990s.
More research to come.
Widows and Orphans of the 1926 Barnes-Hecker Mining Disaster, Albumen Print on Cardboard, Circa 1926
This image shows just some of the widows and orphans of a long-remembered Michigan mining disaster that took place on 3 November, 1926, killing 51 men.
According to Zlati Meyer of The Detroit Free Press, "The Ishpeming-area accident is the deadliest of its kind in Michigan history. An explosion caused the cave-in, which in turn allowed water from a nearby swamp to flood the mine. A 52nd man, 21-year-old Wilfred Wills, escaped by scrambling up hundreds of feet of underground ladders.... The cave-in left 132 children orphaned and 42 women widowed. A team of about 40 people recovered only 10 bodies."
Whom all of the women and children in this image are is not known, but it probably includes siblings Toivo Kallio and Taimi Walimaa, whose father, John Arvd, was killed in the mine cave-in, and who's family had a copy of this picture in the late 1990s.
More research to come.