HELENA, Mont. — Sacrifices made to win WWII weren’t just overseas.
Contributions to manufacture iron and other essentials for the war effort were produced on the home front.
At the height of WWII, The Smith Mine near Bear Creek, was on a fast track to produce as much coal for the steel foundries as possible.
But on February 27, 1943, an explosion at the underground mine would mark the event as the worst coal mining disaster in Montana history.
It would devastate the small mining town and nearby Red Lodge.
This week, Carbon County honored the lives of the men who died.
On February 27, 2006, the Carbon County Museum in Red Lodge brought a huge crowd together to honor, celebrate, and remember the heroes of the Smith Mine Disaster.
They gathered at the historic Roman Theater, the site of the first community memorial held 83-years ago.
Montana historian and author, Jeff McNeish, has written extensively about the disaster.
Jeff has taken people on a tour of the old mine site.
Here, you will see tumbled down buildings and rusted equipment.
It’s a place that gave up the ghost to its tragic past long ago.
Jeff said the explosion was likely caused by methane gas and would spread by sparks igniting coal dust.
“About half the mine underground was hit with flame from the explosion,” he said. “The other half wasn’t. About half the victims died from the explosion, burns and trauma, but the other half died from the bad gas.”
Seventy-seven miners were working that day.
Seventy-four miners died.
One rescuer would die later.
The miners working farthest away from the entrance were two miles away.
“There was no running out from two miles,” said Jeff. “The nearest group of guys was about a half mile from the entrance. And three of those five guys were survivors.”
Two of the five died.
For Jeff, the Smith Mine disaster is personal.
His grandfather died inside the mine.
His name was James Alexander McNeish.
But everybody called him Jimmy,” said Jeff. “He was a Scottish immigrant. He mined in Scotland.”
Jimmy McNeish was 66-years old when he died.
Jimmy’s son, and Jeff’s grandfather, Jake McNeish, had just come off shift from the mine, and rushed to join a rescue crew.
Jeff said it’s believed that Jake and his crew found Jake’s dad’s body.
“It definitely affected my grandfather,” he said. ” He just did not want to talk about it. I think the community, as a whole, felt the same way.”
The rescue effort lasted nine agonizing days.
The explosion took out all the electricity and rail service underground.
“The rescuers had to go in, and rebuild all that ahead of themselves because the air was bad,” said Jeff. ” Some of the earlier rescuers exposed themselves to too much of the bad gas that was in there. ”
It’s that bad air that killed the one rescuer.
Jeff’s great-grandfather wasn’t his only family member to die in the mine.
He said he lost “two great-granduncles, a couple of cousins twice removed, and husbands of cousins and whatnot.”
“They were breadwinners,” said Jeff, “who never came home that last Saturday in February, 1943.”
“ It was a shock and a trauma,” he said. ” I don’t know if anyone got over it if they were involved with the mine, and the people who were killed.”
The Smith Mine Disaster has its own exhibit at the Montana Heritage Center in Helena.
NBC Montana met Martha Kohl, who is the Montana Historical Society’s program manager for outreach and education.
She points to the main focus of the modest exhibit.
It’s a rough piece of wood.
“This very modest artifact, this piece of wood,” she said, ” is really the key to one of the most poignant stories in Montana history.”
It tells the story of miner Emil Anderson’s last hours.
It’s believed that Emil and other miners were able to barricade themselves into a spot to retain as much oxygen as possible-at least for awhile.
“It is a heartfelt object,” said Martha, “created by a man at the end of life trying to communicate his last thoughts to his family.”
He wrote his final notes on a dynamite box lid in chalk.
In beautiful cursive penmanship, he wrote-“Its five minutes past 11 o’clock. Agnes and children. I’m sorry we had to go this way. God bless you all, With lots of love and kisses.”
There are notes from other miners as well.
“We tried to do our best. But we couldn’t get out,” said one, and “Goodbye wives and daughters. We died an easy death.”
These were family men, most middle-aged or older.
Remember, many, if not most of the younger men in 1943 were fighting overseas.
Many of the victims were European immigrants or first-generation Americans.
Martha said of one victim, “he had finally saved up enough money to buy a farm, and this was going to be his last day as a miner.”
It was also the last day as a miner for another man, she said, because “he was heading into the Army.”
Martha thinks all these men were war heroes.
“They didn’t get the salutes. They didn’t get to call themselves veterans,” she said. ” But their work was as essential to the war effort, and as we know from this incident really really dangerous.”