Tell her we done the best we could,
but the cards were against us.
-J. D. Moore
Hellraisers Journal, Monday June 11, 1917
Butte, Montana – Grim News from Mine Fire Continues
From The Wichita Sunday Eagle of June 10, 1917:
Butte, Mont., June 9.- […..]
Two station tenders were burned almost to a crisp, when caught in the Granite Mountain shaft, 200 feet above the origin of the fire…
An appalling sight for a number of spectators was the cremation of two men, Mike Conway and Pete Sheridan who were trapped in a double decked cage, about twenty feet above the collar of the shaft, with the flames flying from the shaft like a giant torch around them.
These men had just been lowered when the engineer received hurried signals to hoist and the lifting of the cage was speeded up with the flames chasing it. The flames overtook the cage and when it reached the surface and sped past the collar, the bodies of the men were in sight. Leaping tongues of fire prevent their recovery….
