Now is the time, Boys…
We can make it if you muster
all the strength you have left.
-Manus Duggan

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday June 12, 1917
Butte, Montana – Hope Fades for Life of Manus Duggan

From The Anaconda Standard of June 11, 1917:

DUGGAN MISSING FEAR HE’S DEAD
———-

Manus Duggan who is responsible for saving the lives of 25 men who were brought to the surface at 2 o’clock yesterday afternoon, has undoubtedly perished. Extra forces of helmet men went in to the Speculator mine in an endeavor to explore workings where the hero might have wandered after he got his men to safety, and at midnight miners who had worked for hours in the search said he probably was dead.

Duggan, after leading the imprisoned men from the bulkheaded drift, evidently became delirious. He was as strong physically as any of the men who suffered through the 38 hours, but the strain of holding them in check evidently unnerved him so that when his task was completed he collapsed. He was last seen near the shaft on the 2,400-foot level and he was talking incoherently about getting water for “his men.” He also spoke of the good air in the Rainbow drift and favored that as an avenue of escape for his followers. He, with Joseph H. McAdams and another man whose name is not know, started back from the shaft. McAdams’ body was found four hours later, 2,000 feet north of where Duggan delivered the men and about 1,300 feet farther in from the spot where the bulkhead had been built. McAdams had retraced the trail of the rescued men from the bulkhead.

Where Duggan and another miner went is a mystery. Duggan knew every foot of the ground and especially that of the Rainbow drift. To reach this, he would have to climb 200 feet to a connecting level and in his weakened condition he could not do this.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Butte Mine Fire: Young Hero Missing and Feared Dead; Manus Duggan Saved Lives of 25 Men” →